Wednesday 13 March 2013

Battle Of The Crackles

I know some people hate them, but I rather like crackle polishes. Especially now they come in so many different colours from affordable ranges like Barry M and MUA. It's an easy way to spice up a plain manicure without having the faff of nail art, like most effects top coats.
I have managed to pick up a few different ones so I thought I'd do a quick comparison and review, luckily for me I only have five distinct varieties (I'm counting the glitter nail quake as different to the original nail quake as it does turn out very differently!) to go on my five fingers.

The five I have are Barry M Instant Nail Effects (Purple Rain), MUA Nail Quake (Quiver), Rimmel Crack Your Colour (Black), MUA Glitter Nail Quake (Green Glitter) and George Shatter (Teal). I know the colours are all different, which could account for some differences, but I don't really want five black crackle effects when I have one which works already! And I can vouch for the Barry M and George having the same performance across a few colours.

All one thick coat of the crackle polish over a base of two coats of Nails Inc Basil Street a nude coloured base polish (I don't like this colour much alone, it gives me mannequin hands - which I know were trendy once - and makes me look weird. It's good under things though, and since I got it free with Glamour I'm not complaining!). 'scuse the dodge edges. Apparently I forgot all about clean up since I took it off again straight away.

Barry M, Rimmel and the MUA Glitter all crackle the way (in my opinion) they're supposed to. They look like they've shattered properly and you can decently see the polish underneath. The original Nail Quake and the George are rubbish, they look all streaky and wispy.

The winner in my eyes is the Barry M Instant Nail Effects. It crackles nicely, comes in several colours and is affordable (Superdrug and Boots regularly have Barry M offers, as well as the website themselves often running discounts through their mailing list) and easily accessible.  (This beats Rimmel on colour range alone really, the Barry M purple won it for me, they are both equally priced - RRP £3.99 - and work just as well)
Honourable mention goes to the MUA Glitter Nail Quake. While the original was rubbish, this performed well and it gets points for being a glitter, which I haven't seen. The website currently only lists two shades (green and copper) but there are probably more as MUA tends to totally remove out of stock items from their site instead of just listing out of stock.

Loosers are MUA Nail Quake and George Shatter. They are equally rubbish and although they're cheaper than the Barry M and Rimmel (MUA has an RRP of £2.99 and George is £2.75 though I purchased mine for £2 and £1 respectively) and George has a much bigger shade range, they're not worth the saving. Unless you are a fan of the streaked effect.

I know that some of these may have been an issue with certain colour formulations, I've heard others like the MUA Nail Quake at least, but I don't want to risk wasting my money to find out and unless there's a specific colour you are after I'd play it safe and stick with the Barry M or Rimmel.

Barry M Instant Nail Effects is available in six shades with an RRP of £3.99. They can be purchsed at Barry M Online or in Superdrug, Boots and larger Tesco and Asda stores
Rimmel Crack Your Colour is available in 4 shades with an RRP of £3.99. They can be purchased from Superdrug, Boots, Tesco, Asda, Asos and Semichem
MUA Nail Quake is available in multiple colours (website displays six for the original and two glitter) with an RRP of £2.99. They can be purchased at Superdrug or MUAStore Online
George Shatter available in mutiple shades (check your local store) and has an RRP of £2.75 though they are on offer for £1 at time of writing. These are only available at Asda stores.

7 comments:

  1. Such a nice blog!
    Stop by at mine sometime ♥ Maybe you'd like to follow each other, let's stay in touch ♥
    AIMEROSE BLOG

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  2. I really like the way George one shattered x

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    1. If you can get to an Asda they're still £1 (at least in mine they are). Worth it if you like the pattern :)

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  3. Great post... I agree, the only one I like is the Barry M polish. All of the others didn't look like they actually did anything special xx
    Gem ♥ | Miss Makeup Magpie

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    1. Got to love a bit of Barry M for high street polish, I think it'll always be one of my favourite brands. Now I just want them to bring out more shatter polishes xD

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  4. I do love a good crackle moment, & will always be a big fan of Barry M, I also have their croc one, which is cool but a pig to get off as it's got a different make up to it. x

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    1. Really? That's a shame, I was thinking of picking up the croc ones, but I quickly relegate polishes that are a pain to remove to the back of the drawer (I'm too lazy to take much time over it).

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