REVIEW: H&M Cracked Nail Polish

Base coat in dark purple

Over 18 months ago now, I reviewed the Layla Grafitti topcoat. Cracked nail varnish was a new thing back then, and I hadn't come across the phenomena before and I absolutely loved it. I've seen over time that cracked top coats have flooded the market, with the high street making affordable knock off versions of this excellent product and I thought it was time that I bought myself one and tested it out. The Layla polish I had came in white and I really wanted a black one, which would be more versatile for the sort of outfits I usually wear.

H&M have a black one for £1.99 which seemed like a huge bargain. I decided to put it over a dark purple base coat for a special evening function I was attending last week. You can see the result when I added the top coat below.

The Finished Result

My verdict? Terrible. 1 out of 10 Extreme Points for this poor quality product. About one of half of my right thumb nail got the desired cracked effect, while all the other nails were covered in a semi transparent, lumpy and uneven coat of matte black goop. I quite liked the incidental matte finish, but to be honest that wasn't what I was going for and if I wanted matte, I would have bought a proper product to achieve the effect, without the patchy uneveness. So, unfortunately, my opinion of H&M continues to sink to previous unimagined depths. Will they be able to pull me back? I don't know, at the moment I can't say I'm inclined to set foot back in their shops at the moment, so I don't know how they'll win me round. If this was Twitter, twould be a #fail indeed.

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