BeautyUK Shatter Polish: Swatches, Review, NOTD

The BeautyUK Shatter Polishes have landed! And once BeautyUK puts them out, they do not one, but three amazing colours! The Shatter Polish comes in three colours, Goth, which is a matte black, Glam Rock, which is a silver with a foil finish, and Punk, which is a matte hot pink. A matte hot pink - can you imagine that? I'm excited!



Anyway, I'm sure you don't want me to blabber on unnecessarily, so without further ado, here are swatches!

First of all, let's take a look at Goth. This is a pure black, simple as that. Here it is over another drugstore brand, Collection 2000 Aztec Gold. I rather like this combination!



One of the things I found when applying Goth was that it really shatters into tiny bits, thus displaying very prominently the colour underneath. So if you would like the under-colour to be more visible, this is a great one to choose. However, I found it a little clumpy even in the bottle, and hard to work with. It was a little difficult to get an even coat on the nail. Still, the effect it gave was gorgeous.



The next colour is Glam Rock, which is silver foil. I was so excited for this, as the large majority of matte polishes up to now have been mattes, so it was great to see them come in other finishes! Here it is over Boots No. 7 Totally Teal. I love how the deep teal base makes the silver just pop!



Like the Goth shatter polish, I found this a little tricky to work with. However, it wasn't as lumpy as Goth for some reason, and I applied it with reasonable ease. Another thing I noticed was that this didn't "split" as much as Goth did. When I wore Goth, you could see big patches of the base colour showing through where the polish had split. Here, the gaps were much smaller, and if you apply too thick a coat, the polish won't shatter very nicely. You can see this on my index finger, where the shattering effect was pathetic as the coat was too thick. A little goes a long way with this one.



Lastly, we have Punk! I was so excited for Punk - after all, how many hot pink shatter polishes are there out there? So I just had to try this. Here it is over Wet n Wild Quartz of Course. On hindsight, maybe I could have picked a more contrasting colour to pair Punk with, but hey, it still looks gorgeous right? And I'm not sure how clear it is from the photos, but Punk is HOT NEON PINK! Woohoo! Retina-searing, breath-bating, ice-melting hot pink! Such a beauty.



I personally felt that Punk was the easieset out of all the three polishes to apply - it wasn't lumpy in the bottle, and application was good. I had no issues with this. As you can see in the photos, it also shattered very nicely, and I didn't have big bald patches or tiny shatter lines. As with most shatter polishes, though, the thicker the coat, the larger the shatter pieces.



Since I'm a huge fan of shatter polishes, I'm absolutely in love with BeautyUK's latest offerings. Goth, as your standard black shatter, has been done before by other brands, but I especially love Punk and Glam Rock, both of which are of good quality and are unique in the colours. I don't see many coloured shatters by readily avaialble drugstore brands, so these are definitely worth checking out.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Kelier Purple Shatter Nail Polish NOTD: Shatter is now Colourful!

Wow, trends sure move fast! Remember back in ye goode olde times (well, more like a few months ago) when shatter/crackle polishes only came in boring black? Now, if you've ever wanted to shatter in a more colourful manner, you can! First it was China Glaze, and now all the other nail polish companies are following suit! Finally, the colourful shatter trend has trickled down to the comman woman, and shatter polishes are now available for cheap - and in colour.

I got my Kelier Nail Instant Cracking Nail Polish from Born Pretty Store, where they are currently selling them in a variety of colours for the low, low price of US$4.52 per bottle - and you get a discount if you buy more than one! As I'm sure you know, the Hong Kong-based Born Pretty Store has been on the radar of nail bloggers of late, for their cheap supply of nail products and tools.

Here are the results of the Kelier purple shatter polish on my nails. The base is Color Club's Who Are You Wearing?, a beautiful (if sheer and annoying to apply) off-white colour with a tinge of griege, that purple-grey hybrid that's been so popular in nail polish collections since 2009 or so.



One of the first things I noticed about the Kelier shatter polish is that it takes longer to dry and shatter on your nail. If you watch, you can even see the crackle lines forming! I even had enough time to take a few quick snaps, so you can see the polish shattering!

Here is what the polish looks like when first applied. As you can see, there aren't any shatters yet.



However, very quickly, the polish starts shattering from the area where the polish layer is thinnest:



And then you see more shatter lines forming as the polish dries and crackles further:



Aaannd...done! Ta-da!



As with other shatter polishes, how thick or thin the polish is influences how it crackles. Just like the Barry M Instant Effects Nail Polish, the thicker the layer, the less cracks you get, and the larger the cracked pieces are. So depending on how shattered you'd like your polish to be, you can adjust how much polish is applied on the nail. As you can see in the photo below, the ring finger has the thickest layer of polish, while the index finger has the thinnest layer of polish, and both shatter differently.



One of the things that I found odd about the Kelier purple shatter polish is that it peels off very easily, even with topcoat over it. Even though I had topcoated over this mani, I found that the smaller cracked pieces were starting to peel off the next day. I'm not sure why this is - perhaps the polish dries too slowly. I'm speculating that some fast-dry drops may help, but it is a little bit of a disappointment.

One last thing I noticed is that this is hard to get off. It doesn't remove easily, making removal a bit of a pain, but I suppose it's worth it for the cool purple shatter effect, right?



So would I recommend this? Yes, as a cheap, easily-available alternative to some of the other coloured shatter polishes out there. For my girls in Asia, who find China Glaze's coloured shatter polishes difficult to get hold of, this could be an easier to find alternative. However, the problems I had with peeling and the difficulty of removal mean that I would love this polish more if the formula is improved.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Barry M Instant Nail Effects: Black and Silver Crackle!

If you haven't been living on Mars, you'll know what Barry M Instant Nail Effects is - it's this (not-so) newfangled thing called crackle or shatter polish. The reason why these polishes are called crackle or shatters is because, once applied on the nail, they dry up and contract very quickly, producing the coolest shatter/crackle effects ever.

Crackle polishes actually first made an appearance in in the late 90's (the brand was Covergirl back then, and the polishes were called Crackle Laquers), but went out of vogue until the trend was revived. Isn't it interesting how fashion - even nail fashion - seems to go in cycles? I mean, there were the Covergirl Crackle Laquers, and then the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms (holographic before holo became a trend), and the Maybelline Street Wears (all kinds of funky finishes and colours back in the day)! So you never know - that old dinky bottle of crap from 10 years ago might just be next trend!

Anyway, I'm sure you didn't want to hear a history lesson about nail polish (and yes, I am so much of a geek I know the origins of nail polish trends). I'm sure you wanted to see the awesome crackle/shatter effects.



There are many crackle polishes out there, of course, and Barry M and OPI were the first brands to have them out this time round. (Unfortunately Covergirl missed out.) But between the two, I personally prefer the Barry M Instant Nail Effects to OPI's Black Shatter - it's cheaper, and it shatters better. Yes, I said that Barry M's crackle polish beat out OPI Black Shatter! Now I'd better hide before the OPI fans come after me.

One of the things to note about applying crackle polishes is that they dry very fast. Very, very fast, as in almost immediately. So they're really like an instant way to glam up your nails!



One of the things about applying crackle/shatter polish is that the way the polish shatters/crackles on your nails is highly dependent on how thick or thin the coat of polish is. I've found that in general, thin coats tend to produce finer, smaller shatters, while thick coats tend to shatter in bigger pieces. Whether you prefer your shatters smaller or larger is personal preference, of course, but for me, I strive for a happy medium.

Here's Barry M Instant Nail Effects applied thinly. As you can see, it shatters in to tiny pieces, especially nearer the tip of the nail, where the coat of polish was the thinnest. Some people may like that, but for me, it's a bit too thin.



And here's the same shatter polish, applied thickly. This one I didn't like at all. It seemed a bit gloopy and clumpy instead of nicely crackling.



One of the last questions I faced when applying my shatter polish was - to top coat or not to top coat? Either way is possible, the topcoat just gives a glossier finish to the nails. Personally I prefer applying top coat, because the shattered bits can chip off quite easily without it.



I'm really loving my shatter manicure, and I'm so excited to try this out on top of other colours! *Waves nails around in the air*