3.  What would you say inspires you the most when creating new polishes?

•  There are a few things people should know about me first.  It will help you to get me and hopefully my polishes a little more.  I’ve always wanted to be an artist.  When every other little kid wanted to be a teacher or scientist, there was me, the artist.  Over the years I discovered that if I’m not creating something, my life feels a little empty.  With that in mind I literally draw inspiration from everything imaginable. I love to use movies or shows  as inspiration, it allows me to be a ridiculous fangirl and pass it off as working.  There’s also part of me that sees color combos other people have used in nail art or even in they’re own polishes that inspire me.  Right now I’m in love with all things teal and cobalt colored, and that might work it’s way into my polishes in the near future. So, as you can see, there isn’t going to be one set theme for my polishes, sure I’m in a TV and movie mode right now, but I already have big plans for some collections next year, and the inspiration for those might surprise you.

4.  Which of your polishes do you consider to be your greatest success?

• There isn’t one color that has been a standout that I can think of, but my Doctor Who collection has been my biggest overall success.  When I created it, I only made enough for five bottles of each color.  I thought I would sell out and that would be that. A great limited edition collection, boy am I glad I changed my mind.  I can’t imagine not having my Doctor Who polishes in my store.  Since then I’ve sold many more than I had planned originally and couldn’t be happier about it’s success. That collection is my biggest store success, but the polishes I’m most happy with are usually ones with color shift involved.  More than anything else, that’s my personal polish kryptonite.  So my personal successes are Anomalous Bloke from my Doctor Who collection and Jarvis from my Gender Benders collection.

Lyn B Designs – Anomalous Bloke

Lyn B Designs – Jarvis

 5.  We all know that perfection doesn’t happen overnight, so can you describe one of your biggest flops?

• Oh so many flops, I can’t even begin to name them all.  It’s an inherent part of our business. There are three that really come to mind.  I bought a glitter from an unnamed source and tested it for about a week, everything looked fine.  So I put it in a polish to see how it would look.  That glitter reacted with the base I used and puffed up to about twice it’s size.  So I did some swatching and when those glitter hearts dried they curled up into little balls.  So that was a fairly great flop.  My other two are more recent and more alarming.  I bought an orange pigment and was so excited to use it that I went to town.  Everything was going fine and looked great, but I hadn’t tested it on my nails.  So I did and both polishes dyed my nails orange.  After a night of scrubbing with baking soda a peroxide I decided those polishes needed some major formula changes.  I’m hopping a new orange pigment I ordered with give me the same color without the orange nails.

6.  What is one thing our readers would be surprised to know about your creative process?

• My two most recent collections were spur of the moment, and then they snowballed from there.  My Nightmare Before Christmas collection came about because I was listening to a song from the movie, in the middle of the song, I was hit with the idea to make this collection.  It started out as 20 polishes, but I edited a few out.

• A lot of my collections start as a random thought and go from there.  When I’m in the middle of creating I often can’t sleep, and so I’m awake at like four in the morning working on polishes in my office.  I’ve found that if I take too much time planning a collection it doesn’t turn out as well. I have to have a plan for things in the rest of my life, but when it comes to polish random works best.

 7.  What are your hopes for the LynBDesigns polish brand in the next 5 years?

• I hope that in five years I’m still doing this, but on a grander scale.  I know that I’ll always love nail polish, and that I’ll always be creating.  There’s also part of me that thinks “I can make a better polish than that,” every time I see someone raving about a particularly bland polish, so there’s that sense of challenge I get, that if left unconquered it can rule my thoughts until I do something about it.

 8.  Now for a tough, slightly controversial question: What are your feelings about Indie polishes being resold on eBay?

• My thoughts are that if you buy a polish and it’s not for you, you have the right to sell it. With the difference in monitors and such, it can be hard to tell the true color of a polish.  As far as the polish creators selling on EBay to hike up prices, I don’t agree with that at all.  I know I’m not in this business to make tons of money, I’m in it to make something that I love, and share it with people of like minds.

 9.  Ok enough with the serious questions!  If you were stranded on a deserted island and could on have 3 polishes with you, what would they be and why (color names and brands please?)

• Asking me to choose just three polishes is going to be agonizing, but here it goes. There are so many polishes from my store that I love to death, but I’m not going to mention those because that list would go on forever.  So, my first choice would have to be butter LONDON’s Wallis.  I love the color, and if I could, I would always have it on hand.  I’m usually quite cheap when it comes to nail polish, so getting Wallis was a huge splurge for me.  My second choice would be Beetle by Hard Candy. I love that it never looks the same twice.  As I said before color shifting polish is my personal Kryptonite.  For the third color I think I have to go with a new color I got.  I found it at Payless, and it’s by a brand called Brash.  The color is Turquoise Twist, and it’s gorgeous.  Since I took my polishes out of the equation, picking wasn’t as hard as I thought.

 10.  And finally, if you were asked to create a berry-colored polish and give it a berry-themed name, what would you call it?

• I think I would name it Berry Falltastic.  It would be a collection of all the great reds and purples you see in the leaves during fall.  It might even have a little orange and maybe a touch of yellow.  Ooh, I might have to make that color now. Or here’s one my mom helped me with, Duck, Duck, Gooseberry.  It’s a bright peridot green color with loads of pink, purple, and red glitters.

Wow, what a great interview!  I love how Jenna had really though out answers for all of my questions – it made for a really interesting read.  And the fact that she started creating her own polish due to the lack of options in her small town is cool.  And I think the “Berry” themed polishes she came up with were amazing (I would love to see them in her store some day).   If you would like to purchase some of her awesome polishes, and support a great artist, make sure you head over to http://www.etsy.com/shop/LynBDesigns?section_id=10991064 or go to my Links tab.  You can also check out her Facebook page.  And don’t forget to come back here on Sunday when I will be reviewing a Lyn B Designs Polish and I will be hosting a Lyn B Designs polish giveaway!

~ A. Berry