OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I just got the  OPI Serena Glam Slam Duo Pack, and since OPI's Black Shatter crackle top coat seems to be flying off the shelves, I thought I'd show it to you right away since Black Shatter is half of the duo and is still available on Trans Design.  I bought it there, and both the Serena duo and the Katy Perry bottles arrived without any marks on them at all, in perfect condition.

The other color in the duo is Simply Smash-ing! (I have no idea why that's hyphenated), a  kind of sickly sparkly green.  Unfortunately, I have no better  adjective that applies as well as "sickly."  It's not a bad color, it's just an odd one.   The sparkle in it is very cool, and it applied nicely.  In the picture I have two coats, completely dry, which is adequate as a base for Black Shatter, but if I were to wear Simply Smash-ing! alone I'd likely add a third since I can see through my tips just a bit.

OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo: OPI Simply Smash-ing! Nail Polish, Two Coats

So that's a color that might grow on me, I don't know.  I added Black Shatter to it, and that's another look that I'm not really sure about.  For crackle top coats, I would not be shocked if I receive the same requests to do anything within my profoundly limited power to squelch it as I had regarding  mattes.  I had some things to tell you about Black Shatter, but I'll get to that after the picture, which is one coat of Black Shatter over Simply Smash-ing! followed with one coat of Poshe.

OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo: OPI Black Shatter over OPI Simply Smash-ing

See what I mean about questionable?  I can definitely see where it looks cool and is like super low maintenance nail art, but at the same time I think it's hideous and the nails on my right hand are distracting the heck out of me while I type.  So I'm currently holding polar opposite views on Black Shatter, and I don't know where I'll finally land on it.  I'm definitely going to try it a few more times to form an opinion.

I sought out some advice prior to deciding to try Black Shatter.  I've developed a somewhat friendly relationship with a woman in the cosmetics industry who really knows the properties of various ingredients and pigments, all the how and why stuff.  I contacted her because my prior experience with crackle polishes was with the old ones from years ago, and those are a nightmare to remove, a nightmare which pales all other painful removals by comparison.  They're like trying to dissolve plaster with acetone, and the colored ones stained the heck out of my skin upon removal.  Anyhow, with all the crackles coming out this year, I contacted her to find out if there was some innovation that allowed for a new formula.  I was told that indeed there was, and that these were easy to deal with.  I didn't ask for more - I figured any details would simply send me on a Google expedition for definitions and I took her word for it.

I'd tried an old crackle just over the weekend, and it was clearly very different from Black Shatter. I used an old blue Toma one, which is much thinner and takes several minutes to dry and crack, then clings to the nail with a death grip.  Black Shatter is a bit on the thick side, and it forms the cracks so quickly that I had to work fast applying it.  I noticed that as I painted one nail, the one right before it was already crackling.  The cracks kept getting bigger until I was afraid it would just flake off, so I sealed it on with Poshe at that point.  Seeing that it is different, I'm not worried about removal or staining.

That, Dear Reader, is what I know about the OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!