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?

Butter London Two Fingered Salute: Finally the PERFECT opportunity to use this gif!

So today I have the gorgeous polish for you!  I'm sad that I only wore it for just over a day :(  Don't worry, it had nothing to do with wear time.  It's just that I may be going out tonight and it wouldn't go with my outfit.  And by outfit I mean shorts and a bright pink, shimmery, snake skin patterned bandeau.   I will look smashing and be as classy as a 1947 Château Cheval Blanc that has been opened.

Two Fingered Salute is a dusty seafoam green, filled with coppery pink micro shimmer.  This polish was good for the most part in 2 coats.  Although a 3rd was need on 2 fingers.  I found it didn't self level perfectly but it wasn't so much so that the top couldn't fix it.

Fun fact:  I painted the boys nails with this.  It worked really well with his skin tone.

 

 

WINNER!!! + Your Answers (Why have you answer all those questions if we're not going to share any of them?)

Yay! Congrats to Penny!  See doing the essay question paid off! She has been contacted.  And has 24 hours to respond  to our email which was sent a few hours ago And she has responded.  No Chanel Peridot why wont the winners get back to us incident this time!  Congrats to everyone who participated!  If you didn't win it's all good.  Because guess who is celebrating their 1 year blogiversary next month?

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And now just for fun let's see some of your answers since you never really get to see them.

Favourite Baked Good
Because I can I added some recipes!
"My homemade biscotti :D"
"Passionfruit center muffins. oh. my gosh."
"Raspberry Cheesecake COOKIES!"
"Pastel de Nata! Google it if you don't know!" Give me pastries any day!
"My mom's chocolate chip cookies" Are they chewy?!?!?!
"Pink lemonade cupcakes"
"I have no idea what the name is in English or if it even exist outside Sweden. Budapest Cake"
"toffee blondie. is mouthgasm." I'm all for mouthgasms.  Especially multiple mouthgasms.
"creme brûlée, they bake that shit right?" Gurl, you bake and blowtorch that shit.
"vegan pumpkin cinnamon bread" Vegan food is amazing when done properly!  You should all try it!
"Oh god... ALL THE BAKED GOODS! Ok. If I have to choose. A really perfect croissant. It's the ideal pastry, and a perfect vehicle for numerous other tasties (chocolate, jam, bacons and eggs, cheese). Also perfectly good in it's own right. What were we talking about again? "  I feel like you would be someone who also like Crêpes. DO YOU?
"Lasagna" It's baked, and it's good.  You can't argue that.

Best Animal (Can be mythological)
Phoenixs, unicorns and mermaids were the big ones!
"box jellyfish" Fact: They make the best pets.
"Red Pandas. seriously. not sure if you read all of these, but look at this gif. do it.
This is the gif that was attatched:

"DINOSAURSSSSSSSSSS"
"I don't discriminate. I love all animals"
"magical flying rainbow unicorns :)" Not a just any unicorn.
"The stegosaurus is the most noble of all creatures." I agree.
"cats, dragons"
"direwolf"  The Game of Thrones fangirl in me got all excited!
"Lavender colored unicorns"  We can't all like Rainbow unicorns.
"my hubby (lol)"

Favourite member of Take That
Only one Mark Owen.  Jason and Howard had more.
"Gary Barlow he is the hottest one of the group!!! "
"I had no idea what Take That was until just now... Um... No comment? Feel free to invalidate this entry if you want LOL" At least you know now.
"uuuhh...Wiki informed me that Robbie Williams is a member and I have at least HEARD of him, so yeah. Robbie Williams." Props for looking them up.
"Jason Orange, because I like his name" I like his torso. 
"who is take that? lol" You must be new here :P
"Helena"...
"back for good" That's my favourite member too.  Also my favourite member of queen is Don't Stop Me Now. :P
"None... :-S"  Get out.  I'm just kidding :D
"Jared Leto <3" I see what you did there.
"i don't even know who that is. am i old, now?" You might just be too young.
"What's a Take That? <3" Mythical creature. 

Study Sheet(Because this will be on the test next time)
Mark Owen:

Howard Donald:

Jason Orange:

Gary Barlow OBE/Space Cadet Extraordinaire:

Robbie Williams:

Favourite Shakespeare Play
It was mainly Romeo and Juliet,  A Midsummers Night's dream, Hamlet and Macbeth.
"Hmm Othello was pretty scandalous!"
"Midsummer Night's Dream. without a doubt! I don't find Romeo and Juliet very romantic at all :/"
"I'm sad to say Romeo and Juliet is the only one I've actually read..."
""Hamlet... the Musical" (1988). Epic hilarity."
"The Tempest, because I got to see it performed in The Globe Theatre in London when I was 15, it will always hold a special place in my heart"
"Merchant of Venice (I adore Shylock's speech Act III Scene I)"
"Much Ado About Nothing! (It's even funnier when you find out that "nothing" was slang for vagina!)"
"I was going to say Beowulf...but I don't think that's Shakespeare. I will be unoriginal and say Romeo and Juliet..."
I didn't comment on this because I don't know Shakespeare very well.

Favourite Doctor (Doctor Who?)
Every doctor got at least one vote minus William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Paul McGann.
"Lololol My mum actually loves Doctor Who but I've never really watched it. " WATCH IT!
"I've never watched the show but David Tennant is so adorable to me."  That's a good enough answer for me!
"I have a general love for all things Dr. Who since that's how my dad and I bonded, so I'm going to have to go with Dr. #4 (Tom). Those are the earliest episodes I remember watching with my dad. Which reminds me, I need to search for the latest complete season for my dad's Christmas present...." Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
"Dr Oz" No.
"Rory Williams" He is not the doctor despite the fact that he liked to die and come back.
"I've actually never watched it, maybe I should.." You should... GO!
"John Pertwee (showing my age!)"  More like showing your amazingness.

Butter London Fishwife.

Ohhh, my lovely long nails in these photos.  How I miss them.  NOSTALGIA.  My mother said they were getting "Scary".  What does she know?

I just cut off my long nails in preparation for my family's upcoming 6-week trip to South Africa.  I knew that in the course of packing and flying and things I would likely break a few, so it's Nail Envy time for me until we return on January 26!  Luckily I swatched a couple of things before the chop, so here's one!

Butter London Fishwife came in a duo with Posh Bird, which I showed you last week.  Fishwife is a pale seafoam coloured polish that's somewhere between a scattered and linear holo.  These photos REALLY don't do justice to how amazing it is.  The thing I love most is how, unlike a lot of holos, this one looks every bit as amazing in the shade.  I am so in love with this.  My fingers also didn't look so red in person, I think this colour just photographs weirdly with my skin.

This is two medium coats with Butter London Hardwear.  I would do three very thin coats next time, though.

★Christmas Giveaway★

*Throws snow at all of your faces*
*Apologises for getting a chunk of ice in your eye*

Christmas is almost here!  And do you guys know what that means? Cookies, booze and GIVEAWAY TIME!  And on top of that this is our (almost) 200th POST!  We were actually going to have 2 different prizes but due to complications we only have one.  But that just means we'll probably have to have another giveaway early in the new year!

One person will win 3 Butter London Polishes!  Wallis, West End Wonderland and Pillar Box Red!

(because proof that things like this are new and still factory sealed is nice)

Here are the rules:
1) This giveaway is international BUT if you live somewhere where shipping polish is a problem please DO NOT ENTER.
2) Don't cheat.  All your entries will be deleted.  And we do check everything carefully.
3) This giveaway will end in approximately 2 weeks.  We will announce the winner on December 11th.  You will have 24 hours to respond. 

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With this Butter London polish on, I feel like a pretty Posh Bird.

So I recently got a tax return.  A big tax return.  And a little promotion at work.  So I let myself spend some money on evilbay.  Not a lot, but enough to treat myself to some new pretties.  I'm pretty good at getting great deals, and I picked up this baby along with another new BL, that you'll see soon, for less than $10 each including shipping.  I also picked up Slapper, a sexy teal which is currently on my toes, for about $12 including shipping.  But enough bragging about my eBay sniping skills...  Onto the polish!

Posh Bird is exactly the kind of colour I usually hate.  It's that Chanel Paradoxal-ish(UGLIEST COLOUR IN THE WORLD) purple-y grey, but this is more purple and less weird and awful.  It has an amazing silver shimmer that brings it to life, and it's nice and neutral so it'll flatter a variety of skin tones.  I don't know why I love this but I do.  The first swatch I saw, I knew she would be mine, and she's even better in person.  This is probably the classiest polish I own.  I think I'll be reaching for this baby a lot when I have fancy places to go.  It's so gorgeous.  I die.

On another note... I hate swatching Butter London because the bottles are hard to hold nicely.  But the formula was absolutely to die for, so that made up for it.

This is two thinner coats with Butter London hardwear topcoat.

How many coats of polish do you think this took???

5?  10?  15?  30?  If you guess those you were wrong.  Actually if you guessed anything that wasn't 53 you were wrong.  Yes that is 53 coats of polish (and would the base coat sort of count as 54?)

I was seriously bored, schoolwork was done, it was too late to go out and start anything so I had nothing better to do with my time than to do this.  To be honest I had actually thought of trying this before.  Just layering as much polish as I could just for the heck of it.

 

What I'm trying to say is if you have a dream.  Just go for it.

                                     

Most useful post ever.  You're welcome.

Don't worry real posts coming soon.

ETA:  This took over 2 hours to do and I actually stopped because the polish started to make me feel ill.  I had it on for just over 3 hours and it was super easy to remove because it NEVER dried.  I used a tissue to take most of it off.  And there's everything from creams to full on chunky glitters in there.

Urban Outfitters Forest + Butter London Wallis

Ever had one of those days where you do your nails, look at them and think... "No"?  I had one today and (while I have tons of swatches to show for it) it was still frustrating.  I did 7 full manicures before I had a winner. Urban Outfitters Forest and Butter London's Wallis.

Honestly the only reason I got Forest was a)It reminded me of Wallis (which I *heart*) and b)It was super cheap.  Forest went on with no trouble at all in 2 easy coats.  Like Wallis it's an olive gold.  The main difference is Forest has really, really, really fine shimmer, where Wallis one ups it by packing itself which a whole crazy load of gold and green shimmer.  Wallis is like the pretty older sister who will go on to win an Oscar.  But don't worry Forest is great in her own way.  She's the younger sister who's ok looking and finds the cure for AIDS.

I'm glad I have forest.  All I need are 2 coats of her and one of Wallis and I'm good to go.  I like knowing that I can now use Wallis more often.

Forest

Forest

Wallis over Forest

Sally Haul and BUTTER london Wallis swatches.

Hey everyone!  Sorry for my absence after my intro post, but I work two jobs, one full-time and another part-time, so I have very few opportunities to pause and take photos!  But now I have a day off on sunday and we will be SWATCHING IT UP.

Now, I am so excited to be able to show you these next photos!  I LOVE the Hunger Games novels, so when China Glaze announced the Hunger Games collection, I knew I had to have them.  I bought 6(7 if you count my Electrify backup!) and I love them all and can't wait to swatch them this weekend.

I also got two of the China Glaze Magnetix polishes(and the magnets were FREE at Sally!  SCORE!) so I'll have those for you too in the near future.  I think I'm going to get a third of these.

On top:  Electrify x2.  STUNNING.

L-R: Riveting, Luxe and Lush, Stone Cold, Dress Me Up, Smoke and Ashes. 

Magnets on top.

Pull Me Close and Instant Chemistry.  I think I might get the green as well.

And after the jump:  QUICK AND (not too) DIRTY SWATCHES OF BUTTER LONDON'S WALLIS.

Richard Chai Inspired Nails

It's times like these where I wish I had a super amazing camera.  This looks MUCH better in person.  Like the blue is less bright and the shimmer is less pronounced.  I almost wasn't going to post it but what the hell.

My inspiration for this was an outfit from Richard Chai's 2012 fall/winter collection.

I used Sephora by OPI's Break a Leg Warmer,  OPI's Miami Beet, Butter London Big Smoke, Ruby Kisses Steel Magnolia and paint.