Nicole by OPI New Texture Coat Polishes

Heyyy folks :) I have four new Nicole by OPI texture coat (crackle/shatter) polishes to show you. They are Quartz, Aquamarine, Amethyst, and Opal Texture.

Here they are, in order as stated above, over a white cream polish. Quartz is a metallic silvery lilac.  Aquamarine is a medium blue glitter. Amethyst is a medium purple glitter. Opal is a opalescent glitter, shining pinky purple.

Below is the polishes over a black cream, same order.

The coolest way I've seen glitter crackles used is in a glitter/jelly sandwich. The Swatchaholic did a version the other day that is way fun and unexpected. You can get these wherever Nicole by OPI polishes are sold for $7.99.

Products provided for review.

Sneak Peek: China Glaze Crackle Glitters!

SPARK YOUR SUMMER STYLE!

China Glaze® Introduces Four New Crackle Glitter Polishes for May 2012

Los Angeles, CA – (March 2012):  Sparkle all summer long with China Glaze®’s new Crackle Glitters collection.  Once again taking crackle technology to the next level, this third-generation polish pairs the edgy innovation of crackling nail lacquer with glamorous glitters.  The China Glaze® Crackle Glitters features four shimmering shades including:

·         Luminous Lavender: Luscious light purple

·         Jade-d: Radiant bright green

·         Glam-More: Bold fuchsia

·         Gleam Me Up: Bright sky blue

Create glamorously different looks with just one sweep of China Glaze® Crackle Glitters.  Layer over different base colors to create bold styles.  Use a lighter coat to create a fine crackle, a thicker coat for a deep shatter effect.  Brush sideways or on an angle to create different looks.  As versatile and edgy as China Glaze®’s biggest celebrity fans (Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Nicole Ritchie and Kelly Osbourne, to name a few), China Glaze® Crackle Glitters add a spark(le) to one of the hottest nail art trends!

The China Glaze® Crackle Glitters collection will be available as open stock colors and four-piece counter display.  Individual polishes retail for $9 MSRP and will be available at fine salons and beauty supply stores nationwide in May 2012.

China Glaze is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde. China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, visit: www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze on Facebook and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChinaGlaze

China Glaze is a division of American International Industries.

About American International Industries

For nearly 40 years, AII has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women.  Our product lines include Ardell, Andrea, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, Jeris-Lustray, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, 'N Rage, Prolinc, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Waterworks, Winning Nails, Woltra, Woody’s, and Youthair. For more information, visit our website: www.aiibeauty.com.

Color Club 'Fractured' Collection Part 2: Swatches & Review

Hi everyone, today I have the remaining three polishes in the Color Club Fractured Collection. You can see my review on the first three here.

First up is Kiss and Break Up, the fuschia purple fractured topcoat. I am not terribly impressed with this one. It's an okay color, on the hot pink side of purple. I hear it is an dupe for the color of China Glaze's Purple Panic. This one didn't crack very much on my first few tries, this is my third attempt at a swatch for it. I put it over Sinful Colors Adventure Island, a yellow tinged green crème. It is actually more dusty and pale than my picture makes it out to be. I got a new camera for flash photography so I'm learning how to use it correctly, bear with me. I really like the color combo of these two together.

Next is Tattered in Gold, the light gold fractured topcoat. If I was not impressed with Kiss and Break Up, than I might as well toss this one right now. It would simply refuse to crack no matter how much I varied application, thick, thin, etc. I eventually thinned it a little with polish thinner, and that helped maybe a tiny smidge, but not much. I don't like how the gold is so light too, it's almost silver :P I put it over my first Pixel Polish Oh Pardon Me. You can get these at Ulta for $1.99. They are tiny but have a really fabulous brush. Oh Pardon Me is a shimmery tri-tone blue shimmer/glitter.

And last, and my favorite from the three, is Splitting Image, a bright blue fractured topcoat. This one cracked the best out of the second half of this collection, and was nicely pigmented. I used it over Sinful Colors Seaweed, a dusty pale green dupe for OPI's Stranger Tides. My bottle of this broke so I had to decant it into an empty franken bottle. I liked this polish too, it was creamy and applied easily.

These were all were a bit more temperamental than some other crack polishes I've tried. And they got really chunky around the neck of the bottles, as they dry I guess. I have to say I'm not a fan of this half of the collection all that much. You can purchase Color Club polishes from TransDesign.com, Head2ToeBeauty.com, and from VictoriasNailSupply.com (although they are on vacation until July 28th). Take care dolls, I am having kind of a hard time right now but I'm trying to get through it with my head held high. Kisses!

Products provided for review.

Silver & Turquoise Shatter Mani

Happy Friday kids! This is one of my favorite shatter manicures that I have done so far. The China Glaze creamy turquoise shatter Crushed Candy reminded me of a familiar classic shade of theirs, For Audrey, so I put them together and they are basically dupes! How smart of ChG to do such a popular color in a shatter huh? So I knew that I had a similar base color as the OPI Silver Shatter too, in China Glaze Cheers to You so I threw them all together and did every other finger in a switched color combo. Observe...

What do you think? In these photos I prefer the base of For Audrey with the Silver Shatter on top (index and ring fingers), but in real life the prettier combo in my opinion is the base of Cheers to You and the crackle of Crushed Candy (middle and pinky fingers). It pops more or something. Maybe because the metallic shatter shines so much you can't see the base turquoise as well? Either way it was a fun mani and I'm glad I tried it out! Have you tried any especially cute shatter combos that I should try?

Some of the products shown were provided for review.

Crackle Polish Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Andrea for winning the Crackle Polish giveaway!

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

China Glaze Crackle Giveaway ***CLOSED***

Here's your chance to win two of the China Glaze crackle glazes, Lightening Bolt and Fault Line!

How to enter:

Comment on this post and tell me three things:

• Your email address;
• How you subscribe to "Also Known As..." (i.e. Google Friend Connect, email, BlogLovin');
• Your favorite hard-to-find nail polish.

Open internationally, ends  Sunday March 6th, 6 pm MST. Only enter once please, multiple entries will be discarded. Good luck my pretties!

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

China Glaze Crackle collection

China Glaze is the first US company to come out with different color crackle polish this year and everyone has been excited about their arrival in stores. I for one am not super crazy about this trend, but I have to admit the color combination possibilities are fun and exciting.

I used Black Mesh over Nicole Gold Bigger, because I really love black and gold together. Black Mesh crackles easily and fast, it probably cracks the most out of all the colors. I used different types of application to get different looks here.

Crushed Candy is one of my favorite colors, inspired Tiffany blue turquoise, and I am so glad China Glaze made it into a crackle. I imagine I will be playing with this baby a lot. I put this over Nicole I've Got Bieber Fever, a stunning plum. I went straight with a regular vertical application for this mani.

I thought Lightening Bolt would be my favorite crackle, but it seemed to crackle the least. I think I'll have to fiddle with it more. It is fun though. I'm wearing it here over Cult Nails Quench.

Broken Hearted is a super fun pink crackle. I am happy to own this and can't wait to use it over more great colors for some summery manicures this year. I'm wearing it here over Nicole My Lifesaver.

Cracked Concrete is a beautiful grey, very close to Recycle. I think this is a surprise color to turn into a crackle but I am glad they did. I think a brighter color would make a better combination with it though, haha. I used Nicole I'm a Belieber.

Fault Line is the most beautiful color in the crackle set, it reminds me of Coconut Kiss. It's the only crackle with shimmer. This is also my favorite mani so far that I've done with a crackle. I used a "braid" pattern of application and it makes super cool cracks, very random. I used it over Nicole's "Baby" Blue.

I think that the China Glaze's formula is superior to OPI's shatter polish, specifically Black Mesh. It is thinner and doesn't clump up as much as the shatter polish does, for me at least. However, the crackles seem to smell worse than the shatter. I am interested to see how the shatter polishes are in the new colors for OPI, coming soon.

xoxo,
kelliegonzo


These were provided for review.

Kelier Crackle Polish

Born Pretty webstore currently carries Kelier crackle polish in a variety of colors. These special effects polishes have become a growing trend, especially now that bigger brands like OPI and China Glaze have/are coming out with shatter and crackle polishes. This is a more spidered crack effect rather than straight cracks, so it gives a different look. It also takes a little longer to crack. I had some curling up at the edges of the nail which was weird, so some of the black flaked off before it was done cracking. I used the black Kelier crackle polish over China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy polish.

Just so you know, I don't recommend this polish at all.

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

This was sent for review.