Sunday, August 17, 2014

Literary Lacquer: Wrinkle In Time Collection

The most recent colorful collection of polishes from Literary Lacquers is the Wrinkle in Time Collection which was inspired by the book, A Wrinkle in Time, written by Madeleine L'Engle. Each polish has a smooth easy to apply formula and all but Tesseract were opaque in two to three coats.

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Wrinkle in Time collection
Top Row L to R: Who Which Whatsit, Happy Medium, Megatron, Strong Steady Hand
Bottom Row L to R: Swallowed Up in Blue, Tesseract, Aunt Beast, Camazotz
First a quick word - I've chosen to share the green polish first because today the nail art community is joining together to do green manis for mental health awareness under the hashtag fightforlifeandlive. There's always hope, just a phone call away at 1-800-273-talk.

Who Which Whatsit is a lime green linear holo with green shimmer. The holographic rainbow is super strong in full sunlight and the golden part of the rainbow really stands out against the green.
"The three Mrs. Ws, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit are the mysterious women who find the Murry children and Calvin on Earth and lead them on their adventure to rescue the missing Mr. Murry from the evil Dark Thing."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Who Which Whatsit
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Who Which Whatsit
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Who Which Whatsit

Happy Medium is a beautiful bright golden mustard yellow linear holographic polish with yellow flakes. Capturing the holographic rainbow proved difficult for my camera, but it's definitely there.
"The Happy Medium lives on a planet where everything has been evened out to a medium gray, but she herself is a different kind of “medium,”. And she is indeed happy, though it seems she gets to be that way through pretending unhappy things don’t exist."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Happy Medium
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Happy Medium
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Happy Medium

Megatron is my favorite of the collection due to the vibrant holo effect, the glitter and of course, because it's purple! Amy says it's the sister to Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and Raspberry Cordial, so if you like the effect of those you may like this one too.

"Megatron is inspired by the nickname of Meg Murry, our awkward but loveable square-peg of a heroine. Meg’s struggle in the book is one of learning to embrace her idiosyncrasies, to see her faults and differences as strengths."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Megatron
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Megatron
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Megatron

Strong Steady Hand is a super vibrant coral jelly packed with holographic micro glitters. This is one of those polishes that you just can't stop looking at in the sunlight. It sparkles every color of the rainbow and the jelly like base adds dimension to the finished look.

"In A Wrinkle in Time, Calvin is mentioned over and over as being strong and having a steady hand for Meg, taking her hand over and over again to reassure her and give her strength."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Strong Steady Hand
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Strong Steady Hand
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Strong Steady Hand

Swallowed Up in Blue is a sky blue linear holographic with a strong pink shimmer. The studio lighting I use washes out the pink shimmer in my photos, but it's definitely there and more visible on the nail in person.

"This polish represents Charles Wallace, the third of our trio of young adventurers. Charles Wallace Murry is a precocious five-year-old boy, the youngest son of the Murrys. Charles Wallace has a gift of understanding things that fall outside of normal human experience."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Swallowed Up In Blue
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Swallowed Up In Blue
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Swallowed Up In Blue


Tesseract is a pearly subtle linear holographic polish. I can see iridescent micro flakies in this which lends a certain depth to the polish. I wore Tesseract in two coats layered over OPI My Boyfriend Scales walls, which is a perfect color match. For a brighter white, one coat of Tesseract over a pure white polish will do it!

"In the story, Mrs. Who and Charles Wallace explain to Meg that they will be traveling by "wrinkling time" through a tesseract and that "the fifth dimension's a tesseract. You add that to the other four dimensions and you can travel through space without having to go the long way around."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Tesseract
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Tesseract
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Tesseract

Aunt Beast is a tarnished silver linear holo packed with taupe micro flakies. Adding to the uniqueness of the polish, the micro flakies also add a look of texture, although it's completely smooth. Beautiful in low or bright lighting, it's the first charcoal grey polish that has grabbed and held my attention - I keep wanting to put it back on!

"Aunt Beast is a character who takes care of Meg on the planet Ixchel after Meg is "frozen" by the Black Thing. The character has four arms, no eyes, and numerous long, waving tentacles instead of fingers. Tall, gray in color, sightless and telepathic, Aunt Beast has a motherly, nurturing attitude toward Meg."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Aunt Beast
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Aunt Beast
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Aunt Beast

Camazotz is one of those mysterious polishes that keep you guessing at what color it -really- is! Is it deep purple? or dark blue? or black? Amy says it's a black linear holo with a blue and red shift, but I still think it's fun to pretend that the color changes when I'm not watching.

"A planet of extreme, enforced conformity, ruled by a disembodied brain called IT. Camazotz is similar to Earth, with familiar trees such as birches, pines, and maples, an ordinary hill on which the children arrive, and a town with smokestacks, which "might have been one of any number of familiar towns". The horror of the place arises from its ordinary appearance, endlessly duplicated."

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Camazotz
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Camazotz
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Camazotz

The entire Wrinkle in Time collection is available now at the Literary Lacquers Etsy shop.
Which ones are your favorites?

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Literary Lacquer: Happy Medium and Honey Bee Nail Art


Literary Lacquers recently launched a new collection inspired by the book, A Wrinkle in Time. The collection consists of eight different beautiful polishes. I received all of them to review, but I had to share the first one I wore right away.

When I receive a set of polishes to review, I always reach for purple and then green if the set has those colors. This set has both, but something was different this time. I lined the bottles up on my desk and, surprisingly, the yellow one spoke to me and immediately inspired me to create something with it. I was kind of shocked because yellow is usually the last color I reach for. In the next moment I grinned because I remembered that this kind of inspiration is also how Amy creates her polishes.

Happy Medium is a beautiful bright golden mustard yellow linear holographic polish with yellow flakes. Capturing the holographic rainbow proved difficult for my camera, but it's definitely there. The formula was very nice and applied easily. I used two thick coats for the photos. You can read the passage from the book at Amy's shop if you want to learn more about the inspiration for this color.

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Happy Medium
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Happy Medium
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquer Happy Medium

And now for my inspiration!
Happy Medium's beautiful yellow shade just screamed bees and honey to me. So I looked through my stamping plates from Vivid Lacquer and found plate VL002 and VL008 which have flowers, a honeycomb, bees and a bee trail, perfect!

After selecting the plates to use, I decided to use the saran wrap technique that I learned in Debbie Crumpet's Simples group which has been an amazing learning experience so far. (Come join!) For the saran wrap effect, I chose an Elevation polish called Temperance to achieve the look of honey and I used 23 Chocolate from Mundo de Unas, Sinful Shine Wisp and the Vivid Lacquer white squishy stamper for the stamping.

xoxoJen's nail art stamping with Vivid Lacquer plate vl002 and vl008 bees
xoxoJen's nail art stamping with Vivid Lacquer plate vl002 and vl008 bees


You can find the beautiful Happy Medium polish along with the rest of the A Wrinkle in Time collection at the Literary Lacquers Etsy shop! And don't forget to follow us both on facebook (xoxoJen - Literary Lacquer) if you like what you've read and want to see our upcoming posts of the A Wrinkle in Time collection and announcements. :)

Monday, July 21, 2014

Cupcake Polish's Sweet Addictions August Box


Cupcake polish is releasing a new Sweet Addictions box for August and I was allowed the opportunity to review it! In the box is a Cupcake teal holo polish called Topsy Turvy, A Philly Loves Lacquer glitter polish called Trilby and some super cute nail shields from Love, Angeline. Together, they'll whisk us away to the Circus! Let's go!

Cupcake Polish's Sweet Addictions August Box

Topsy Turvy has to be the most electric teal holo I think I've ever seen. Doesn't it remind you of the super sparkly outfits all the ladies in the circus wear? You can expect a very strong, vibrant linear holographic effect and a subtle dance of golden shimmer from this polish. It is opaque in one thick coat, however; I used two thinner coats for the photos.

xoxoJen's swatch of Cupcake Polish Topsy Turvy
xoxoJen's swatch of Cupcake Polish Topsy Turvy
xoxoJen's swatch of Cupcake Polish Topsy Turvy
xoxoJen's swatch of Cupcake Polish Topsy Turvy


A Trilby is a hat with a short brim that's flipped up on one side. It's quite stylish and might be spotted at a circus. Trilby, the polish, is definitely more appealing with it's purple jelly base and confetti-like glitter. It even has tiny star shapes! I wore two coats over China Glaze Virtual Violet which adds a little shimmer behind the jelly, pretty neat effect! The polish looks great worn over white as well. If you want less glitter, just one coat over your favorite opaque polish will do it!

xoxoJen's swatch of Philly Loves Lacquer Trilby
xoxoJen's swatch of Philly Loves Lacquer Trilby
xoxoJen's swatch of Philly Loves Lacquer Trilby

And lastly, a special nail art manicure done up with some Stuck on Love Nail Shields from Love, Angeline! This is my first time ever to use nail art shields like these, I'm only used to french tip shaped ones. As soon as I saw the shapes (elephants, squiggles/stars), I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them! I had a lot of fun creating this look and it really wasn't difficult at all. Some of the tiny pieces seemed fiddly to me at first, but a good ol pair of tweezers took care of that right quick! Super easy, fairly quick and heaps of fun to use!
I used WnW Black Cream, Cupcake's Topsy Turvy and OPI Flamingo Tini Pink and a bit of dotting to create the finished look.

xoxoJen's swatch of Love, Angeline Nail Shields Art
xoxoJen's swatch of Love, Angeline Nail Shields Art

The Sweet Addictions box is limited and launches Sunday July 27th, 11:00am Central at the Cupcake Polish Online Boutique! Follow Cupcake Polish on facebook for this and other news!


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