Simple and Understated(For real)

Just a quick post today! These nails are actually some simple and understated the black and gold nails that I did a while back.  I used an unamed Gold Dior, OPI's Dating a Royal for the blue, and the purple is Orly Charged up.

Christmas in July/Fargo(FX) Nails

Today I have two versions of one manicure. The second manicure is actually my original idea, but because this is a review for KkCenterHK, and I know they use some of the photos after, I wanted to give them a cleaner option :P

For this manicure I used these water decals from KkCenterHK. They are a bit festive, but they worked perfectly for what I had in mind. These were east to put on, the standard cut, take off from plastic, dip in water and slide the decal off. My only complaints are they did seem to take a bit more soaking in the water before the decal would slide off. The package also did not come with any instructions. Now the second problem wasn't a problem for me as I have used water decals before, but it can cause issues if you haven't. You should also know that the background on these decals is white. So no matter what colour you put them over anything between the red lines that look white, will turn out white. That being said they make it clear on the website.

The first version of this manicure is simple. Just the water decals, and two plain white nails accented with gold studs. The second version is the Fargo(FX) version based on the shows posters. In the poster as you can see it's a cross stitching of a man who has just been shot. And his blood spells out the name of the show.

By the way if you haven't see the show Fargo, go and watch it NOW(It's Friday so you have no excuse). It's AMAZING! And if you have seen it, isn't it AMAZING!?!?

ETA:
This is the poster/banner the Fargo nail art was based on

If you would like these decals they retail for $3.80 USD here on their website. And if you want a discount(who doesnt?!) use can use our 10% off code 'varnishedvalkyrie'.

Simple and "Understated"

So as I said before the past few weeks I had been doing a show with my sketch troupe(I don't think I mentioned that part). We do shows all the time, but this time we were doing a festival so it was kind of a big deal. When it comes to my nails on stage I take a few things into consideration. 1)What am I wearing? I need everything to look like one uniform outfit. 2) Is it distracting? This does now limit me from wearing bold colours, it just means maybe we save the bright green for another time. 3) How important is the show? If it's honestly just a small casual gig I can go all out. But bigger shows I tone it down.

This manicure I did for Montreal Sketch Comedy Festival. To me this show kind of falls in the middle. It's a big-ish show, but it feels more laid back. So I still don't want distracting nails, but I can still have some fun. My original idea was simple and understated. Long story short as you can see the nails are simple, but then. Understated they are not. That being said they didn't pose a distraction risk as they went perfectly with my dress for the night.

Black polish is Orly Liquid Vinyl, the studs are from Born Pretty Store, the gold glitter is China Glaze Gold Medallion, and I THINK the other gold polish is an unnamed Dior. I of course used striping tapes for the lines.

I'm Going Slightly Mad(For Gradients and Studs)

So long story short(I'll get into the longer version later), I've been sitting on this review for KkCenterhk for a couple weeks now because I had been doing a Fringe Festival. Because of that I either had no time to do nail art, and when I did I didn't bother with it because I don't like wearing nail art on stage during more important shows. Even really bright colours can be a distraction. So I am FINALLY getting around to it.

So today I have these 1.5mm circular studs from KKCenterHk. They are probably the smallest studs I currently have. I thought they were really easy to apply, but maybe it was because they were large enough to easily pick up, but just the right weight that they weren't too heavy or too light to pick up. They are listed at $2.50 USD on the website for 50. I decided to count, and there was approximately 100 in my bag. I really really loved these, and the only thing I would change is how many of them came in a pack. They are so small that it's east to go through a large portion of the studs at once. This could just be the stud hoarder in me talking.

The manicure as a whole was inspired by this manicure by Oh My Gosh! Polish. As you can see I made mine slightly different. I wish I was better with dots though. I find it so hard to get them all even. I also need to work on clean up for when I do gradients. Acrylic paint does not come off the same way polish does when using a small brush around the cuticles. Ah well you can't win them all.

If you would like this product(or anything from their site), remember to use our 10% discount code: varnishedvalkyrie.

 

The Great Polish Giveaway of 2014!! - Great is probably an understatement. It's Majepic(Majestic+Epic)

So Nail Polish Canada is holding what is probably one of the most epic polish giveaways in the history of giveaways! One person can win up to 200(TWO HUNDRED) bottles of polish from the sponsors (Cirque Colours, NCLA, and Picture Polish). And it is we bloggers who get to nominate the polishes we want to be in the prize.

Now the colour I originally nominated I quickly found out had been nominated shortly before. Which is cool because it deserves to be there. So I went with my second choice, which is actually a polish I don't own. It's NCLA From LA To Anywhere, a beautiful gray holo. Now while I don't own this specific product I thought it would be something loads of people would like. Not only that, but I think NCLA is a fantastic brand who I have never had problems with. So despite not having used this specific polish I would still recommend it(as well as all their other products).

To enter to win this polish as well as a whole murder of polish, simply go and enter with the Rafflecopter below.  Follow Varnished Valkyrie on Facebook, Nail Polish Canada on Twitter and join their mailing list! Easy as 1, 2, 3! Open to US and Canadian residents. To find out all the terms and conditions PLEASE read the terms and conditions at the bottom of the Raffcopter widget.

 Photo from Nail Polish Canada

Photo from NCLA

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you would like to see ALL the amazing polishes you could win go here to see them. If you are a blogger and you want to nominate a prize, simply go here.

Break a leg everyone!

Happy (Belated) World Pride - Part 3: Success!

I know I've been away for a while, but I'll get into that later :P

These nails are what I wore to the Pride Parade almost 2 weeks ago. As you know I didn't like how my last set of pride nails turned out. I am happy to say that I loved these! The whole gradient was done using acrylic paint, and I topped it with China Glaze Fairy Dust! The one thing I don't like about these photos is the blue and purple gradient. My camera hates purple and likes making it blue. Rest assured that in real life the blue->purple gradient looked amazing.

The parade itself was interesting. Mainly because it was sooooooooo long. We were near the beginning of the parade and we were there for 4 hours in disgustingly hot weather before we decided to leave. Rumour has it the parade was 6 hours! But one of the "best" moments happened after the parade. We had decided to go and get something to eat, and I had ordered a water(easy right?) When I got my water there was gunk on the bottom of my glass. So I asked for a new one, but to my joy this one had gunk floating in it. My friend's boyfriend then said "It's fine. It looks like food" My response was, "But it's not MY food!" *facepalm*