Bonus Beauty Post: OPI's Black Shatter Nail Polish

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, Fashionistas! Here in Boston, it is also Evacuation Day. This is one of those holidays where some adult beverages may be consumed, even before the party, so I thought it might be helpful to do a quick tutorial on a fancy manicure trick that doesn't take a lot of precision.

I have been loving OPI Black Shatter for a few weeks now (you may have seen my tweets or Facebook posts; I'm obsessed). This polish makes a funky polish job SUPER easy. Basically, the chemicals in Black Shatter are incompatible, so the polish doesn't dry uniformily, giving a cracked finish. To achieve the effect, you will need a clear base coat, a base color, Black Shatter and a top coat. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I grabbed N.Y.C. green polish, "Big Money Frost".

Step One: ~~Cut a hole in the box~~. Paint your nails like you always do with your base coat and base color. Remember, the base color doesn't have to be totally even, as you are going to be painting over it.

Step Two: Once your base color has dried, it's time for the fun part. You only need one coat of Black Shatter, and you can just slap it on. It doesn't need to be even, or even cover all of your nail, because, well, the whole point is that some of the base color shows through. I debated whether or not to show the below video; it's not great. But I really wanted to show you how haphazard you can be with the Black Shatter, and once I noticed that, near the end of the video, you can hear my computer get an email, I figured it had to go up!

These photos show what your nail looks like right after the Black Shatter is applied (top), and once it has dried (bottom). As you can see, it starts it's "shatter" effect pretty quickly!