The Impatience Test: Crackle/Shatter Lacquers

A bit of background for you guys before I get started on this post:

I've lived in London for six years now and it's a fast paced life- running round the city on the Tube, battling the crowds on Oxford Street (don't ever do that on Christmas Eve- what a complete and utter nightmare!), darting from one friend to another, attempting to prevent myself getting flattened by black taxis....
You get the picture.

London has transformed me into one of those city types who wants it all, and wants it now!

With my patience and attention span of a flea, I've found my ventures into crackle/shatter nail polishes very interesting. I've already reviewed OPI and Barry M shatters, if you haven't seen them yet you can check them out here-

http://london-lacquer.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-come-on-opi.html (OPI)

 ...And here:

http://london-lacquer.blogspot.com/2011/08/opi-and-barry-m-combo.html (Barry M)

...Anyways, today is the turn of China Glaze Tarnished Gold Crackle Glaze, and Color Club Smash Hit (pure Black shatter)

Let me just start the review by saying that, because this is an Impatience Test, I didn't let the colours I used on the base dry in either case with these shatters. I was swatching that day and didn't use my Seche Vite topcoat, as I always do when doing a complete Mani for either swatches I tried the shatters out on.

Also, the base colours (and finishes) I used in the Impatience Test were different. With both of the bases I waited until I had taken pictures and both of the Manis in question were touch dry when I put the shatter coats on.

With that said, let's get started!

First up, China Glaze Tarnished Gold Crackle:

Great shade, I must say. This is a beautiful shimmery gold crackle containing gold and silver pigment, which I layered over OPI DS Temptation.

Here is the result:

 China Glaze Tarnished Gold Crackle over OPI DS Temptation

A close up of China Glaze Tarnished Gold Crackle over OPI DS Temptation

And now for Color Club Smash Hit over Color Club Hot Like Lava:

L-R: Index finger- thin crackle coat, Middle finger- thick crackle coat, Ring finger- thin crackle coat, Little finger- thick crackle coat

So after doing these two Crackle swatches, I thought- well, obviously the Color Club turned out out a lot better than the China Glaze Crackle... I also really liked the fact that with the Color Club, it seemed easier to get a thicker or thinner Crackle effect, as demonstrated in the photo above. Color Club had won the Crackle battle!...

...At least for now. I later thought that it might have been unfair to judge China Glaze perhaps too fast, and so I decided to experiment with the polishes further and conduct a completely fair test.

For my bases, I used different finishes:

* Color Club Artsy Crafty: Creme
* Color Club Hot Like Lava: Metal/Foil
* OPI DS Original: Holographic
* China Glaze It's Alive: Glitter

I painted all four colours twice on a nail wheel and left them to dry to touch, before layering over the China Glaze and Color Club crackles.

Here are the results:

Left Set: Afore mentioned colours plus Color Club Smash Hit (Black Crackle) and Right Set: Afore mentioned colours plus China Glaze Tarnished Gold Crackle

Color Club crackle close up. I lightened the the Artsy Crafty nail a bit to let you guys see the crackle effect better.

A close up of the China Glaze set.

I still prefer the Color Club crackle. I like the way it 'separates' more than the China Glaze, and I mentioned, I really like that the color Club crackle seems more versatile- it can easily be crackled thin or thick for different effects.

Color Club wins for me!

What do you guys think?

*China Glaze Tarnished Gold Crackle and Color Club Smash Hit were provided to me for reviewing purposes. I was not paid to review these polishes or to say great things about them. All opinions, good or bad, are my own*