We’ve all heard the expression ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’ to show how much you love something, but what about showing your love for your favorite book by wearing it on your nails?
Literary fans, I have a special treat for you! This is something completely new and exciting for me…..literary inspired nail polish!
Literary Lacqures is a line of book inspired nail polishes all hand made and named after your favorite literary classics! The designer, Amy Milder, combines her love of books with her love of nail polishes and attempts to capture the feel of the passage or book in the color and texture of the nail polishes.
She especially likes to work with glitter and shimmers in the polish to catch the eye. I picked four polishes to review and tried to do a range of colors but also couldn’t resist the ones from some of my favorite books!
I choose to review: Rebecca, Always Rebecca, Avada Kedavra, More Like Fire Than Light, and Raspberry Cordial. The corresponding books are: Rebecca, Harry Potter, Delta of Venus, and Anne of Green Gables.
Three of the polishes are halo or holographic with glitter, only one was a matte finish with glitter.
With sandal season upon us, I think this is an excellent time to try out my new polishes to see which ones stand up to the elements and which ones are fan favorites.
First I tried out the one that appealed to me most in color, Raspberry Cordial. This was so much more than just another girly pink. It has subtle glitter and a lovely complex halo effect with hints of purple.
In the pictures it looks more like a dark pink, but when applied it’s more of a light pink but so much more saturated and eye catching. I love the subtle hint of glitter, it makes it fun and flirty but yet subtle enough to not scream ‘teenager’ or ‘childish’ to us adults. It’s a lovely sophisticated pink that is memorable and very ‘wearable’ whether it’s in the office or on the beach.
This is a color that I will probably wear a lot this summer and the one I was most looking forward to trying. I only needed 2 coats of the polish to make it pop and when I applied a clear coat, it just intensified the halo/glitter effect.
The next polish I tried was Rebecca, Always Rebecca. I was hoping for a lovely purple polish that bad more of a red-ish plum with some sparkles. This was more of a darker, cool toned purple which wasn’t what I was expecting but I was really impressed by the range of color that the glitter/halo brought out in the base color.
It went on nice and even and was opaque after two coats. When the light hits the glitter, the light bounces off and brings out a range of blues and reds making it a bright colorful purple.
This is a color I would probably wear more in the later summer or fall but what I love about purple polishes such as this, is that they can be worn throughout the year, a good purple is a staple for many women. The glitter makes it bright and whimsical for spring/summer but the richness of this purple make it wearable even into the fall and winter months.
The next I tried was Avada Kedavra. I picked this one simply because I love Harry Potter and I thought the black and green contrast with large flecks of glitter would be different and unique. I didn’t catch that this was a matte finish polish.
This one took three coats to make it opaque and as I said, I wasn’t expecting it to be matte. On one hand I thought the matte finish was different and made the glitter really ‘pop’ off the black but on the other hand it dulled the overall effect for me. I did add a glossy top coat but it didn’t really seem to help with the matte finish. I wasn’t a huge fan of this one as I was hoping, but I would still give it a try as a fun and different toe nail polish for summer. I liked it as a toe nail polish more than a finger nail polish personally.
The last one I tried was surprisingly my favorite, More Like Fire Than Light. I am normally not a huge fan of orange based polishes because they never really ‘pop’ on my skin tone. This one was so eye catching on the website that I just had to try it!
On me, this was more of a gold/orange than a vibrant orange but it was so flattering and wearable. It only took two coats to achieve the desired effect and the glitter was again subtle. It was natural looking and sophisticated. I got so many compliments on this one.
On one hand I wanted it to be more orange but the subtle orange halo worked so well at creating a hint of a bold orange without screaming traffic cone! I loved it!
If I had to rank the colors by favorite I would say:
So now that you have heard my opinions on the colors let’s talk for a minute about the quality of the product.
All week long, I wore sandals and ran daily so the polish took a serious beating, but it did not chip or crack on my toes. As for my nails, I do work with paper and my cuticles and nails tend to dry out a lot. Normally with some polishes I experience peeling. I didn’t have peeling with this polish but I did notice normal wear and tear on my nails themselves. But over all at the end of the week my manicure was mostly in tact.
I love that Literary Laquers has ‘collections’ such a the Rebecca Collection and the Magic and Mysteries collection to name a few. What I am literally dying to see if an Outlander and A Song of Ice and Fire collection! I think an Outlander inspired collection would make a wonderful winter collection and the A Song of Ice and Fire collection would be a solid year round collection!
A literary lover can dream I guess!
Overall this is a quality product. The price is comparable to many other ‘name brand’ polishes (about $10 a bottle) and you get a unique, made to order item! The polish goes on nicely and comes off easily with nail polish remover. Not to mention this is a highly creative and fun product that literary lovers will delight in!
Rating: A+
The Lit Bitch 
I LOVE this idea! I’m in Australia and haven’t seen it here yet. I wonder if I could get one for my YA fantasy, Wolfbaene? A book filled with talking dragons, knights, magic and werewolves! 🙂
Literary nail polish, what a creative idea. I agree with your order of favourites and I’m glad to hear that they quality is good.
Going to check out the website now. Thanks for sharing these products with us.