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

F4 - Hocus Pocus: Well worth the wait.

Well Halloween has come and gone.  And I'll be honest with you guys the one thing I will be missing will be the horror movies that are always on the television.  I love a good(or hilariously bad) horror film.

This polish that I wore today was part of F4's Halloween line last year.  I didn't wear it last year so I decided that this year I was going to wear it on Halloween for the first time.  I wanted my first time to to be special guys.  So I have been sitting on this polish for over a year and that day has finally come.  Let me tell you it was well worth the wait(OMG she used the title of the post in the post...like in movies).

I decided to go with the obnoxious look.  My base was a bright orange by Orly(I could not find the name on the mini bottle), and I used one coat of Hocus Pocus over it.  Hocus Pocus is tiny matte black glitter and pink glitter, as well as larger pieces of green and yellow glitter.  Formula was super easy to use and you could probably get this to be opaque on its own in 3 coats or so.

So do I do Christmas stuff now?

Have you tried F4 polishes?  Do you think this was worth the wait?  Do you like scary movies?  Which ones?  TELL ME!

China Glaze - Cast A Spell: Let's have a serious chat about ghosts, and Christmas.

First of all unlike aliens I can't say if I believe in ghosts or not.  They may be real, they may not be.  I don't know.  I do know one thing though, if ghosts do exist they are creepy.  Not in an "Eep that's a dead person" kind of way, they are creepy in a sketchy kind of way.  When I think of ghosts I think "Oh, so are you watching me do stuff...that's weird".  Think of how many people have died.  I sometimes wonder is my room is filled with non threatening sketch ghosts.  Are they lurking during special cuddles time?  I wonder at times if ghosts are invading my privacy.  This is something that troubles me.

Now the polish is from last years China Glaze Halloween collection.  I actually bough it last year in December.  I found it and I thought it would be perfect for my friend as part of her Christmas gift. Then the minute I brought it home I immediately changed my mind and decided it was mine.   It does not count as taking back a gift if they never got it.

Cast A Spell is a black base full of olive/gold shimmer.  It went on like a dream in almost one coat.  But I did need a second for a bit of patchiness.  It is soooooooooooooooooooooo pretty in real life.  Had the sun come out for a bit longer today I would have had to have taken photos outdoors.

If you can still find this, I suggest you all go out and buy it!  It's such a fantastic shade.  I'm so glad I decided to keep this :)

 Flash *A-AH*

Pumpkin Half Moons! - I hate pumpkins!

Soooooooooooooo I actually did these nails over two weeks ago and started this post maybe 10 days ago.  I ended up pushing the post back and finishing it now.

Let's start with some hard hitting truths.  I actually don't like pumpkin.  I've had one pumpkin soup that I've liked and that was it.   Actually had a pumpkin spice latte the other day.  I was in the mood for a fall drink, which generally means something apple.  But since the place I was at didn't have any apple goodness I decided to try the latte.  Wow.  The only way I can describe the flavour was a cross between horrid kids medicine, and vomit aftertaste.   No, it tasted like I had thrown up horrid kids medicine.  Ill stick to my apple cider next time.

UNLESS I don't have to ingest it.  I think that is why I ended up loving these nails.  They were super easy to do as I didn't have to be exact with them *HUZZAH*.  For my base I used China Glaze Glittering Garland, and for the pumpkins I just used acrylic paint.

Again I was super pleased with these.  What do you think?  Also does anyone have a pumpkin recipe that can convert this pumpkin hater?

With Flash, *A-AH*.

 Without Flash, *A-AH*.

LynBDesigns - Pumpkin King: This post is brought to you by a bad internet connection and computer rabies.

So this post was originally supposed to go up at noon today BUT my internet has been kind of poopy lately.  So I attempted to post it in a coffee shop today but it was telling me the only internet connection available could give my computers rabies.  Ok it didn't say that, but it said it wasn't safe, so I didn't risk it.  That and I felt miserable in the coffee place.  I sat next to a door and then I bought a frozen lemonade. I know, lemonade in a coffee shop!  I was freezing my tushy off!

Frozen bum aside let's talk polish! Pumpkin King is the final polish I have from LynBDesigns The Nightmare Begins collection. It's based on Jack Skellington who is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town(Think of him as their Santa). It’s exactly what you would think when you think of Pumpkin King. I would also say it is the only polish in the whole collection that really does lean towards Halloween. It’s small orange glitter as well as medium size hex glitter as well as silver hex glitter, then it also has black bar, diamond and star glitter. I ended up layering 2 coats over OPI’s My Boyfriend Scales Walls. It was very easy to apply(although you may have to fiddle with glitter placement now and then) and I wore this for 2 days. On the second day I added black tips. They were a bit chunky but it wasn't all that noticeable in real life. I sadly had to take it off a few hours after I put the tips on. I don't know what I did exactly but I ended up chipping and breaking some nails on the hand I don't photograph.

If you would like a bottle of this you can head over to LynBDesigns Etsy shop.  Polishes retail from between $8-$10USD.  Not only is this brand filled with exciting and unique shades it's a little extra exciting for those of us who are part of fandoms.  She sells everything from Doctor Who, to Sherlock, to Princess Bride themed polishes.

 *Product sent for honest review.

LynBDesigns - Frogs Breath: I've made a huge mistake. But frogs make everything better!

Today I have another LynBDesigns!  This is also from The nightmare begins collection.

I sort of wanted to put this and Deadly Nightshade together, but I didn't want to overload the post.  The reason I wanted to put them together is because along with Deadly Nightshade, Sally also put Frogs Breath into Doctor Finkelstein soup.

Frogs Breath is a bright green, jelly polish.  It kind of reminds me of murky water.  The polish is filled with matte black hexogonal and bar glitter.  As well as black matte shards.  Application was really easy and was 3 coats.  This is not a polish you'll ever get light impenetrable opaque and in my opinion, that's just fine.

Here is where I made my mistake.  I layered it over Orly's Lucky Duck.  I honestly don't think it worked.  Don't get me wrong they didn't look bad together they just kind of fell flat.  SO I ADDED A FROG WITH 3D EYES!  And everything was better...minus the blah nails that weren't the frog.  I would have loved the accent with the polish on it's own.  If you are going to layer this you need to find the right colour.  Or you kind of just destroy the magic of the polish.

 If you would like a bottle of this you can head over to LynBDesigns Etsy shop.  Polishes retail from between $8-$10USD.  And if you order now through Sunday, and use the code CHICAGO you can get 50% of your purchase of $16 or more. 

Do you think it looks better with the undies I chose or without?

 *Product sent for honest review

Lava Nails: This is the reason I have a bottle of textured polish. That and SCIENCE!

Fact:  I own one bottle of textured polish at the moment.  Zoya Dahlia.  One of the main reason why I bought it was to try this.  I think I would call this a success!

I started off by leaving on the base of Moonlit Dance.  Then with black acrylic paint I messily painted on where the black was going to go.  After that I painted on Dahlia over the black paint using a nail art brush, and adding a tiny bit of black on top of the orange.  This looked much cooler in real life as in some of the black areas I went over them maybe twice.  Then in other areas I went over them around six times.  Not only did I have textures going on because I did more layers in some places more than others it gave it this really neat 3D look!  After I did that I decided to go over the orange with a sheer orange Orly polish(I don't remember the name right now and I can't find it on the bottle(mini)).  I wasn't really loving how shimmery the original orange looked under it.

Fact: Lava- Molten rock above the earths surface, expelled by volcano.  Magma- Molten rock below the earths surface!

Ummmmm...SCIENCE!

You want me to pay how much for glitter?

I'll pass.

First off let me say I have no problem getting high end polishes.  I have quite a few, and I love them all.  But when I get more expensive brands they have to have a little something more to them.  They need to give me a reason to want to pay that much for them.  Dior has these new limited edition sparkling powders available through their website and Nordstrom.  The pack contains a fixing base, as well as black and gold glitter.  It comes to a total of $48USD.  Now I love Dior.  One of my favourite polishes I own is Dior, but as pretty as this looks, I could not pay that much for what essentially clear polish and loose glitter.

I had a 1.5oz bottle of Martha Stewart glitter in Onyx.  A sparkling black glitter I had been sitting on for almost 2 years.  I think I paid $5 for it at the time.  Used my essence Black is Back and just dumped the glitter on top of the wet polish(over a piece of paper).  I used a nail art brush to easily get rid of the excess.  When I was done I carefully poured the glitter back in the jar.  And while application was messy(and I'm assuming more messy than the Dior one because you apply those with brushes), I was easy to clean up.  It was super pretty, especially in person.  It would be great for a fun, yet more classy night out.  The only thing I would do differently next time would be to put the glitter over a layer of topcoat.  In the end Ii may not be EXACTLY the same, but it's good enough for me!

You can get a bottle of the Martha Stewart glitter on Amazon, and I'm sure you can find it in any craft store that sells Martha Stewart craft products.

Any thoughts out there?

 Outdoors(cloudy)

CYBERNAILS!!! You shall like these nails!

It has been months since my last Doctor Who mani!  And as we all know, that is wrong.  For this round I decided to do some old school Cybermen, and an old school Cyber Controller.  Even though I haven't really been able to watch the older series :(  First off they were simple to do.  I used a base of Revlon Metallic, Essence Black is Back and acrylic paint, as well as striping tape for the mouth.  Another reason I went with these guys is because I think they look much more terrifying than the new versions.  Less going on with their faces actually makes them creepier.  They sort of remind me of medieval torture masks.

Now big question since we are talking Who.  What do you think of Peter Capaldi?  I am super excited!  I think he's wicked talented actor.  If you haven't you should check him out in the show The Thick of It.  It's a super funny show and he is fantastic in it.  He was also great in Doctor Who a few years ago ;)

So tell me, what do you think of the mani and Peter?!?!

 

I would like Peter to play the Doctor as Malcolm

Femme Fatale - Planar Anomalies: What are you?!?!?

First off let me start off my saying Happy Birthday Mum!!! Because it's her birthday, but I'm sure you deduced that when I said Happy Birthday Mum.  Of course I am making her dinner tonight, a fish dish with salmon, swordfish, and tuna!  Along with some other yummies!

Now onto the polish. Femme Fatale Planar Anomalies, is quite the anomaly.  On the website it says that this colour is almost impossible to photograph.  I though "Pffffftttttt bring it on, I will capture you one way or another".  It's safe to say my photos show you pieces of this polish but I wasn't able to show you all the pieces together.  I failed you. *Hangs head in shame*.

Planar Anomalies is another glitter polish.  It has a black base that is full of micro shimmer that shifts between green-pink.  It is also full of tiny, small and medium holographic glitter and tiny, small, medium, large and extra large black matter glitter.  Indoors the polish is very unassuming.  It's like one of those people you see and you think, "There's something about you... I don't know what it is.  You're interesting to look at and you're pretty, but I feel like there's something else to you".  Then you see it in the sunlight and you think "You sparkly majestic creature you!".  (That sounded like Twilight, but my review has a much better storyline).  When I took it out in the sun the shift between green and pink was really there.  There was actually a lot of green shimmer going on but for some reason I could not get it on camera as I saw it.  Also another thing that this pictures don't show you is just how holo it was,  it was going super crazy in the sun.  And the black glitter isn't obvious, but you can see it.  It's has this really neat subtle look to it.  I decided to use one coat over my Essence black.  It was easy to put on but could get a bit finicky if you started playing with it.

Overall I really love this.  It is super unique and again like Tricky Treats was super easy to use especially when you see all the glitter in it.

If you would like a bottle full size bottles are 12ml and you can find them online at Llarowe (USA), Harlow & Co (Canada),Shoppe Eclecticco & Beauty so Fly (Singapore), Ledouxnuage (France) and Norway Nails (Norway).  They are $13 USD but of course that price will vary slightly depending where you get them. And if you are in Australia you can order straight through them!

 Best shot I could get of the holo

 Natural light, indoors

 One coat without base colour

*Product was sent for honest review.

It's my party and I'll watch spend all day doing my nails and watching cartoons if I want to

I am 25 today! Not into it. Being an adult is not cool. So I've spent all day watching Samurai Jack and putting together a fabulous manicure.

2 Kleancolors for this look: Mystic Grass, stamped with Black. I added some striping tape and rhinestones for shazam. Super digging these!

The unicorn stamp is Winstonia W117 and the leopard is M57 from Born Pretty Store.

A rare thumb shot! My thumb cuticles are normally totally gross but they're not too bad lately. Enjoy!

Oh, happy birthday to Canada as well. I guess I can share.

Incoco Temptress and other things that are going on finger nail wise.

So today I have the last set of nail polish appliqués that I was sent to review from Incoco.  I decided that this time I didn't want to do a whole manicure with this.  And for the record I don't think I've ever done this before.  I find it hard to do multiple different nails and have it all be cohesive.   But I think I pulled it off!

Anyways Temptress is a black nail appliqué with random purple lines.  Normally I would find the appliqués that fit my nails best.  But this time since I wasn't doing a full mani I used the 2 largest sizes and cut them down to fit my nails.  Once that was done application was easy.  I finished off with China Glaze Angel Wings on my ring finger and H&M Plum on my pinky and thumb along with some studs from the Born Pretty Store.

Overall I really like Incoco's nail polish appliqués.  They are thin, flexible and you can stretch them without distortion.  I also really like the fact that they are nail polish, they aver very natural looking(as far as polish goes...if that makes sense).  And I love the idea of having a bunch of these and using them for things like vacations or accent nails. 

If you would like to get your hands on some of these head on over to Incoco's website.  They retail for $8.99USD each.

*Product sent for honest review

Incoco Nail Polish Appliqués in Wild Card: There is only one word to describe these. Majestic.

Sorry I haven't been on here in a while.  I've been really busy and on top of that my internet LOVES to cut out ever now and then.  Sometimes it likes to cut out and not come back on for a good 24 hours.  Imagine 24 hours Tumblr free.  It was the worst.

Anyways today I have the second pair of Incoco nail polish appliqués in Wild Card.  They are a majestic zebra print...or are they tiger?  Which one of those animals is green and gold glitter?  Either way it is green and gold glitter with black stripes.  Application this time around was much easier.  I didn't have any problems with lifting or not laying flat.  A couple of the fingers I did tear the edges when I was peeling them off the backing.  But that was my fault as I peeled them away too fast.

I love these!  They wore really well.  The last two photos were actually taken on day 5 of me wearing them!  I'm sure I could have gotten more wear out of them but 5 days is long for me.  And despite the fact that they are glitter there was barely any grit to them.  One coat of topcoat made it completely smooth.  Removal was kind of a pain but I didn't expect anything less from a glitter.   I ended up wearing them to an R. Kelly Trapped in the Closet Sing Along!(But I'll tell you about that another day :P)

I should add that these actually come with a piece of tape so you can seal the package back up again.  Last time I used these I accidentally dropped the tape.  When I eventually saw it on the floor I had no clue where it was from or what it was so I threw it out.

I'm excited to try my third set.  I'm glad I saved it for last because it's not a glitter or a shimmer.  With a glitter and a shimmer you can get away with little mistakes but they will probably be more visible with my last set.  Which is why I'm glad I think I now have the hang of it.

*Product sent for honest review.