China Glaze Crackles

I have for you today three China Glaze Crackles. I thought I'd do my swatches a bit differently than usual, because these are made to be toppers over other polishes. So I swatched skittles of very diverse colors, to show the versatility: including a neon, a glitter, a foil, a bright saturated color and a pastel. Plus, as a bonus, I have a full manicure, to show off a Crackle to its full potential, since the swatches are sans topcoat.

First, the real manicure. Here we have 3 coats of OPI Big Hair...Big Nails (coral jelly sorbet base), then one coat LA Splash Sweet Heart (the coordinating glitter), then one coat China Glaze Cracked Concrete, plus more layers of topcoat than you want to know about.  Love how much of the glitter shows through!

Broken Hearted. Hot pink cream crackle full of win! This looks great over all the colors, even the green, but I think my favorite here might be over the neon yellow... or maybe the blue... or maybe, well, you get the idea.

Cracked Concrete. Charcoal gray cream crackle that looks great over everything, too. I think my favorite, though is the lavender on my pinkie. There's just something about purple and gray together!

Lightning Bolt. Bright white cream crackle. This one is fun because it tends to take on the cast of any strong colors it's over, like the neon yellow on my thumb. But it looks great over all of these, even if it gets a bit washed out over the foil on my middle finger.
Overall, these are a lot of fun to play with, and you can get different effects based on how thick or thin you apply them. Mostly, I did medium-thick coats partly because I like the bigger chunks, but if you applied more thinly, you get a more stringy appearance, a bit like Lightning Bolt on my thumb. Also, you can apply in different directions, to make the crackle trend diagonal or even horizontal across the nail. The formula itself is a bit thicker than regular polish, but I've read that polish thinner is safe to use in these, if that bothers you.
My one big complaint here is the brush - I really wish China Glaze would hop on board the wide-brush bus, because I think the application of these polishes in particular would be vastly improved! I think the current brushes are too firm and narrow, because you really need to work quickly, applying in as few strokes as possible. But the brushes don't fan out to maximize each stroke, and tend to cause serious cuticle drag when you have to keep pulling polish down the nail. I found it extremely difficult to apply a thin coat, and I think the fault lies with the brush. I may have to swap out an OPI Pro Wide brush for better application.  If it works, I'll let you know!
Despite my complaint, I highly recommend getting as many of these as you can! They are awesome-sauce bottled, and I only wish I would've acquired the other three colors (see my PR post) before they were long-gone from stores. Good luck, if you can hunt down some of these! I have heard a rumor that at least three colors will be released in the permanent line, but I don't know which or when, so keep your eyes peeled!

Disclosure: Product samples were provided by China Glaze.