Nail Polish Canada Nail Art Challenge. Week 1 - Snow: When all else fails, do a Doctor Who manicure

When I was invited to do Nail Polish Canada's nail art challenge I thought "Why not?"  Normally I don't do things like these because I loose interest quickly.  But since this is once a week for 3 weeks, I think I can do it.

This week's theme is 'Snow'.  Now I know what you are thinking.  And no they don't mean Snow, the Canadian reggae sensation.  They mean solid water that is 0° or less.  As we all know by now I hate snow, it's cold and it tastes funny.   I was less than inspired.  So I thought maybe I could connect something I liked to snow.  So I thought Doctor Who ---> Snowmen made from telepathic snow!  Perfect.   Although it is kind of funny because I actually am not of fan of the episode they were in(The Snowmen).  Thought it could have been better for a Christmas episode.  Hopefully this year will be more exciting with 11 regenerating.

To do this mani I started with a base of Butter London Big Smoke.  The rest was done using China Glaze Glittering Garland, Fairy Dust, and White Ice.  Along with a white Wet n Wild(Cant find a name), Essie Pretty Edgy and acrylic paint for the Snowman's teeth.

If you like this mani.  Head on over to Nail Polish Canada and vote for me here(Yup it's a challenge where you can win things.)  Just scroll down the drop down box till you reach varnishedvalkyrie.blogspot.ca.

Is there snow where you are?

China Glaze Mingle With Kringle: I shall wear you with my Hannah Montana shirt.

Yes, I do own a Hannah Montana shirt.  Let me explain.  It was bought a few years ago for a show I was in.  It has been laying around since then eagerly awaiting Hannah Montana's comeback.  But the other night a did another show and it gave me the opportunity to wear it again!  Yay?  That being said if I'm going to be honest I DO have Miley's new album.  I'm under no assumption that her music is earth shattering or will touch the deepest depths of my soul.  It's pretty much words, put to noise, that you can dance to.

Anyways as usual I didn't know what polish I wanted to wear the other night.  That's when I saw that the Hannah Montana shirt had gold in it.  So I thought this would be the perfect time to wear China Glaze's Mingle With Kringle.  It is the third polish in the Dash of Dazzle trio sent to me from the people at Nail Polish Canada.  Mingle is a gold foil with slightly larger, and darker gold pieces.  I was a little 'eh' about the darker pieces, because I had seen photos of it already.  But it turns out I love it.  The darker its work well in real life, where the polish shimmers like crazy.  Application was 2 easy coats.

If you would like to polish the Dash of Dazzle Trio you can get it over at Nail Polish Canada for $15.00CND.  Or you can buy the polish on it's own for $6.95CND.  And for a limited time all orders(no matter what the price) will be shipped for free within Canada!

 T make it a bit more blingy I added China Glaze Gold Medallion.

 

What do you think of these polishes?   Also what fun random music do you listen to?

Happy Birthday Doctor Who: Perfect time to whip out Who themed polish!

So I have been SUPER busy the past few days.  I usually get home close to midnight.  Last night I got home just after one, after a fantastic show I did and I'm going to be doing another show tonight.  I actually won't be able to watch Doctor Who's 50 Anniversary special because I will be on my way to rehearsal.  My original plan was to do some really cool nail art, but I was so tired and I just gave up.  But as a loyal Whovian I still had to have Who nails.  So I made it easy for myself and just used my bottle of Nerd Lacquer Don't Blink.

If Don't Blink or Weeping Angels mean nothing to you, I linked you to some info. Because I don't have much time atm.   I will say It's one of the few things I like Steven Moffat for.   This polish was is a light  gray crelly filled with with white and silver hex glitter of varying sizes.  I used 3 coats.  I would have only used two but the the glitter was VERY sparse on the first coat.  My one issue with this polish is that the glitter sinks.  So if you don't shake it after a few nails you won't get enough glitter.  Shaking aside I thought it was VERY pretty.

So tell me what are your feelings on the 50th?  Spoil away. I'm not a person bothered by spoilers.

A little less white in person.

China Glaze Bells Will Be Blinging: Snow is great in theory.

I love looking at the snow fall while having a cup of something hot(BUT NOT TOO HOT), especially when its a heavy snowfall.  But the minute I have to go outside it becomes horrible, glorified, hard water, that will inevitably turn into dirty slush as it melts.  Also as most of us know due to science, it needs to be cold for there to be snow.  I hate that too, the cold.  The only thing good about winter is it looks pretty and Christmas.  I would say "Damn you Australia," but I also hate really hot weather.  As you can see I am a ray of sunshine.

Today I have another polish sent to me by Nail Polish Canada.  China Glaze Bells Will Be Blinging.  It is also part of their Christmas Collection this year as well as the Dash of Dazzle trio.  Now in theory I shouldn't love this polish.  It's a glitter storm that includes small piece of blue glitter, slightly larger pieces of silver glitter and the pièce de resistance, holographic bar glitter.  Now I'm not usually crazy about glitters, but I liked this.  It reminded me of a snowstorm, when all the snow is falling, and the wind is also blowing it about.  I was ok with the bar glitter because even though it was small they weren't skinny like in those "fuzzy" polishes.  So they never reminded me of hair, or creepy bugs.  Application was easy and even, I only needed one coat over OPI's Dating a Royal.  To me this is a great Christmas/Winter glitter!

Natural outdoor lighting

 Natural indoor lighting

 You can see the holo here

If you would like to polish the Dash of Dazzle Trio you can get it over at Nail Polish Canada for $15.00CND.  Or you can buy the polish on it's own for $6.95CND.  And for a limited time all orders(no matter what the price) will be shipped for free within Canada!

Who else hates snow but likes things that remind them of snow?

*Product Sent for honest review

China Glaze So Blue Without You: The Tea Incident. ALWAYS USE YOUR BRAIN!

So the other day I decided to have a nice, hot cup of tea.  Then I did something stupid.  AS SOON as I made it, without thinking, I took a huge sip.  Liquid that had less than a couple minutes earlier been boiling.  Immediately I spat it out all over myself, the dinner table and a chair and got a glass of cold water.  It was the worst.  And to make matters even better, two days later my tongue just started to seep blood.  It's been about 5 days now and it still feels weird but it doesn't hurt.  Lesson Learnt.  Always use your brain when doing anything.

Anyways you know what scolding drinks remind me of?  Christmas!  Today's polish China Glaze's So Blue Without You was sent to me by Nail Polish Canada.  It came with 2 other polishes in China Glaze's Dash of Dazzle gift set trio, and is also part of their 2013 Christmas collection.  So Blue Without You in an icy blue metallic foil.  It applied in 2 easy coats.  Word of warning.  I swatched this without base coat, and despite only wearing it for a few minutes I could see that it was beginning to stain.  So if that's not a thing you are fine with base coat is for sure something you will want to wear unless you want Smurf fingers.

I also decided to compare So Blue to Orly's Sweet Peacock.   They are close and look like they could be related.  Application was also pretty much the same for the two.  But is you can see Sweet Peacock is a deeper, dare I say peacock blue. 

If you would like to polish the Dash of Dazzle Trio you can get it over at Nail Polish Canada for $15.00CND.  Or you can buy the polish on it's own for $6.95CND.  And for a limited time all orders(no matter what the price) will be shipped for free within Canada!

Tell me you deep dark feeling of metallic blues.
*Product sent for honest review.

Majestic Cheetah Nails: Please note that this review is written to the tune of The Lion Kings's Circle of Life. Feel free to sing along with my new lyrics. Backing track provided. (Part of me wishes I was joking)

When I first got these water decals to review for KKCenterHk all I could think for some reason was Lion King.  So logically I did the review in song along form.  Feel free to just read it, but if you would like the full Lion King on Broadway experience scroll down to the instrumental track and click play or go here and open YouTube in a new page.

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
[Sithi uhm ingonyam]

Nants ingonyama bagithi baba
[Sithi uhhmm ingonyama
Ingonyam]

Siyo Nqoba
Ingonyama Ingonyama nengw' enamabala [Chant repeats]

[Start singing at 0:51)

From the day this arrived on my doorstep
I'm thinking, wow this looks real fun
Even though the site, says these are leopards
It's clear they are, majestic cheetahs
There's ten in a set for each nail
Although there was no instructions found
But I've done this before
Cup of water galore
Let's begin and let the magic take hold

These are water decals
And they slide right off
Off the paper back
But don't forget
An important step
Remove the plastic*
It protects it
Protects it from harm

Music break...If someone is singing the other party for you they can continue with the Ingonyama Ingonyama nengw' enamabala's.

[Start singing again at 3:07]

These are water decals
Put them over white
They are sort of clear
And when you're done
Use some acetone
To clean up the edges
These are well priced
Just two fifty four**

IF YOU SUNG THIS GIVE YOURSELF A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!!!

 Messed up the last guys face because I fiddled too much with it.

 

 

*The plastic from on top of the decals.
**USD

Again if you would like a set of these they retail for $2.54 USD.  You can also use our 15% discount code 'varnishedvalkyrieevent15off'.

*Product provided for honest review

Revlon Enthrall AND a comparison post!: Cold feet

A lot of the times I consider my body to be in a state of permafrost.  Well mainly my extremities.  I'm always cold, and for the most part it doesn't bother me.  I can actually do this cool thing in the winter mostly where I'll put my hand against a clothed person and you can slowly feel my cold.  I like to pretend I'm a short Frost Giant :)  The only time is kind of get's annoying is my feet at night.  They take FOREVER to warm up.  I find when your feet are uncomfortable cold(or hot) it just makes your whole body feel gross.

So today I have something requested by Robyn.  Revlon Enthrall.  It is indeed a beautiful colour!  It's a dark olive green base with golden-olive shimmer.  It was a simple two coats.  My brush was a bit uneven, but I paid pretty much nothing for it at a warehouse sale so I'm ok with it.  Just have to take a bit more time.

When I was looking at it it reminded me an awful lot of China Glaze Cast a Spell, so I decided to compare the two(a first for me!)!  In the bottles you can immediately tell that their bases are different with Revlon being lighter.  You can also see that the Revlon is a lot less sparkly.  When you put them on the nail they look a bit more similar then when in the bottle.  The big difference is Revlon as a whole is more olive toned and the shimmer is all the same.  Where as Cast a Spell is a bit less olive and the shimmer varies from green to gold and has much smaller pieces as well as more.  Overall I think I like the China Glaze more.  For me it just has a bit more depth to it.  That being said they are both BEAUTIFUL colors and I wold not kick Enthrall out of the bed(Unless Enthrall was being a douche).  They are pretty much cousins.

Which do you like more?

Black on Rainbow: My first rainbow gradient

For the first time in a long time I did something the other day that I hadn't done in years.  I fell off the bed.  I wasn't laying down either, I was sitting at the edge and gracefully toppled over backwards.  Luckily I put my hand out and caught myself on a step stool I had.  I ended up breaking my thumb nail on my left hand when I caught myself.  But looking back I'm grateful.  It was either me, or the nail.

My design today was inspired by these nails by More Nail Polish(who was inspired by other blogger, who were inspired by other bloggers :P).  I decided that since I had these black circular rhinestones from KKCenterHk's Candy Series I would do it in reverse.  Black on rainbow!

I'm honestly pretty bad at gradients and rarely do them.  This is maybe my 4rd attempt.  I painted all the colours(Red, yellow, green, blue, and purple) on a makeup sponge and dabbed it against my nails which already had white polish on them.  It was MUCH easier then I the past few times I did it.  And although it's not perfect I still think it looks good. The only thing I would do differently next time is do the colours in reverse so the red isn't near the cuticles.  It was flippin hard to clean!

Then I  easily placed the solid black rhinestones.  They are 2mm in diameter and they say they include around 100 rhinestones.  If I were to take a guess I would say there was well over 100 in the bottle it came in.  I used 20 and you would never know I used any if looking in the container.  My only "problem"(and reason I only did the row of black as an accent nails) was it's really hard too see what side was the top or thw bottom when you were picking them up.  The colours in the Candy Series are solid colours unlike their other rhinestones, which are transparent, and have silver bottoms, making the bottom easy to identify.   It also probably doesn't help that my eyes are bad.

Overall I really did love these rhinestones!  If you want some head on over to KKCenterHK they also come in MANY other colours.  They retail for $4.50 USD, but you can use our 15% coupon code 'varnishedvalkyrieevent15off' and get them for a bit less :D

What do you think of my gradient?

You have to look close to see if you are picking it up from the top or the bottom.

*Product sent for honest review

OPI German-icure: Blame tumblr

I was actually going to do this post a few days ago but right as I was about to start it I decided to take a look on tumblr.  Then over the next two hours I was lured into tumblrs, seductive, fandom folds.  Upon my my harrowing escape from the Tom Cumberbatch's and the Supernatural Thor's, I briefly did attempt to make a post, but my photo editing program was having none of it.  Today after restarting my laptop and staying away from tumblr I am finally here.  Do not fear.

OPI's German-icure is from OPI's fall 2012 collection.  It's a shimmery, vampy red, with brown undertones, and even a slight gold shift in the shimmer.  It was 2 easy coats.

This is one of my many go to colours.  I don't actually have a specific polish that I go to I have a colour.  I love a good vampy red.  I am that person who normally wont buy two polishes if they look remotely close.  Vampy reds are my weakness.  I will buy them all.

Do you have a go to polish or colour?  Do you use tumblr?  Isn't it magical?

An Enthralling Surprise

SUP VALKYRIES

Today I have a simple little mix for you, made with stamps and striping tape. My base colour is Revlon Enthrall, my accent colour is Maybelline Bold Gold - which stamps wonderfully, so I would recommend it if stamping is your jam!

Revlon, I have talked some serious sh*t in the past, and now I gotta take it back. You're redeeming yourself with Enthrall. Look at that sparkle! I hope Kas will swatch this polish for you, it's absolutely gorgeous and my (lack of) photo skills can't do it justice!

 In some lights, this polish just looks brown, in others it glows a beautiful olive green with green and red/gold glitter. It's a real chameleon and I'm so glad I bought it! I can see myself reaching for this colour a lot.

Left to right: Born Pretty plate M57, stud, BP plate RuiZ04, stripes.

Has a brand you thought you hated ever surprised you?

OPI - Blue My Mind...*giggle*: YOU MADE ME INTO WHAT I AM TODAY!!!

So over the years I have always had nail polish, but never more than maybe 7 or so bottles.  Then Just over 3 years ago I say an OPI buy 1 get 1 half off sale, and decided to get two bottles.  I bought OPI's Blue My Mind *giggle* and Royal Rajah Ruby(one of my all time favs).  Little did I know those two polishes would start my slow, sickening ascent into nail madness.  That being said 3 years later my collection is tame compared to other collectors.  I only have a mere 250ish.  What can I say.  I'm a picky polisher.

OPI's Blue My Mind *giggles* is a great name first of all.  It's ok to have the humor or a 15 year old boy sometimes.  This is one of those times.  Blue My Mind *giggle*  is an dark electric blue, with a metallic finish.  I used 3 coats, but you can get away with 2 of you used thicker coats.  In the photos you can see streaks, but these are not noticeable at all in real life.

I adore this polish because it is on the dark side, and yet it is still bold and vibrant.  If you are a fan of blues or darker colours this is a polish for you.  It's also one of the few bottles of polish I have pretty much finished.  OPI's retail for around 8$ USD and Blue My Mind is part of their core line (CORE LIKE LOVE!).

What was the polish that turned you?  Or what turned you on to any of your (somewhat healthy) addictions?