Literary Lacquers The Ultimate Outlaw Collection Swatches & Review

Literary Lacquers is a brand that is completely new to me as far as trying out her polishes.  I have heard amazing things about the Literary Lacquers line though before this review and have heard nothing but positive things… and now I can see why.

The newest Literary Lacquers collection is a set of 8 gorgeous shades which are inspired by literary outlaws and rebels!  Each polish I will be showing you will also have a short blurb about the polish inspiration.

As always, the polishes within the collection that are holographic will have 3 photos taken in normal lighting and then 1 taken under a brighter light.  The photo taken under a brighter light is not color accurate and purely to show the gorgeous holo within the polish (I work all day, so daylight photos are rarely captured to show off the gorgeous holo).  Please refer to the photos taken in normal lighting for color accuracy.

And So I Step Up

And So I Step Up is a shade inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.  This is a merlot creme base with gold glass fleck shimmer within it.  I used 3 thin coats for these photos.

“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.

Original Virtue

Original Virtue is one of my favorite of the collection, and is inspired by Oscar Wilde.  This is a warm pinky-coral crelly base with gold glass flecks within it.  I used 3 thin coats for these photos.

“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.

The Mad Ones

The Mad Ones is inspired by On The Road by Jack Kerouac.  This is a perfect Spring shade!  The Mad Ones is a mint green linear holographic.  I used 3 thin coats for these photos.

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

On the Road is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-20th century America on a quest for meaning and belonging in a changing world. It is a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was inspired by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences. It rejected the societal norms of the time and ushered in a new concept of personal freedom and the ideals of the Beat Generation and their longing to find meaning in life.

Ether Binge

Ether Binge is inspired by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.  This is a gorgeous shimmering aquamarine linear holo with blue-green glass flecks mixed in.  I used 2 coats for these photos.

The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls . . . Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas chronicles (semi-autobiographically) the Las Vegas adventures of Raoul Duke and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, as they chase the American Dream and ponder the failure of the 1960s countercultural movement in a drug-fueled hallucination-filled haze. On assignment from a sports magazine to cover “the fabulous Mint 400”–a free-for-all biker’s race in the heart of the Nevada desert–the duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it’s nearby, but can’t remember if it’s on the right or the left). They never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: “burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help.”

The Ultimate Outlaw

The Ultimate Outlaw is inspired by Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins.  This is a sapphire blue linear holographic.  I used 3 thin coats for these photos.

Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet.

This quote is the inspiration for the entire collection; it was one of my very favorite books when I was in my late teens.. Robbins fascinated me as a young adult with his fast and loose writing style and penchant for outlaw philosophy. Still Life with Woodpecker chronicles the love affair of two redheads, Bernard Mickey Wrangle, the outlaw bomber philosopher (who is insistent upon explaining the difference between an outlaw and a criminal) and Leigh-Cheri Furstenberg-Barcalona, the environmentalist princess. The two arrive separately in Hawaii for the Care Fest, a gathering of environmental leaders and environmentalists in general (she to participate, he to blow it up), and they meet and fall in love. One part fairy tale, one part philosophical treatise on aspects of love and how to make it stay, and one part an exploration of the boundary between self and other and what happens when you attempt to transcend those boundaries, this book attempts to answer many of the perplexities of life.

Everything You Love

Everything You Love is inspired by The Color Purple by Alice Walker.  This is a gorgeous smokey lilac linear holographic.  I used 3 thin coats for these photos.

Oh, she say. God love all them feelings. That’s some of the best stuff God did. And when you know God loves ‘em you enjoys ‘em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that’s going, and praise God by liking what you like. God don’t think it dirty? I ast. Naw, she say. God made it. Listen, God love everything you love—and a mess of stuff you don’t.

The Color Purple chronicles the struggle of several black women in rural Georgia in the first half of the twentieth century. Upon publication in 1982, the book generated tremendous controversy, instigating debates about black cultural representation. Critics complained that the novel reaffirmed old racist stereotypes and focused too heavily on sexism instead of addressing American racism. Feminists praised the book as a feminist fable of the power of strong female relationships and the idea that gender and sexuality are not as simple as we may believe. The heated disputes surrounding The Color Purple are a testimony to the resounding effects the work has had on cultural and racial discourse in the United States.

Mysterious Irrevocable Sacred

 Mysterious Irrevocable Sacred is inspired by Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.  This is a stunning blurple linear holographic with blue and purple glass flecks mixed in.  I used 3 thin coats for these photos.

It was all unknown to me then, as I sat on that white bench on the day I finished my hike. Everything except the fact that I didn’t have to know. That is was enough to trust that what I’d done was true. To understand its meaning without yet being able to say precisely what it was, like all those lines from The Dream of a Common Language that had run through my nights and days. To believe that I didn’t need to reach with my bare hands anymore. To know that seeing the fish beneath the surface of the water was enough. That it was everything. It was my life – like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. How wild it was, to let it be

Wild is Cheryl Strayed’s first-person memoir of her 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail through California and Oregon to the border of Washington State. After Cheryl’s mother died, she spiraled down into heroin one night stands which led to the destruction of her marriage. After her divorce, with very little left to lose, she decided to embark on a challenging hike despite having very little experience, hoping to save her own life as she explored the wilderness. This book is jam packed with truth and vivid description, from the importance of the right footwear to how to accept grief without allowing it to obliterate us. This book literally made me laugh and cry, sometimes in the same paragraph.

Anabel Lee

Anabel Lee is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name.  Anabel Lee is a grey crelly base packed with holographic and iridescent microglitter as well as opalescent flakies.  I used 3 thin coats for these photos.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we—

Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

In her sepulchre there by the sea—

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe is the father of the modern horror genre and Annabel Lee is the last poem he completed before his death. Annabel Lee represents one of Poe’s favorite themes, the death of a young, beautiful woman. Poe’s fascination with love, death and insanity permeates all his works; his version of horror is a psychological one. His enduring popularity owes a great deal to his image as a tortured soul who married his teenaged cousin and after losing her to consumption, spent the rest of his short life drowning his sorrows in brandy and opium, before dying penniless at the age of 40.

Overview

I really loved this whole collection.  Application was easy and smooth as butter on each one of these!  I really enjoyed reading the inspiration behind each polish and it shows how much thought and effort were put into every one of these 8 polishes.  My top pics of the collection (which was hard to narrow down!) are Original Virtue, Anabel Lee, Ether Binge and Mysterious Irrevocable Sacred, but all 8 are beautiful.

Price: $10.00

Where To Buy: Literary Lacquers Etsy Shop

Release Date: March 26th, 2014

I hope you loved the collection as much as I did!  Do you plan on picking any up when they release?  I would love to hear which ones!