Sunday, July 26, 2015

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Curious Yellow was released by indie polish maker Literary Lacquers as part of the Vurt-U-Want collection for summer 2015 in June this year. This collection of polishes was inspired by the 1993 sci-fi/cyber-hallucinogenic novel Vurt by British author Jeff Noon. Noon's first book, it won the Arther C. Clarke Award in 1994 and was included in The Best Novels of the Nineties by Linda Lesher in 2002.

Yellow is not a common shade for nail polish, but if done well it can be spectacular. And Curious Yellow is spectacular. Described by creator Amy as a "taxicab yellow neon matte polish with flakies and glass flecks," this is a very clean and bright maize color loaded with golden glass flecks and holographic flake shimmers that dries to a matte finish with a stunning radiant sueded look on the nail. The visual texture is very fine and smooth, like a beach glass. And like beach glass, it has a softly glowing luminous quality, a luxe look of stone-washed silkiness that in the brilliant shimmery maize hue of Curious Yellow takes on a soaring opulent splendor. It's a signature look!

Application was wonderful. The consistency of Curious Yellow is fluid, light and smooth with a silky even flow over the nail. Leave it to Amy to create a yellow that goes on without streaks, patchiness or any other application drama common to yellow polishes. And even though matte finishes are notoriously unkind to ridged, uneven nailbeds, Curious Yellow somehow managed to tame my furrows to a great extent with only the slightest faceting to the surface to show that my nails are less than perfectly smooth. Pigmentation is actually very, very good. By design there is a degree of translucence to this polish, so opacity must be built over multiple coats, but the color is rich and full even on the first coat. I was happiest with the coverage at three, but it could definitely be worn at one or two depending upon your tolerance for visible nail lines. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with some expected recalcitrance on the part of the glass flecks. Curious Yellow dries naturally in good time to a smooth matte finish. 

Photos show three coats of Curious Yellow over treatment and basecoat without topcoat.

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow

This reminds me of a more refined, more color-saturated version of Zoya Solange, without the texture particles. Amy could make this sort of polish in any number of colors and I would probably buy them all. My pasty pinkage is not the best showcase for Curious Yellow, but I love it anyway. Against a richer, darker complexion it would be breathtaking! It can also be worn with a glossy topcoat for a less glowy, more twinkly look. I couldn't bring myself to topcoat it, it's just too glamorous and luxurious in it's natural matte finish for me to even think about changing it up. 

Here's a short synopsis of the novel Vurt that I jacked from Wikipedia: 
Vurt tells the story of Scribble and his "gang," the Stash Riders, as they search for his missing sister/lover Desdemona. The novel is is set in an alternate version of Manchester, England, in which society has been shaped by Vurt, a hallucinogenic drug/shared alternate reality accessed by sucking on color-coded feathers. Through some mechanism, the dreams, mythology, and imaginings of humanity have achieved objective reality in the Vurt and become "real."

Before the novel begins, Scribble and his sister-lover take a shared trip into a vurt called English Voodoo, but upon awakening Scribble finds his sister has been replaced by an amorphous blob that Mandy, a fellow Stash Rider, nicknames "The Thing from Outer Space." From that point on, Scribble is on a mission to find another copy of the rare and contraband Curious Yellow feather so that he can exchange The Thing for Desdemona.
Shades of Tom Robbins and Thomas Pynchon, no? Knowing the significance of Curious Yellow in the novel only heightens my admiration for this polish. If you're looking for a special yellow to add to your polish collection, you've found it. This is one for the books. (So to speak... ha!)

love,
Liz

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