My Ten Friends: Geek Speak and Limited Editions

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Today, I'm sharing a very special set of polishes with you in this entry! All of them will only be stocked at the My Ten Friends shop and are limited editions that you won't want to miss!



A very limited number of the holographic polishes will be sold. Mei-Lynn told me that she *may* do a second pour of the holographic colors at some point, but they won't be identical. So if you love these, you'll definitely want to snag them when they're stocked.

Not only is Area 51 a beautiful smokey pastel shade of blue with pink shimmer and linear holographic rainbows but it also GLOWS IN THE DARK! The glow in the dark pigment separated a bit during shipping so I gave the bottle a good shake before each coat. The formula for both the holos glides on like melty butter and is opaque in two coats. From a glance, the polish looks kind of purpley to me. Love that!





Blackened purple holo? YES please! Quantum Singularity is a very rich, juicy shade like a fresh picked blackberry dripping fresh juice and when the light hits it, bam! A very flashy linear rainbow bend appears! Quantum Singularity is the term used to refer to many different phenomena, only one of which has actually been observed - black holes. Pretty mysterious, eh?
I wore two medium coats with topcoat and may have been able to get away with one coat if it were applied a little more heavily.




The next three swatches are from the Geek Speak collection which was inspired by some of Mei-Lynn's favorite shows, movies, books, and catchphrases. Can you guess where the names come from? (answers at the end!)

"SUGAR ALL THE THINGS!" ~xoxoJen
I was totally serious when I posted the above comment on the MTF facebook page. Everything needs a sugary kiss on top!
Gimme Some Sugar, Baby is a glitter packed iridescent topper which is gorgeous over any color but is especially stunning when worn over dark colors. I wore one coat over Quantum Singularity and I think they're a perfect pairing! I tested it (on my thumb) over Area 51 too, and its gorgeous as well! I don't have a photo of that pairing so you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm really in love with this topper! What colors would you pair it with?




So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish is a very shimmery glitter packed bright teal which is opaque in three or more coats so I wore two coats over Literary Lacquer Ether Binge. Although the polish's theme is reminiscent of the ocean and fish, it reminds me of flowers blooming and all the colors that springtime brings with it.




Last, but certainly not least, is What The Frak; a violet chunky glitter polish laced with intense blue shimmer. The large hex glitters were a little rebellious so I coaxed them out after flipping the bottle over for a few minutes. The shreds may also cause some issues but I didn't experience any. The polish was opaque in two coats and I used a coat of gelous and then seche vite for a glassy smooth surface.




Overall, I loved the four purple ones the most, but if I had to narrow it down even more I'd choose Sugar and Quantum. But really, trust me on this one, just get them all.

Did you get your answers written down for the Geek Speak name inspirations? Let's see how we did!
Here are the answers in order of appearance:
1. Gimme Some Sugar, Baby is from the movie Army of Darkness
2. So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish is from the book series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
3. What The Frak is from the show series Battlestar Galactica.
I only knew number three. Looks like I have some new things to discover! Don't ya love it when you learn or discover something from a polish collection?
Each of these has special meaning to Mei-Lynn, as she chose all of the names from things she loves that bring her joy.

The holos and the Geek Speak collection all launch on Friday April 11th at noon central time at the My Ten Friends shop!

Vivid Lacquer: Curse You Autocorrect!

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Sometimes collections are born from spontaneous hilarity, and this is one of them! It all began with a status update one evening on Anni's wall - "No, iPad, it's not cluster duck. It's cluster ****"
A few hours afterward, Anni and I were conversing and iPad struck again, so she typed more words for it to learn. After a few hilarious lines of text I said, "now THAT needs to be a polish name!"
And Anni typed a few more words for iPad and then replied to me with this,

"I should do a line with all the autocorrects for curse words." And the Curse You Autocorrect! Collection was born.



I reached for Holy Shift first because the holo rainbow was so brilliantly colorful in the bottle. At first look I thought this polish was a silver holo, but when I applied the first coat it was sheer which made me think it was a holo topper. I went ahead and added a couple more coats and it was opaque. What a nice surprise in one bottle of polish! I chose to wear it alone in three to four coats.





Son of a Birch is one of the names that Anni thought of back in January when we were talking about the collection idea. I'm really glad that she kept and used the name, because it inspired me to do nail art with this polish and all the rest of the CYA Collection! SoB is a beautiful shade of blue like a clear sky on a summer day jam-packed with rainbows! The two coats I wore applied smoothly and easily.





The nail art below was created mostly with Vivid Lacquer products except for a brown cream used to stamp the ring finger and underneath the dots and stripes for opacity. The stamping plate, VL014, has the tree with berries design that was inspired by a a scrapbook paper that I love, but was discontinued. Tools I used for this look are: Stamp and VL014 plate,a striping brush, various sized dotting tools and tape for the clean edge on the diagonal.
Polishes used: VL Son of a Birch, VL Bettie Sage, VL Band Candy, and Loreal Brownie Points.



I keep calling this polish 'the pink one' because I don't usually choose to wear pinks but this one...man, this one whisked me away after it was on my nails. Its called Mother Trucker and its simply gorgeous! I see a little bit of blue in there which, I think, makes the pink lean just slightly purpley but not enough to call it purple. I could be totally wrong about that, but I know one thing, I love it and didn't want to take it off!





For the mermaids and ocean waves nail art I used plate VL023 with Wet N Wild Tahitian Pearl for the waves and Konad Black for the Mermaids. I added a few turquoise glitter stars from Berry's Creations to add a little whimsy!


What the Fork?! My sentiments, exactly. After I applied this I saw a beautiful minty shimmer in the center of the holo rainbow that I hadn't seen in the bottle. I'm unsure whether there's actually extra shimmer in this polish but my eyes say yes! It also has a smooth creamy coolness to it that makes me totally crave mint ice cream. I wore two coats on its own and then stamped it with lizards! Those cute lil guys are on VL012 and were stamped with Misa Toxic Seduction.






Clusterduck. The word that sparked the idea of autocorrect polishes and my very favorite polish of the bunch, of course. I noticed that, like What the Fort?, this polish seemed to have a shimmer in the middle of the holo rainbow too - a pink one! Its a little difficult to see in my photos but its there and more noticeable in person. I wore two easy coats of Clusterduck and vowed not to ever take it off. Ok, so I had to break that vow but I'm wearing this one again sometime and I'm thinking a gradient with Mother Trucker would be stunning!





I later decorated Clusterduck with the Vivid Lacquer mascot, pawprints, birdcage, bird and logo from plates VL001, VL003, and VL018. I created it with Anni in mind because a sweet friendship has blossomed over the years that we've worked together through her brand.

So Anni, this one is especially for you - I hope it was worth the wait!




The Curse You Autocorrect! collection launches at Vivid Lacquer April 11th at 7pm Pacific. You can also follow Vivid Lacquer on their facebook page.

Literary Lacquer:Ultimate Outlaw Collection [2]

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The Ultimate Outlaw: Polish inspired by literary outlaws and rebels, created by Literary Lacquers.
There are eight polishes in the collection, and I'm sharing two more of them today. If you missed part one, click here! I chose the peachy coral and velvety red for today's post, both are beautiful!

These polishes have some really great inspirations so I've included those along with Amy's comments in the quote blocks, my comments are outside those blocks.

Original Virtue, inspired by Oscar Wilde, a warm pinky-peach glass fleck shimmer
“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.”

Oscar Wilde is one of the original celebrity literary outlaws. Accused as a homosexual (which he most certainly was) by the father of his lover, Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas, he sued for libel, but was clearly the one on trial himself. Wilde withdrew his case but was ultimately arrested and convicted of gross indecency with other men and sentenced to two years hard labor. After his release, he left for France and never returned to Britain or Ireland.

Original Virtue is the perfect bright summer coral color with gold flakes that glisten in the sunlight. I enjoyed wearing this one and even got a few compliments on it! I tried this in three coats on its own first but there was still VNL so I layered two coats over Color Club's East Austin, the perfect undie for it!





I just got some new chevron nail stickers from a recent ebay order so I thought I'd try them out with I'm Drinking Stars, a sheer nude holo also from LL. What do you think?

And So I Step Up, inspired by The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, a merlot glass fleck shimmer.
“And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.” Offred, the protagonist of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a reluctant rebel. Over the course of the book, she thinks about rebellion often but is too afraid of pain to act directly. Offred is a handmaid, a fertile woman assigned to a Commander of the dystopian Gilead regime to bear a child for the Commander and his wife. In this version of the future set in barely recognizable Boston, women are property, not even allowed to read. Offred’s rebellions are small at first, stealing butter to moisturize her skin and taking a dried out flower from an arrangement, but she eventually begins an affair with the chauffeur, Nick. As the novel ends, the secret police are coming to take her away, but she’s told by Nick that it’s the rebellion coming to help her escape. We do not know if Offred is rescued or sent to her death, but as she steps up into the van and her own uncertain future we can only hope for her safety.

I'm not an avid book reader, but from the excerpt above it sounds like a great book! I can relate to being faced with challenges, risks, being cautious, and being deceived. And So I Step Up looks almost like velvet on the nail. It has depth and is a beautiful, almost smokey looking shade of red. I wore two coats with topcoat, the formula was smooth and easy to apply.





I have had NYX Girls Gilded for a very very long time and I figured it was high time I tried it out! I noticed that it darkened And So I Step Up just a little bit, but I think its pretty that way too. I've always thought that red and gold were a near perfect pairing on nails, and this didn't disappoint!



The entire Ultimate Outlaw collection is available now at Literary Lacquer's Etsy Shop. You can follow Literary Lacquer on Facebook too!