Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat vs Avon Mosaic Effects

When I did my post of Avon Mosaic Effects topcoat, someone commented about how it would look with Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat. Honestly, I had never heard of this before until then, but now I've decided to try it out to see how they compare to each other. Of course, another reason I wanted to try the Crackle was that it was from one of my favorite cosmetic/beauty brands, which I can always rely on for great quality products! Since I didn't have any blue nail polish, I decided to go with the Crackle Overcoat "Wave Break."










The first thing that I noticed when I applied the Crackle Overcoat was how thin it was compared to Avon Mosaic Effects. This is both a plus and a minus. The good thing is that this allows you to put on more than one coat (actually, the instructions on the bottle recommends this) and overlap without completely ruining the design, like with Mosaic effects. It allows you to choose and play around with how thick your streaks, or the "crackle", is. Of course this also means that you don't get as much coverage, which makes the crackle effect seem a little thin and not as bold and noticeable as with Mosaic Effects. Because of the thinner consistency, I would recommend that you definitely stick to lighter color bases.

The next difference is the subtle sparkles that are in Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat. Until very recently, Mosaic Effects only came in solid black and white, and they have just added the metallic shades. As far as I can tell, Crackle Overcoat comes almost entirely in sparkly colors, with the exception of one that is solid black with no sparkles. This also isn't necessarily bad, considering that the sparkles are very, very subtle, especially when you actually apply the overcoat, and the sparkles are barely visible. However, I'm not too big on sparkly nail polish, so this is a little irksome. On the other hand, if you are a sparkle fanatic, the fact that the sparkles aren't very visible could also be a problem.

Thirdly, there is the variety difference. With Mosaic Effects, there are the plain black and white, and the metallic colors. Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat has a much wider variety as for as colors, and has a couple of shelves devoted exclusively to this product in the Sally Hansen section of the drug store.Honestly, there are just as many colors of Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat as there are colors of nail polish, so mixing and matching and creating different color combinations is not problem.

Pros

• Works as advertised
• Comes in a wide variety of colors
• Has very subtle sparkles 
• Is thin and can be used with more than one coat without ruining the crackle effect

Cons

• Is thin so you don't get as much coverage with just a single coat

Overall, I would say that these are both good products, and both do a great job of achieving the desired effects. Also, both can be used with any brand of nail polish.