Our Super Awesome, Somewhat Nautical, Mostly Nail Art Stuff Giveaway - Sponsored by KKCenterHk!!!

So the lovely people at KKCenterHk were kind enough to sponsor this giveaway!  Everything that you see was chosen by us.  Also we don't have an essay this time!  Yay!

 

 Check out the editing skills!

Now let put our serious faces on and read the rules.

1) International (unless you live in a weird place that has weird laws when it comes to shipping stuff...here's looking at you Italy).
2) You must do ALL 3 of the mandatory entries.  Not doing so will result in all your entries being disqualified.
3) Don't cheat.  Lying is never in season.
4) Winner must respond within 24 hours, or new winner will be chosen.
5) Ends October 4th at 12am.
6) Don't let some of the questions scare you off.  So long as it's not something that involves your info(Like email or username), there are no wrong answers :P

At this point you probably are wondering "What exactly are the prizes?"  Actually let's be honest.  You probably scrolled right past everything and looked at the prize list first.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  But if you did read all the rules and stuff first let me now show you exactly what you could win!

1) Ebalay Golden Iridescent Polish (Swatch)
2) Black, curly moustache nail art decoration (5pcs)
3) Black and gold fluffy leopard stickers
4) Sailing water decals x2
5) 2mm, silver, circular studs
6) 15 piece nail art brush set
7) Striping tape in silver, gold, black, laser dark violet, and laser blue

Click on the links if you would like to know more details on each products!

And you know what?  If you don't win hope is not lost.  You can still use our new KKCenterHk 15% off coupon code: varnishedvalkyrieevent15off.  Valid from now till March 11th 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm just running in circles...

So as you guys know, The Born Pretty Store sent us some lovely things to review recently, and today I'm showing you my pick!

I got the 1.5mm silver circle studs, and I am SO pleased with them.  They were easy to use, they stuck well and don't fall off easily, and look really, really nice on.  I wore these to work at my yoga studio and had about 20 people ask where I got them done.  I've had them on for two days now and they're showing no signs of falling off.  They also don't catch when I have my hands in my long hair, which - to me at least - is pretty freaking great.

I decided to put them over a dark purple base because I wanted a colour that worked with my skin and still let the studs show, so here are these awesome studs over two coats of NARS Koh Lanta.

Do you guys love this easy nail art as much as I do? I'm already planning to wear them again.  These are just so nice and fun.  You can pick them up from Born Pretty Store, you get a lot of them so it's well worth it.  

Remember to use our discount code EAL91 for a 10% discount.  Not only that but shipping is always free!

*Product was sent for honest review

Re-Swatch: Polish Revolution Vajazzle

So after wearing Lilac Dream for a few days(despite the crap formula, it wore like IRON!), I decided to  update the mani with one of my favourite glitters - Polish Revolution Vajazzle.

Vajazzle is a great mix of warm and cool toned glitter in different shapes, sizes, and colours.  It's really fun, a total party in a bottle, and it goes really well with different base colours!

This is ONE COAT over Model's Own Lilac Dream.  Formula was great and glitter applied easily.

Model's Own Lilac Dream... Y U HAVE SUCH BAD FORMULA

Have you ever bought a polish in a colour that you loved and then tried to put it on only to find the formula to be so absolutely horrible that you almost stopped halfway through application?

Yeah, me too.

So I got my first Model's Own polishes from Ninja Polish recently, and I had heard good things about the brand and was excited to try it.  I decided to go for Lilac Dream first as I was going out with a friend who loves pink and purple and thought she'd appreciate it.

Well... If thinner doesn't help this one, she won't be coming out to play again.  This formula was an all around MESS.  Thick and goopy as hell, stringy, and there was no levelling in sight.  I am AMAZED it looked even remotely okay after top coat and drying, because this was just a hot mess.  I have never used a polish with a worse formula.  I haven't tried my two other polishes from the brand yet out of fear they'll be anything like this.  I hope I just got a bad bottle :(

(Don't get too used to my long nails! I chopped them down again, but not TOO short!)

Halo-Graphic... Plus Blaze?

So in my last post I showed you Zoya Blaze, a gorgeous raspberry polish, and in the post before that I showed you some of the Color Club Halo Hues - Today I'm showing you a little of both.

I don't have a vast amount of time to do fun nail art as much as I'd like to, simply due to my work schedule, so what's a girl to do with a day off??  Fun mani time!

So first I'm going to show you Color Club Halo-Graphic alone.  Like the other Halo Hues, I found this to be a great polish with great coverage and a good formula.  No dragging, no dulling, no bald spots, YAY!

Isn't she pretty???  I am kind of in love.

So, once Blaze started getting tip wear that was BEYOND not okay, I decided to try a fun and easy tape mani with Halo-Graphic, just to kind of upgrade my mani.  I love love LOVE how this came out and I will totally be doing this again, it was so much fun!

BTW, these photos were taken on DAY FOUR of wear for the complete manicure.  FOUR DAYS OF A HOLO WITH ONLY TIP WEAR?  What is this insanity?  Colour me impressed.

Zoya Blaze - My Dilemma

Now you guys know all about my love/hate relationship with Zoya.  They make awesome colours, they apply well, but they don't tend to wear well on me.  I end up with tip wear or chipping SO MUCH FASTER than with most other brands.

But the pretty colours....

So Blaze, from their 2012 holiday collection, wasn't really on my radar.  It was pretty, but nothing I was going to pay $10 for.  In fact, I felt that way about the whole collection.  And then I found a few of them in a hair salon's bargain bin(Seriously, this salon sometimes has the BEST STUFF in that bin!), priced at $2 a polish.  And being that I have no self-control... They came home with me.

So Blaze is a raspberry polish(some say red, some say pink.. I say it's in between the two) with a scattered holo effect that makes it look really beautiful and deep in the right lights.  It was really flattering on my skin tone and really pretty without being over-the-top.

I have on three coats, though you could get away with two.  This picture was taken about.. 8 hours into wearing it? And there's already tip wear happening.  I'm not so nuts about that.  That shouldn't be a thing.  Come on, Zoya.

Did you guys pick up any of the Zoya Holiday 2012 polishes?

Two more Halo Hues for you!

Kas already got the ball rolling with these polishes, so I figured I'd share a couple more with you today!

Now you all know I like a nice, crazy holo.  The more obnoxious, the better.  There's just something about waving my fingers around and seeing pretty, pretty rainbows that makes me a very happy lady, so the Halo Hues collections have been absolutely impossible for me to resist.

I have all of the first Halo Hues polishes and four of the six newest ones(THANK YOU WINNERS GIFT CARD!) and I am so pleased with them.  I can't wait to wear these all summer long!

First up: Here's Cherubic, a tan holo that covered in two coats.  Great formula, no complaints at all.  Since holos have a reputation for being dulled by topcoat, I decided to swatch these with topcoat only on my ring finger.  I noticed absolutely no dulling, so I will be wearing these with topcoat.

These photos are in normal outdoor sunlight, last photo is just plain indoors.

Next is Angel Kiss, a seafoam blue-green holo that also covered in two coats.  As before, no formula issues and no holo dullness from the topcoat! This was probably my favourite of the first Halo Hues collection, just really fun and bright.

Are you guys loving the Halo Hues too?

Two Illamasqua Rubber Brights!

So it's obviously no secret that I adore Illamasqua.  They are easily one of my favourite brands, so I love when they release something new and interesting.  I loved Kink, the first of their rubber finish polishes I owned, and so when they came out with more colours I used my birthday money to snap up the ones that interested me.

So today I have Nurture and Serenity, two gorgeous shades of green and blue respectively.  I love these so much.  You'll have to forgive the slight lobster hands, I promise it wasn't nearly as apparently IRL, but I had been baking and I guess I was quite hot.

First up is Serenity, which is bright, very bright, blue.  It's almost like the brightest sky of the summer kind of blue.  It was so lovely on and I can see it beint a great nail art base.  This is two easy coats, dry time was longer than normal but not enough that it would bother me.

I thought I took a glossy shot of this but I don't think I did, haha.

Next is Nurture, which is a bright green colour.  This is my favourite of the ones I bought.  I love green.  You may remember the neon green walls of my former bedroom from old swatches... Well, this is pretty close!  Like before, this is two easy coats. 

Did you guys pick up any Illamasqua rubber brights??

Review: Purple Glitter polish from Born Pretty

So I've had this for about a week and unfortunately due to working somewhere in the region of 50hours a week and then also having my family's modem poop itself I haven't been able to post.  BOO HISS, I   have been very bad :(

But, but but but, this is a pretty fun one so I assume you will forgive me.

It's a purple glitter and it's No. 14 on the Born Pretty Store website.  It's several different sizes(3-4 I'd say!) in a clear base, and just a warning, this one has a very strong scent.  I just opened a window so it didn't bug me much, but it's worth noting!  I decided to show it to you over a single coat of Color Club French Tip because I wanted you to be able to really see the glitters nicely.

I really like this one, unsurprisingly.  It applied really well and, with a coat of SV, dried quickly.  There was some reflective curling in the bottle, but not on the nail, these glitters sit nicely and don't curl or poke.  I barely had to dab or place, they went on very smoothly.  I can see myself pulling this out for some fun glitter layering in the future, it's a really easy polish to work with.

Overall I'm really pleased with this!  Fans of chunky glitter would definitely enjoy this one.
Don't forget to use out discount code (EAL91) and get 10% off your entire purchase!

Loudest ColoUr indeed...

So a while ago I showed you one of my first polishes by Sation, over this one.  Loudest Color(oh how I wish people would learn to spell properly.. COLOUR :P) is a fabulous neon with a texture that's almost jelly-like.  It's somewhere between neon green and neon yellow, definitely leaning green.

Now, I know neons aren't everyone's thing.  For the life of me I cannot understand why, but that's another conversation for another day.  They just give me a case of the cheerfuls!  How can you not feel happy looking at bright and peppy neon colours???

But anyway, onto the actual polish:  Application was good, a little thick, but in general nothing that a little extra care couldn't fix.  I used two coats for these swatches, and it looked more opaque IRL.  It's also a little greener in person and a WHOLE LOT more retina-searingly bright.  As you can see from the last photo, this polish is kind of a chameleon.  I love it <3

Natural light, no flash.

I need a hero... I'm holding out for a hero til the end of the night...

He's gotta be strong.. He's gotta be fast.. And he's gotta be fresh from the fight..

Okay.  Enough Footloose lyrics, I'm sorry.  First Almost Paradise and now this.  That was gross of me.  I'll be sure to punish myself suitably.  Suggestions welcome.

But in the meantime... I know we all covet GOSH Holographic.  I know I do.  Something about those sexy rainbows just gets me every time.  But I am realistic in the knowledge that it will never be mine.  Instead, I got GOSH Holographic Hero to satisfy my needs.

I have only the tiniest gripe: Holos don't wear well.  This, we know.  But "One Night Wear" right on the bottle??? REALLY, GOSH?  Did you need to just state outright, "This has shitty wear so don't expect more than a night out of it"?  I am just... I can't with you.  I get that it's kind of a marketing thing, but... Stahp.

But that aside... This polish is pretty lovely.  It's a holo for people who don't want the IN YOUR FACE but still want pretty rainbows.  I found the application to be exactly what I expected: A little patchy on the first coat, but nothing that being careful couldn't fix.  This is one coat, a coat of top coat, and another coat of HH.

Overall, I'm pleased with it.  I'm still more of a fan of the stronger holo look, but this is definitely more wearable for most people, I would think.

Natural light, no flash.

Indoor lighting, flash.

Ditto.

What do you guys think?  Are you more of a strong holo person, or is this right up your alley?