China Glaze Metal Crackle Glazes Swatches, Photos, Review
China Glaze Oxidized Aqua Metal Crackle Glaze over Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Metal Crackle Glazes
For summer, China Glaze has six new Crackle Glazes–this time in metallic finishes. The six shades include: Cracked Medallion (Bold bronze), Haute Metal (pale pink), Latticed Lilac (soft lavender), Oxidized Aqua (deep aquamarine blue), Platinum Pieces (shimmering silver), and Tarnished Gold (warm, honeyed hue). These will be available in late June/early July.
China Glaze recommends using a lighter coat of polish for a “fine crackle” while a thicker coat will give a “deep shatter effect.” I found the formula on these to be thicker rather than thinner, and it was far easier to do one thicker coat than doing a thin coat. I tried a few times, and the best part about the crackle trend is well, they’re not clean. Messy is totally okay. Normally, if you did a thin coat and it was a little wonky and uneven, you’d have issues, but with these, it won’t be noticeable once it crackles!
These will dry mostly matte, so you’ll want to use a shiny top coat (I used Nubar’s Diamont for all swatches, except Cracked Medallion). I prefer using a thicker top coat, too, just to give a smoother feel on the actual nail. I tried to use different finishes for the base colors, from cream to jelly to shimmer to glitter. It seemed like the Metal Crackle Glaze worked about the same across the finishes. It is best to wait until your base color has dried before applying the crackle coat, though, because it may pull at the base color and give it a sheerer look (I didn’t quite wait long enough before applying Latticed Lilac, for example).
- Cracked Medallion is a burnished, copper-flecked gold. I wore it over Becca’s Tangerine Dream, which is a coral-orange.
- Haute Metal is a mauve-tinted pink with silver and pink metallic shimmer. I wore it over Butter London’s Branwen’s Feather, which is a deep, dark plum purple.
- Latticed Lilac is a silvered lilac splashed with violet and silver shimmer. I wore it over Deborah Lippmann’s I Know What Boys Like, which is a medium-dark indigo blue jelly.
- Oxidized Aqua is a silver shimmered aquamarine. I wore it over Deborah Lippmann’s Lady Sings the Blues, which is an inky blackened blue with hexagonal glitter.
- Platinum Pieces is a medium-dark silver with silver shimmer. I wore it over Butter London Thames, which is a medium-dark green-leaning teal with metallic shimmer.
- Tarnished Gold is a medium-dark yellow gold. I wore it over Butter London’s British Racing Green, a rich, deep dark hunter green.
I’ve only been testing the wear for a day and half or so, as these just arrived. Based on my experience with China Glaze’s polishes, including their original Crackle Glaze polishes, I’m expecting normal wear (seven days with minor tip wear). If wear falls below that, I will revise the review to reflect that.
Cracked Medallion, Haute Metal, Latticed Lilac
Cracked Medallion, Haute Metal, Latticed Lilac
Cracked Medallion, Haute Metal, Latticed Lilac
Cracked Medallion, Haute Metal, Latticed Lilac
Oxidized Aqua, Platinum Pieces, Tarnished Gold
Oxidized Aqua, Platinum Pieces, Tarnished Gold
China Glaze Cracked Medallion Metal Crackle Glaze
China Glaze Cracked Medallion Metal Crackle Glaze over Becca Tangerine Dream nail Lacquer
China Glaze Cracked Medallion Metal Crackle Glaze over Becca Tangerine Dream nail Lacquer
China Glaze Cracked Medallion Metal Crackle Glaze over Becca Tangerine Dream nail Lacquer
China Glaze Haute Metal Metal Crackle Glaze
China Glaze Haute Metal Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London Branwen’s Feather Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Haute Metal Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London Branwen’s Feather Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Haute Metal Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London Branwen’s Feather Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Latticed Lilac Metal Crackle Glaze
China Glaze Latticed Lilac Metal Crackle Glaze over Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Latticed Lilac Metal Crackle Glaze over Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Latticed Lilac Metal Crackle Glaze over Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Oxidized Aqua Metal Crackle Glaze
China Glaze Oxidized Aqua Metal Crackle Glaze over Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Oxidized Aqua Metal Crackle Glaze over Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Oxidized Aqua Metal Crackle Glaze over Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Platinum Pieces Metal Crackle Glaze
China Glaze Platinum Pieces Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London Thames Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Platinum Pieces Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London Thames Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Platinum Pieces Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London Thames Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Tarnished Gold Metal Crackle Glaze
China Glaze Tarnished Gold Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London British Racing Green Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Tarnished Gold Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London British Racing Green Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Tarnished Gold Metal Crackle Glaze over Butter London British Racing Green Nail Lacquer
I like it! I only have the black cg crackle right now but it looks like i’ll have to get all the other colors sooner or later >_>
there’s this idea company that is looking for ideas for a product/service called openinvo. http://www.openinvo.com @openinvo but right now they’re looking for cosmetic ideas specifically since there’s an international cosmetic/fragrance company looking to buy ideas. i figured either you or your followers would be interested in this!
thanks for the review and swatches, christine!
These are some fun color combos!
I’m glad there wasn’t any big glaring fail with these, because I definitely want to pick up a few. I wasn’t too excited until I saw your swatches. It may just be because you a genius with putting colors together.
I love these! I have the CG gray and black crackles and I wear them all the time. Sometimes I use them to conceal tip wear on my base color when I’m too lazy to repaint my nails. *hides* I need to get the oxidized aqua, platinum, and tarnished gold. I love the gold/green combo, those are my college colors!
I do the same exact thing!
Or when I’m getting bored with my base color/I’m about to change it anyway.
But crackle is amazing for hiding tip wear and other assorted chips. 😀
Does it feel rough to the touch?
I wouldn’t say rough, but it is uneven/bumpy. It’s not gritty or anything.
I think I would like them if the crackles were finer and more random, maybe a thinner coat achieves that, but you said you couldn’t get a thin coat with it… As it looks right now, I don’t care for the thick texture, it just seems to “heavy” for summer. Kudos on the beautiful color combos!
I definitely need…all of these!
I might have to pick up cracked medallion to use over my corals, that looks so pretty! How do you think these compare in quality/results to the opi crackles?
Sorry, I don’t use OPI! 🙁
why?
I choose not to support the brand.
You can look up the reasons why OPI is no longer featured on this site by searching for the Burlesque OPI collection here. They made a big mistake with their PR for that collection, and that has cost them this site’s support as well as my dollars.
Which crackle polish out of these is your personal favorite?
For me, I love Tarnished Gold 🙂 Honestly, though, it’s more about the combo, haha!
Can we see Butter London Thames w/o crackle? It looks like it may be a beauty!
These look cute, but I just can’t get into this crackle polish trend. They’re fun polishes, but I prefer more sophisticated colours. But the pink and purple are my favourite of this bunch.
I’m sad to say crackle polishes do nothing for me. But I guess that can be a positive – it saves me some money! I have no self control when it comes to new nail polish colors, so the fact that I can ignore this trend entirely is great. LOL.
I like your color combinations though!
I have to say, I wasn’t really into the crackle trend with the cream formula (OCD and liking things more uniform and all), but these metallic finishes look so fun. I might pick up one to try.
Looks like I’ll be snagging that pink one 🙂
I wish I could get into the crackle trend, but it’s just not me. I paint my nails everyday to match my outfit and I can’t stand when nail polish is chipped! I think that’s why I’m not a big fan… because crackle polish sometimes looks messy or chipped. My wallet thanks me though! (:
These are awesome.Must get my hands on some.
Are these going to be available at Sally’s Beauty Supply?
They should be!
I just found them today in sally beauty supply. I went to two and both had them (each store had four out of the six shades)
I def need the Oxidized Aqua in my life.
these swatches are so pretty! I put Haute Metal & Oxidized Aqua on my wishlist already 🙂
This look lovely!
that orange + the gold = beautiful
Oooh can’t wait!
Are they limited edition?
I wasn’t very excited about these from the promo pictures, but they look very pretty here!
Wow, that gold/green combo is awesome!! I’m going to have to pick a few of these up when they come out. Thanks!
the cracked medallion over that coral-orange reminds me of my paradise cherk powder, hahaha.
Wow. Oh wow. Yeah, I’ll be picking all of these up. I wasn’t into the crackle thing until OPI’s silver shatter, and now I am hooked on the metallic shatter look, so these will all make it into my polish basket. 🙂
i’m all for crazy, bright, bold, funky-colored nails… but i find crackles hideous. they make nails look like they’ve just been dipped in cake frosting. this trend is a total PASS for me.
Ditto. I think it looks very messy, it think it looks all smudged. I know I would just peel off the crackle topping, like when I get a chip in my polish I try to peel off the rest of it
Would you compare CG’s Platinum Pieces to OPI’s silver shatter? To me they kinda look the same, your thoughts?
I saw swatches of these over just plain black and I think that it definitely looks better over color, Im willing to stop biting my nails and grow them out just for these polishes lol they’re gorgeous and I want them all.
I hate to be a dissenter here but to me, this looks like deteriorated lead-based paint that poisons little children and lowers their IQ!! I see enough of that in my job…hmmmm, I could wear these polishes to health fairs to show parents what to look for in old houses though.
After seeing your swatches and those from other blogs, I’m still sold on Oxidized Aqua. It was my favorite from the promo pics, along with Latticed Lilac. The others are pretty too, but they don’t really stick out at me in terms of their colors, but I’m almost tempted to get them too. Hopefully I’ll have more luck this time around. I could not for the life of me find any of the other China Glaze crackles.
where can you buy it? love love love the colors…so pretty
Where did you buy these ?
Ok……can someone tell me where we can purchase the new metallic crackle colors??????????????
The gold one is gorgeous! I didn’t like the non-metallic crackle polish but now that I saw this…