I used Wet N Wild's Through The Grapevine for this. I started out by pouring a bit of it onto a piece of aluminum foil, and added a drop of white to it after every nail I painted.

I liked this so much that I tried my hand at it once more just to see what it'd look like with a different color.


This is Yoga-ta Get This Blue from OPI. I used the same technique as I did with Through The Grapevine. I love this, but it's a bit of a fail for 2 reasons. One being that I used a shimmery base color and the shimmer was diminished with every drop of white creme that I added. In hindsight I should have used a shimmery white. The other issue is the fact that by the time I got to my pinky nails the polish had begun to thicken and it applied kind of shitty because of that. I still love it though. I'll just have to tweek the technique for next time.

Designer, De Better! is a silver based foil with flecks of copper added into the mix. I wasn't excited about this until I put it on. It ended up being one of my favorites. Like most of the polishes in this collection, it required only 2 coats for opacity and was easy to control.






Pepe's Purple Passion is a strong, super pigmented burgundy creme with reddish pinkish flecks. Great color, but the formula is kind of odd. It dried in a patchy fashion and I got some dragging when I applied the second coat. It also ate my top coat. Worth the headache though, because it really is an exceptional shade. Requires 2 coats for complete opacity.



Animal-istic almost borders on a vermillion color. It's definitely red, but it's got a good deal of orange in it as well. And that makes sense, considering it's the color they named after Animal. Animal was one of my (short lived) nicknames in junior high, by the way. And then my friends decided that while my personality was "Animal-istic", I looked more like Prairie Dawn because I had long straight blonde hair that I parted down the center. But I'm getting side tracked now. Animal-istic, like I said, is a bright orangey red jelly with glass flecked shimmer. It applied extremely well and again, required only 2 coats for opacity.




Excuse Moi! is a rose colored jelly base that's dominated by rose colored glitter, but pieces of green, silver and gold glitter are thrown into the mix. A very odd combination. I think I might wish they hadn't added the multi colored glitter because the rose color by itself is nice, but the extra glitter is just strange. That said, I can't say I dislike it. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. It kind of looks like vomit, and I'm not sure if that's a bad thing! This is 2 coats.

OPI Muppets Collection!

So the question is: Do I tackle these all with one big post of swatches, or post them one by one with more detailed reviews?

Today I have some nail art to show you. This isn't typical of my normal designs, mostly because I almost never use shatter/crackle. It's not that I don't like it....it's just that I don't love it. But the trend shows no signs of dying anytime soon, so i may as well embrace it to the best of my ability.

Here's the result of a sponged nail using 4 different colors with a thick coat of black shatter over it.

What's your favorite backdrop for a crackle polish? I'm trying to find some new and interesting techniques to use since I'm not a huge fan of the "standard crackle look". Any advice or tips?

My first love is nail art, and I haven't been posting enough of it lately. With the steady stream of new polishes being added to my collection, I put nail art on the back burner. But yesterday I did a design that I LOVE and I plan to do more renditions of it in the very near future. Here is my poppies design:

I have a zillion little props to use, and I always forget to include them in my photos. I'm in the process of reorganizing (ok, more like organizing PERIOD....) my stash and will likely gather all of this up and store them right along side my polish. They may even serve as some inspiration :)