Everyone had told me that after getting engaged I’d want to have manicures all the time, so that my new shiny ring would have neat shiny nails to accompany it. Having been busy with family visiting, moving out of my apt, painting it back (turns out the reason everyone doesn’t paint their place a merlot color is that it takes 3 coats of primer to cover), and traveling for Thanksgiving, I just finally got to paint my nails for the first time  in a month!

Since I’ve kept my nails super short for the past 2+ years since I started taking guitar classes, I feel I get to have alot more fun experimenting with bold colors since there isn’t all that much nail to cover. I definitely wanted to go dark, but sparkly for the holidays.

Enter crackled nails. I’m sure you’ve all seen the new crackle formula nailpolishes at the drugstore or nail salon. I paired the crackle that my sister gave me – Sephora by OPI blasted nail color in blasted silver, over a deep navy I picked up for 79 cents from the drugstore on clearance. (The best way to try new colors!)

Polishes l-r: CQ Deep Sea Blue, Sephora by OPI Blasted Silver, Essie Good to Go

I painted the blue in 2 thin coats, let it dry a minute, and went over with one coat of the Sephora crackle polish. I then went over the nail with Essie Good to Go rapid dry topcoat which I tried for the first time. I definitely fell asleep within half an hour of applying – and woke up to be pleasantly surprised that the essie topcoat actually did dry and cure my layers of polish, so there weren’t any of those dreaded sheet marks!

Voila!

I’m pretty happy with the results, though the combo is a bit stark. While I loved pairing the silver crackle over  hot pink over the summer, I’m thinking I should try doing the silver over a white nail. I think a combo I’d like to try for the holidays would be blasted Gold Glitter over white nails, too. Crackle is really cool (though my mom thinks it looks scary), and I have 2 suggestions for where applying crackle can save your manicure!

1. Dreaded sheet marks
   You go to sleep thinking your nails are all dry, but in fact they haven’t quite hardened or cured. You wake up in the morning with those dreaded indentations all over your nails. Applying crackle right on top successfully camouflages it!
   
2. Chips!
   You shelled out a bunch of dough on that manicure or spent way much more time necessary making sure your at-home job was properly primed, applied, sealed and dried… only to have chips just a few days later. My friend Ayesha suggested a great fix, to camouflage the chips with just a coat of crackle!

What crackle/polish combos do you love/hate?