So many brands have already put out their own line of crackle polishes. The end of this fad is nowhere in sight. And I’m glad because it’s fun playing around with different color combinations and having unique cracks on each nail.
When the OPI Silver Shatter polish came out with the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Collection not long ago, I tried to find it at every beauty store and salon in my local mall.
To my disappointment, the staff told me that they sold out of OPI Silver Shatter in mere hours after putting it on display!
And although I did see it at one salon, I didn’t get it because they had marked up the price to $14.95 CAD when the going price is $9.95 CAD and the polish hasn’t even been discontinued yet!
A short time after this fruitless venture, I received a surprise e-mail from Nail-Anon blogger, Mellinail. She found it and picked up an extra bottle for me! This really made my day, especially because I’ve been very stressed out lately. It was so nice and generous of her! (Thank you, Mellinail!)
OPI Silver Shatter Pictures
OPI Silver Shatter Swatches
All swatches have:
- 1 coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
- 2 coats of NARS Zulu
- 1 coat of OPI Silver Shatter
- 1 coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Flash
Flash
Sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight
Flash
Claim: TRUSTED
√ Creates a shattered effect on top of dry polish
Key Notes
- Name: OPI Silver Shatter
- Collection: OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Collection 2011
- Colors Available in OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Collection: Stranger Tides, Skull & Glossbones, Mermaid’s Tears, Steady As She Rose, Sparrow Me the Drama, Planks a Lot & Silver Shatter
- Amount: 15 mL (0.5 fl. oz.)
- What I Paid: Nothing! (Mellinail from Nail-Anon gave this to me as a surprise gift!)
- Where to Buy: Trade Secrets & select salons
- Other Crackle Polishes I Swatched & Reviewed: OPI Black Shatter, OPI Red Shatter, OPI White Shatter & China Glaze Broken Hearted
OPI Silver Shatter Review
Color
Silver Shatter by OPI is a super-sparkly silver that catches the light. It really ‘wakes up’ your nails, and it’s a fun way to change up a manicure that you’re already wearing or not impressed with.
While you can layer this crackle nail polish over any shade that tickles your fancy, because it’s a light silver, I suggest putting it over a darker polish so the contrast is more dramatic. (I paired it with NARS Zulu, a near-black green jelly polish that I felt could use some cheering up.)
When you wear Silver Shatter out in the sun, it sparkles so brilliantly! Even when indoors with natural light coming in through the windows, it looks so lively. Love this so much!
Application & Formula
Like with OPI Black Shatter, to avoid goof-ups, you must wait for your nail polish to fully dry before applying Silver Shatter. If you don’t, the cracks won’t be as nice or it may not even crack at all.
Because of the goopey consistency of Silver Shatter, try to apply a single thin coat on each of your nails. If you go over the same area more than once, it messes up the way the cracks will turn out.
Some bloggers suggest using thicker coats, but when I tried that, there were too few cracks and it looked clumpy. With thinner coats, it created more cracks and it let the base color peek through, which is what I prefer. You have to experiment a bit to see what you prefer.
I found that Silver Shatter cracked and dried quickly when I used a thin coat. And, of course, I used my trusty Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat to seal it all. Plus a good top coat will also make Silver Shatter sparkle even more! (You can, however, wear it by itself, but it’ll be more prone to chipping and the shimmer isn’t as vivid as with a top coat.)
Also, it seemed like while OPI Black Shatter created more linear cracks, OPI Silver Shatter gave me a variety of both linear and giraffe patterns. I applied them the same, so I’m attributing this to the formula. (Has anyone else noticed this, too?)
And if you apply the polish in circles, on a diagonal, or just not traditionally cuticle-straight-to-tip, you’ll get a different crackle pattern just like I mentioned in my OPI Black Shatter post.
Brush
It has the popular ProWide Brush, which is wider than your typical nail-polish brush. This is especially great for crackle polish because it allows you to do one swipe on each nail without re-dipping.
Ingredients
Silver Shatter doesn’t contain any Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP, or Formaldehyde resin.
Pros
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Cons
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Final Verdict: 9/10
Crackle polish gets pure love from me! And I love how silver shatter offers us a shimmery finish that catches the light and can be used to brighten up darker polishes.
Thanks again, Mellinail for thinking of me and snagging me a bottle of this precious potion!
Have you tried any of the OPI shatter polishes? Which color combinations would you like to see with Silver Shatter? Are there any other crackle polishes not by OPI that you’ve tried and would recommend?
Other Crackle Polishes I’ve Reviewed & Swatched:
HI Mary! It looks amazing over Zulu and I am glad you love it!
mellinail recently posted: Butter London Blagger
Hi mellinail!
Thanks so much – you really brightened my day! 🙂
This is the only shatter/crackle I sort of like the look of. The metallic makes a difference in it not looking as cheap and like rubber tires drove over your nails like other shatters tend to look to me. Curious is the silver shatter is one that is like glitter polishes and is hard to get off when you are ready to do that job? Let me know.
Hey meme!
Hehe, I never thought of it like rubber tires driving over nails. Actually, I think that would make a funny Konadicure!
OPI Silver Shatter was a breeze to remove – definitely isn’t as difficult to remove as glitter polish. Maybe it’s because it’s not a solid layer (just shattered pieces) and also because you use only a single layer. Hope that helps. 🙂
Have you tried the other OPI shatter colours (red, navy, blue, or white)? I myself was a bit disappointed with the silver—mine didn’t “shatter” as much as the black did, and it just seems to create very fine lines rather than a shattered effect.
Hey Andrea!
No, so far the only OPI Shatter polishes I’ve tried are Black and Silver. The other colors are on their way to me, though.
Did you try playing around with thick and thin coats?
I only posted photos of my left hand, but on my right hand, I applied thicker coats (not intentionally) and the crackling effect was more of a giraffe pattern. There still were some fine lines, though. Silver Shatter is a little tricky because if you apply too thick of a coat, it won’t crackle much.
Maybe the silver-crackle polishes from another brand like Burst will give you a better effect. I’ve seen Burst crackle live demonstrations, and they seem to crack really well (and fast, too!). However, even though the demonstration I saw was for several colors, the silver one wasn’t tested. It’s around $3.75 USD online, so it might be worth trying if you really want to try another silver crackle.
I am actually SOOO excited to try this stuff out, i am a big fan of OPI, and i hope this stuff works well.
(P.s. i REALLY adore this blog
Hey Kaley!
I’m excited that you’re excited! 🙂 Silver Shatter has a thick consistency, so the trick is to apply it thinly. If you apply it like a normal polish, it won’t crack much. But once you get it right, the effect is beautiful and it’s a great way to spruce up an old manicure. 🙂
Glad you’re enjoying Swatch And Learn! 🙂 I’m having so much fun blogging!
It looks great over Zulu! I just got my bottle and still have to figure out how to lay it on thin enough that I still cover my entire nail but thick enough to get those awesome big chunks (but not too big). I found it’s a lot goopy and was wondering if adding thinner would ruin it. I also noticed that after I do maybe 2-3 nails, the brush goes all clumpy and it gets harder to lay on the polish. What am I doing wrong? 🙁 Yours shattered so well!
Hey Carmela!
Thanks! Unfortunately, I wanted to love NARS Zulu like everyone else (heck, I had even been lemming it for a long time before I bought it), but when I actually wore it, I was pretty disappointed. It’s very dark, and I like my green polishes to be more visibly green! So instead of letting it collect dust, I decided to bring it into the game since OPI Silver Shatter looks great over dark polishes.
Yes, the formula is thick. I’ve read online that you can add some thinner to it, but I’ve never tried it myself. I suggest that if you do it, you should only add a verrrry small amount of thinner and then test it. If it needs more, then add just a tiny bit more, and test. Repeat.
Oh, my brush was clumpy, too! Instead of painting my nails like I would with a regular polish, I basically scraped most of the polish from the brush onto the neck of the bottle. It looks like you won’t have enough to paint your nails with, but just use it like that. If you use a super-thin coat that doesn’t even look like it’ll cover your nail, it seems to shatter better. Because I used so little polish on my brush, I found that I had to re-dip my brush even for a single nail. But never ever ever ever go over the same area twice on your nail or it’ll mess up the shatter effect.
I hope that helps. If you have more questions, please ask. I’m not an expert, but I’ve played around with shatter polishes enough to share what has been working for me. 🙂
I wish I asked before I did my nails last night! I got some nails that shattered great (pure luck!), but some that weren’t nice at all (I put too little polish, I think, so it just looked like streaky silver and I had to go and layer some more over and that didn’t go over well at all :().
I’ll try this when I do my nails in a few days just to get some wear out of them.
Thanks so much, Mary! 🙂
Oh, btw, have you tried the Nicole by OPI texture polishes or the Sally Hansen ones from Shoppers? I’m tempted to grab a couple just because they’re cheaper but I’m wary if they’re worth getting at all.
No problem, Carmela! I’m always happy to help if I can!
There’s definitely a learning curve with shatter polishes. My first attempt was terrible and it hardly cracked! Then I learned that less is more. (When I apply regular polish, I tend to use medium coats, so it took some adjusting to use thin coats with shatter polishes.)
No, I haven’t tried the Nicole by OPI Texture polishes or Sally Hansen ones. Yesterday I was at Shoppers and saw them. Was really tempted to buy a few, but decided against it because I have all the OPI ones and many of the China Glaze ones, so I’m all cracked out. 😛
I have heard a lot of people complain about the gold Sally Hansen one, though, so maybe avoid that one. People say that it doesn’t crackle well.
Have you also seen that Sephora by OPI also have their own crackle polishes out? They’re called Blasted. 😛 They’re pretty much all the same colors we’ve seen before, though.