So my first encounter happened when I was in NYC running errands with my parents about a month ago. To kill time, I walked to the nearest Urban Outfitters store to do some (window) shopping. This is when I came across the Graffiti Effect Nail Polish by Layla Cosmetics. The black and the fuchsia pink caught my eye... $12 a bottle???!!! Yes, sadly it was that expensive... What's even more sad was that I desperately wanted them that I gladly forked over $24+ for the two bottles of nail polish!
What was the reason for this desperation? Besides the fact that I was bored? The fact that whenever I go into a Target or a CVS or something, they were always out of the OPI Shatter, and I've been wanting to try them for months now (damn it!)... since the day I first saw that Katy Perry ad in a magazine!
Anyway, that day I had on the Revlon Top Speed nail polish in Guava that I got from Target (my favorite store... ever!), which I'm sure I only paid a few bucks for. Within minutes of buying the Graffiti Effect nail polishes, I started putting the black one on... I was amazed at how I can actually see the nail polish "crackling." I was definitely happy with my purchase, and started showing it off to my mom...
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| Base color: Revlon Top Speed in Guava; Top Color: Layla Cosmetics Graffiti Effect in Black |
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| Base color: Revlon Top Speed in Sheer Cotton; Top Color: Layla Cosmetics Graffiti Effect in Fuschia |
Fast forward to a week or two later... My sisters and I walked into a Walgreens, and guess what we saw? Sally Hansen Crackle... for about $5 to $6... I can't remember the exact price, but it was half of what I paid for before so naturally I went a little crazy and bought all the colors available, which were blue, white, and gold. Naturally. LOL.
I was super excited to try them so I started trying all three colors on one my sister's hands. We were so disappointed! All three weren't "crackling" that well... Sometimes, they wouldn't even "crackle" at all! The blue one looked like I took a blue Sharpie and colored my nails with them! I looked up reviews online, and found that people actually gave it a good review... Maybe I just had a bad batch? But all three? Or maybe the Layla nail polish worked so well that, in my eyes, the Sally Hansen nail polish just couldn't measure up to it... One thing is for sure... at that point, I was more than happy to pay $12 for a bottle of the Layla Cosmetics Graffitti Effect.
Dejected, I went home and went online to urbanoutfitters.com to buy more of the Layla nail polish, and to my disappointment, found that they don't carry the nail polishes online. I then decided to search online for any stores that might carry them. It was really hard to find the Graffiti Effect, and when I finally found a store on ebay.com that sold it, it was being sold for $102! I kid you not... that was the listed "Buy Now" price. Typo? Maybe. But it was highly unlikely since all of them were listed for, or around, that price.
Dejected, yet again... but not for long. I ended up buying the OPI Shatter instead. I found a seller on amazon.com who was selling a package of 5 different colors (white, black, blue, red, navy blue) for $24.80. I definitely wanted a red, white, and black, and since each bottle costs anywhere from $7 to $8, it made more sense for me to get the package deal.
I personally have not tried the OPI Shatter yet, but I've read the reviews online... Plus, I know people who have used them, and I have seen their nails I don't think I'm going to be disappointed at all. :)
- Pamela Joyce
P.S.- Justice (the girls clothing store, formerly known as Limited Too), also carries their own version of the crackle nail polish. I heard their pretty cheap too!
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Update (11.04.2011) - I have something new to say about the Sally Hansen Crackle nail polish. Please click here to read it. Thank you! :)
