About Lurid Lacquer

Why I started Lurid Lacquer:

The twin passions of my life have always been words and colors. I have been writing stories for as long as my little hand could hold a pencil, and I have been immersed in the world of color and art just as long (every single woman in my family is a dedicated hobbyist artist!). I love all things vibrant and expressive.

I created Lurid Lacquer to celebrate the power of color to bring joy to our lives. I found the indie nail world at time when I was utterly devastated and deeply grieving my brother’s suicide and the loss of two pregnancies, all of which had occurred in the span of little over a year. The first indie polishes I bought were so vibrant and so gorgeous and so unlike anything I had ever seen before. I was completely and utterly awestruck! Painting my nails became a very calming self-care ritual. It was a distraction from my sorrow, and a reminder of the beauty and joy and peace that we can find in the little things in life, even amidst the deepest grief.

I began making nail polish in September 2022. It didn’t take long before polish-making became an all-consuming passion and an unofficial full-time job. As I began to develop the idea for my brand, it felt natural to use my collections to tell stories both visually and through their names. The names of many of my polishes come from lines of my own poetry.

Why I Named My Brand Lurid Lacquer:

I am a highly sensitive person in a world that denigrates sensitivity and confuses and conflates it with weakness. My sensitivity is my greatest strength as a human being and an artist and a writer. I knew that I wanted to address grief and trauma through my brand, and to create highly emotional content. I chose the name Lurid Lacquer because the idea of speaking openly, frankly, and unapologetically about emotion and mental health is considered to be in very poor taste in my community of origin.

I also wanted to play on the secondary meaning of lurid: to be garishly or offensively bright.

My creations are both things: scandalously emotional and offensively vibrant!