All of These Awesome Indies, What's a Girl to do?

Amy Milder is the brain behind Literary Lacquers and her love of polish and books birthed this awesome new indie line! I had a chance to chat with Amy a bit about how her line started and really have enjoyed getting to know her! When I get a chance to try out  new indies, I love to hear the story behind the line and get to know a bit about the maker. So, here is a bit of my conversation with Amy Milder.

Dom:  Why Literary Lacquers?
Amy:  I wanted a way to combine my two biggest passions, books and polish. I grew up reading and I'v never stopped. I read (on average) 3 books each week.

Dom: What is the significance of the name?
Amy:  I love the alliteration! It's like a poem.

Dom: Do you remember your first polish experience?
Amy:  I have two early polish memories. The first time I remember wearing polish was when I had received one of the those Tinkerbell makeup kits as a very little girl. The kit had scented powder, a ever-so-slightly tinted waxy lip balm and pink nail polish. I loved that stuff. My other memory was of visiting relatives, I think I was about 6 or 7 years old, so this would have been the late 70's. My older teenage cousin painted my fingetnails for me with a W'n'W polish that was dark blue with glitter. I didn't know that polish came in blue or with sparkles! My mother only had red and pink. I thought my cousin was soooo cool. I saved my allowance and talked my mother into taking me to Woolworths in the Cherry Hill Mall (NJ represent!) and bought my very own blue glittery polish as soon as I could.

Dom: What made you want to make polish and how did you get started?
Amy:  I have a unique sense of color and texture. I am what's called a synesthete, to me, sounds have color. When I work with characters or quotes to create polish, I record the passage and play it back to see what colors and textures the words sound like to me and create the polish from there. I started working with micas and pigments in the late 90's when I was working with melt-and-pour soap. One of my polishes now (Jealous Oberon) uses the exact same mica that I used for my first melt-and-pour creation (gold sparkle from TKB). I also worked doing stained glass and mosaics in the 00's, which gave me a deeper understanding of color, reflection and translucency, but boy did THAT trash my fingernails and hands ... I still have scars from the cuts! In the past few years, my love of polish has grown and once the indie polishes started appearing, I believed that I had something original and interesting to bring to the market. I got stuck in the Great Polish Base Drought of '12 and had to wait and wait and wait to get enough base to even consider production and sales, but that gave me time to work on my formulations and dream!

Dom:  Love-In-Idleness, inspiration?
Amy:  The inspiration for LII came directly from the play Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.
Act II, Scene I

Oberon:  Yet marked I where the bold of Cupid fell.
It feel upon a little western flower, 
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound.
And maidens call it "love-in-idleness."
Fetch me that flower. The herb I showed thee once.
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature it sees.

This little flower, love-in-idelness, or western wild pansy, creates a potion that causes all the trouble for the young lovers and Titania in the second part of the play. In the world of this play, love is not rational or a matter of choice, rather it is something that happens to you. Once the potion is used EVERYTHING gets mixed up. Soon, both Lynsander and Demetrius are both in love with Helena and completely disinterested in Hermia and Titania has fallen in love with the laborer, Bottom (whose head has been changed into and ass - of the donkey variety - by the mischievous Puck). Hijinks ensues!

I literally dreamed this polish. I fell asleep thinking about what I wanted it to look like an saw it as a finished product in my dream. I woke up and scribbled in my dream journal and then built the formula from there. I wanted to use the iridescent glitters to add the sense of magic and mystery. I also wanted a polish that didn't require bright light to show it's beauty. The glitters in L-I-I look fabulous inside, especially under fluorescent lighting like the ones I have in the office of my day job.

Dom:  Are you a collector of polish and if so what is your most prized polish?
Amy:  I am a collector. I've refrained from counting my stash because I am in serious denial about the number of bottles I own! I am also guilty of "They're not he same, they're SIMILAR" syndrome, especially when it comes to blues and purples. My most prized polish? It's hard to pick ... The polish that really kick started my obsession is Deborah Lippman's Across the Universe, but I wouldn't say it's my most prized ... Even thought it's a little cliched, I'm going to have to say Lynnderella's The Glittering Crown. It's gaudy, it's a pure unadulterated and unapologetic glitter-fest and I love it!

Amy is really an interesting woman with some awesome inspirations and ideas!  Not only is she a super artistic and passionate woman but she is also environmentally conscious! All of Literary Lacquers packing materials are 100% recycled and her Green Wrap is recyclable and compostable!

Love-In-Idelness was my immediate favorite from Amy's collection and I knew that I had to have it. She has made two versions, one with hex and one without. I opted for the no-hex version and couldn't wait to get it in my little hands! Amy describes the polish as,  a very complex polish, with a light purple base; jam packed with fairy magic and iridescent glitters of many shapes and size and purple square glitter. It is beautiful!  I tried a couple different variations with this polish and I hope you like them!  For all the photo's below I used Beauty Secrets Base Coat and Orly Glosser as a topper.

Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

Rimmel London Wild Orchid w/ 1 coat of  Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

Jelly Sandwich w/ OPI At First Sight and Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

This polish is amazing and paints like a dream.  I did not have any problems with application and the build was awesome. With three thin coats this polish reaches full opacity and the depth of this polish could not be captured in photos!  It is just beautiful and I love it!  

Luckily, for those of you who have yet to try Literary Lacquers, there is a sale currently going on thru November 5th.  With the code 100FBLIKES you receive 20% off your order!   So get shopping ladies!

You can find Literary Lacquers at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LiteraryLacquer 

You can also like Literary Lacquers on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LiteraryLacquers