Literary Lacquer: Community Collaboration

Products provided by Literary Lacquers for review.

Amy at Literary Lacquers released a community collaboration set and shared the following with me, "My favorite part of the holidays is getting together with my friends and family, so I wanted to celebrate that sense of community in my collection and honor the lovely women I have gotten to know over my first year in business."

I believe her sentiments are evident in that each polish seems to have been created with care and attention to detail. I want to take the same care with each blog post so I'm going to show a few at a time rather than all ten at once.

Phenomenal Woman is a Burgundy to purply shifty holo, designed by Jen Sky Walker of the blog Musings of the Wife of a Jedi. She chose the design to represent one of her favorite poems, Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou.

At first sight of the bottle I couldn't quite figure out if it was red, pink, burgundy, or holo. Guess what? its all those things! Its a nice reddish burgundy in dim lighting, but it flashes pink and when the light hits it the holo and shimmer sparkle and flash! Quite complex, beautiful and definitely a great interpretation of the poem. I wore three thin coats with topcoat for added gloss.






Jen, the blogger who designed the polish writes this about it:

"Scientist by trade, I had the pleasure of being promoted this year to a stay at home mom to a sweet little Jedi baby. It was this new life as a mom with messy hair, spit-up on my shirt, a newly broken nail and chipped polish, and more baby weight than I cared for that led me to choose Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou as the inspiration for my polish creation. Far too often we hold ourselves to an impossible standard of beauty that we fail to see that what truly makes us beautiful comes from the inside, not our outward appearance. I wanted this polish to be bold and confident because that is what makes a woman phenomenal."

Camille Sepharial D'Artigo has a blurple jelly base and is loaded with silver and black holographic sparkle and black microglitter, with a teal-blue flash for extra magic! It was designed by Courtney of Phyrra.net and inspired by one of her favorite characters, Camille, the moon witch from the Otherworld series by Yasmine Galenorn.

When I first saw the bottle I didn't realize the base color was a medium shade of indigo, and I didn't see the black microglitter or teal shift until I tested it on a nail. With the first brush stroke my eyes widened and I think I may have exclaimed, "Wow!" out loud. I knew immediately that I wanted to wear it over Revlon Modern Grace, its the perfect color to go with this polish!
I could have stopped at one coat of Camille, but I just couldn't restrain myself. I love to watch the teeny glitters float and swim as the brush swipes it on - so I wore three coats! Awesome glitter payoff, very nice coverage and definitely dreamy, one your friends will want to own!






Courtney writes this about her polish design:

"I'm a cruelty free beauty blogger who is hair obsessed. I'm an avid urban fantasy reader. My constant companion is my standard poodle Phaedra.
I was inspired by my favorite character Camille Sepharial D'Artigo from the Otherworld Series. I wanted a purple polish because her eyes are violet and I wanted black accents to represent when she works magic."

I have become acquainted with the two polishes that I shared today by wearing them for several days and noticing how they look in different lighting through the day. Both ladies and polishes are equally wonderful and I hope I have conveyed that through photos and writing.

The Community Collaboration is available at Literary Lacquers on Etsy and stay in the know by following the brand on facebook.

My Ten Friends: Holiday Collections

Products provided for review.

My Ten Friends is launching two new holiday collections on Monday Dec 9th, one for Christmas "Joy to the Worlds" and the other for the New Year "Star Date 2014: Happy Frakkin New Year." I'm excited to be able to share all of them with you before the launch! As with all of their polishes, these have a great formula and varied sizes of glitter which I adore.

Rudolph In Space has red and holographic glitter plus a heavy dose of silver shimmer throughout the base. Its super sparkly and eye catching! I was pretty pleased that this had good coverage and didn't need more than two coats. Since its a heavily glittered polish, you may need a few coats of topcoat to smooth everything out.





Cosmic Christmas is a blue jelly with red, blue, and green glitter and holographic shimmers. The color combination is stunning! The polish helps me to imagine how the night sky would look on Christmas if the stars celebrated the holiday. I am always impressed when jelly polishes still show all the glitter and don't need a billion coats. I wore two coats of the polish with a coat of gelous and a coat of KBShimmer topcoat.





Astronauts See Snow is another silvery super shimmery polish with pops of a brilliant blue, turquoise and holographic glitter throughout. Again its super reflective and simply stunning! I tend to use thickish coats when I apply polish, so you may need more than two coats if you use thinner coats.





Crash and Burn also has the beautiful silver shimmer base color but with pops of black glitter. Grayscale polishes are my favorite go to polishes when I just can't decide what to wear. They go with everything. Dressed up or casual, grayscale is the answer and this one is exceptional!





Faster Than Light is the only glitter in this collection that has a clear base. Its made up of neon yellow, gold and holographic glitters and glows under black light! I don't typically wear yellow so I really had no idea what to wear underneath it. Off to the melmer I went, bottle in hand so I could hold it next to various solid colors. I was quite shocked and amazed when it looked good with every single polish I pulled out of the drawer! I had laid out twenty different colors to narrow down and choose just one. It proved quite difficult so I thought perhaps I'd do a gradient and get at least two of the colors in a shot for you...but I just couldn't narrow it down that much! So, here it is shown over twelve different colors!



(l to r - WnW Listening to Blue Reed, Elevation Higravstinden, Elevation El Cap, Elevation Mount Cangyan.)




(l to r - Urban Lacquer Little Black Undies, LynB Designs Eloquent Dust, Revlon Powder Puff, and Vivid Lacquer Crimson Vixens)




(l to r - Vivid Lacquer Theoretically Nude, China Glaze High Voltage, WnW Stand the Test of Lime, and WnW The Clock Strikes Orange)


Stars Collide is a beautiful polish made of gold and holographic glitters. Did you know that researchers have evidence that the gold on our planet comes from the collision of stars? That is where this polish got its name!





I'm always appreciative of super glittery polishes that sparkle from a distance, especially during the holidays!
The formula on all six of these was great to work with. The polishes applied evenly and the glitter spread out nicely without clumping. There was no glitter fishing or placement for the swatches, easy peasy! I tend to paint on the heavy side, so you may need a coat or more of each polish than I used if you tend to paint with thinner coats.
I used gelous and my new favorite top coat from KBshimmer to give them all a super glossy look.

My Ten Friends polishes are sold at NailPolishToTheStars.com and these sets are launching on December 9th at 8pm Central time. There are other polishes in stock there now. You can keep up with the lastest news from My Ten Friends at their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Which one of these polishes will you be rockin' on your nails this holiday season?

Vivid Lacquer: Winter 2013

Products provided for review.

Vivid Lacquer's Winter release brings us three separate collections otherwise known as winter 2013. First, is a collab set, next an addition to the Theoretical line and finally, a trio inspired by The Princess Bride. These new polishes and several new stamping plates launched Dec 2, at 5pm CST.

Vivid Lacquer has recently rebranded her company with new labels and a slight modification to the logo, as well as new packaging in turquoise organza bags for polish, and an addition of ribbon to the stamping plate boxes. All your items will be snug as a bug in layers of bubble wrap and teal and black confetti paper shreds. How neat is that?

Oo lala! What fun to play Pin up gal with the all new Pin up collection! It contains a red and green duo collaboration between Vivid Lacquer and Jess W. Photography.

Crimson Vixens - a bright red crelly with subtle aqua, copper and red shimmer
I wore two coats with top coat to smooth it out and add a glossy shine. The polish leans a little golden/warm but is a beautiful shade!




Bettie Sage - A true mint crelly with subtle copper shimmer
What a beautiful shade of green! I don't think I have ever seen one quite like this and the hidden shimmer really makes it that much more special. Anni of Vivid Lacquer had mentioned to me she was on the hunt for the perfect shade of mint green polish. One day not long ago, I suggested that she create one since it didn't seem to exist, and here it is! Gorgeous, don't ya think?
I wore three coats with topcoat to smooth and add shine.




Theoretically Nude - A nude crelly filled with dark flecks and subtle pink shimmer. Reminiscent of a discontinued,hard to find polish.(Borghese Almondine)
I don't own the look-alike polish so I cannot compare them for you, but I can say this is an absolutely gorgeous nude shade! I don't have anything like it and those flecks and shimmers make it really unique! If you want to see a comparison, I hear that Kirsten from Glitta Gloves may be doing a comparison soonish!
I wore three coats and used top coat to smooth and gloss.





Finally, the As You Wish trio which contains a polish made especially for me by Anni of Vivid Lacquer. Any guesses which one? :D

The Sea After the Storm -A darkened teal scatter holo, filled with gold flakes
Stunning shade of rich teal, filled with sparkles from the holo shimmer and oh those gold flakes! The teal jelly colors them ever so slightly so they trick the eye in whether they're a brighter teal or actually gold! I love it when artisans design like this - such complexity makes them beautiful!
I wore two coats with topcoat for added gloss and shine. My apologies there are only two photos rather than my usual three, I accidentally saved over one of them.



Fire Swamp - A murky green jelly, packed with red shimmer for a duo-chrome effect
If you missed out on RBL's Turn it Around (sold out), never fear! Fire Swamp is not a dupe, but done in a similar color palette. The base color is a shifty lil thing! In different lighting and angles the green base may look lime or even olive! What a fun polish to wear! I got some strange looks from people trying to figure out what color it was! I used two thin coats with touch ups to cover vnl and a top coat for added shine, and although I a yellow stopper base coat I experienced staining but never fear, Anni is working to fix that!




Not A Lot of Money in Revenge - A red tinged purple jelly, packed with green shimmer for a duo-chrome effect.
If you guessed that this next polish is the one that Anni made especially for me, you're right! Its a beautiful raspberry jelly with a strong green shimmer! In some lights the shimmer morphs to other colors as you can see in my studio lighting. The up close photo really shows it off! I wore three thin coats and topcoat for added shine.





I hope you love this collection as much as I do and be sure to search around my blog for other Vivid Lacquer swatches, as she's marked everything except Winter and new plates at 20%off today (Dec 2)! She's also doing a free limited edition mystery polish if you spend $25 or TWO free mystery polishes if you spend $50! Hop on over to the shop and see what she has to offer!