There are a few common sciencey questions I get asked a lot, and for
some of them, I have a strong suspicion on how they work, but I can't
confirm it properly (without misappropriating university resources,
anyway). So here's a post where I speculate about how things work, which may or may not turn into a series of posts...
How does shatter/crackle polish work?
As a sciencey nail blogger, this is the question I get asked the most! I've seen a lot of posts saying that ethanol (or ethyl alcohol, or alcohol SD40) is the ingredient that makes it shatter, but that's not the full story. I know this for a fact, because I've tried adding various amounts of ethanol to various types of nail polish and none of them wanted to even separate. More importantly, I'm sure many, many other people have played with it too, but no one's written about their successful crackle franken, even though crackle came out over 2 years ago. Additionally, most people who try to explain shatter claim that it's because ethanol evaporates faster than usual, but ethyl acetate, the most common nail polish ingredient, has a lower boiling point and evaporates faster.1
Ethanol is definitely a big part of why shatter does what it does - it doesn't stay well mixed with the other nail polish ingredients and helps it go uneven, plus it could be part of why shatter won't shatter on bare nails2. it's also about the other ingredients in the polish.
This area isn't my forte, but I think polish companies have taken care to formulate a polish which sticks together quickly, is very brittle, and doesn't adhere well. In shatter/crackle ingredients lists, you'll notice "adipic acid/neopentyl glycol/trimellitic anhydride" quite high up while "nitrocellulose" is low, whereas in most normal polishes, it's the other way around (most polishes don't have adipic acid/neopentyl glycol/trimellitic anhydride at all). This different formulation is probably also why shatter tends to flake off so easily and dry dull.
How does spotted/bubbly polish work?
How does shatter/crackle polish work?
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| Old school! |
As a sciencey nail blogger, this is the question I get asked the most! I've seen a lot of posts saying that ethanol (or ethyl alcohol, or alcohol SD40) is the ingredient that makes it shatter, but that's not the full story. I know this for a fact, because I've tried adding various amounts of ethanol to various types of nail polish and none of them wanted to even separate. More importantly, I'm sure many, many other people have played with it too, but no one's written about their successful crackle franken, even though crackle came out over 2 years ago. Additionally, most people who try to explain shatter claim that it's because ethanol evaporates faster than usual, but ethyl acetate, the most common nail polish ingredient, has a lower boiling point and evaporates faster.1
Ethanol is definitely a big part of why shatter does what it does - it doesn't stay well mixed with the other nail polish ingredients and helps it go uneven, plus it could be part of why shatter won't shatter on bare nails2. it's also about the other ingredients in the polish.
This area isn't my forte, but I think polish companies have taken care to formulate a polish which sticks together quickly, is very brittle, and doesn't adhere well. In shatter/crackle ingredients lists, you'll notice "adipic acid/neopentyl glycol/trimellitic anhydride" quite high up while "nitrocellulose" is low, whereas in most normal polishes, it's the other way around (most polishes don't have adipic acid/neopentyl glycol/trimellitic anhydride at all). This different formulation is probably also why shatter tends to flake off so easily and dry dull.
How does spotted/bubbly polish work?











