There have been some gorgeous designs going around recently that incorporate crackle polishes along with nail art. I thought that the crackle trend had died down last year, but it seems to me like it had a mini-resurgence in the past few months (on the blogs I follow, at least)! It’s gone away again now, but I was left inspired. And just as I was formulating designs… I learned that my OPI Black Shatter had dried up. 🙁 Nooo.
Thankfully I remembered that I had seen a crackle set on Julep a couple months prior, and once I checked it out and saw that I could get all 4 crackle polishes that Julep had released the previous year for $16.99 (regular $56) I knew I was going to snatch them up before they were discontinued. I’d get my precious black, and then some! Even though I haven’t done any nail art with these lovelies yet, I thought I’d share the swatches with you so you could see if you also want to snatch them up before they’re discontinued. Enjoy!
Hermione
Julep Hermione is obviously named after the amazingly smart and talented Hermione Granger from Harry Potter… I like that all of these polishes were named after famous fictional female characters, since they came out in time for Halloween last year. Cute idea! Hermione was from the Boho Glam box, and is described as a bright white crème crackle. Nothing overly exciting here, it’s a pretty standard white crackle polish that takes on a matte finish when it dries, though I appreciate that the white is opaque enough not to show much of my dark blue base coat through it. In these pictures I used one thick coat over a base of China Glaze Man Hunt.
I have a supercute winter mani idea for this polish… As a hint I’ll say: doesn’t it remind you of cracks of ice over the ocean in this colour combo? We’ll have to see if I can execute my idea, though. It will involve painting on top of the crackle pieces, so we’ll see how that goes. Haha.
Ursula
Julep Ursula is obviously named after the amazingly fabulous sea witch herself (and was fittingly in the Bombshell box). This is the colour I got the set for, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s exactly what I was looking for and I can’t wait to start using it in abstract designs! Ursula is described as a blackest black crème crackle, and like Hermione it dries fairly matte. Pictured here is one thick coat on top of Essie Blanc, and like all the other polishes in this post it went on smoothly and crackled beautifully.
Sabrina
Julep Sabrina is a spunky and bright orange, just like the teenage witch it’s named after. It was originally in the Classic With a Twist box and is described as a zesty orange shimmer crackle. A bit of the shimmer does come through in this polish after the crackle takes effect, which I appreciated since both Ursula and Hermione dried plain and matte. If you go too thin with your coat on this polish you get pieces where the white shows through a bit, like you can see in the centre bottom of my pointer finger in the pic below.
The best part of this polish is something that didn’t come through in the pictures… Even though it looks like a solid orange, in the right light there’s a bit of pink duochrome that comes through, and it’s GORGEOUS. Even better, if you don’t use a base coat (which here is Essie Blanc) the polish doesn’t crackle at all, and you’re left with a solid coat of that orange/pink duochrome. I’m in love!
Glenda
Julep Glenda is actually my least favourite of the set, and that may be because I don’t know what it’s named after. Did they misspell Glinda, because they already knew they were going to do a Wizard of Oz Collection for QVC this year and they wanted to save the name for that? Who knows. Either way, the name is a miss for me unless someone can chime in with another character named Glenda.
This colour is originally from the It Girl Box, and is described as a radiant silver metallic crackle. The finish is very glittery, and if I had one complaint it would be that there’s a few stray glitters that resisted the urge to crackle and instead just sit between the cracks like tiny islands. Like with the other swatches, what you see here is one thick coat on top of China Glaze Man Hunt.
And that’s all she wrote! Haha. Even if these polishes aren’t anything out of the ordinary (except for my love Sabrina!) I think they’re still good staples to have in a collection. Like I said earlier, the whole set is on sale for a limited time (which I think means until they sell off their last few sets) for $16.99 US. Grab ’em while you can! 🙂
Any interesting ideas about designs that could be made with these crackle polishes? Any awesome crackle manicures you’ve done that you want to show off in the comments? Let me know!
Thanks for visiting!! xx
