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!

Sally Hansen Moonlit Dance: C'est L'Halloween!

Before I get started I thought I would share a Halloween tale.  Years ago starting from when I was around 6 to around 8 I remember in school, they would play this Halloween song for us that we would sing along to.  Over the years I have managed to forget all the lyrics.  Except for the chorus.  "C'est L'Halloween.  C'est L'Halloween.  Heh!  C'est L'Halloween.  C'est L'Halloween."  For a while I actually thought I was making this song up because that's all I could remember. Then I looked it up one of the first things that popped up was a Youtube lyrics video.  I don't think you understand how happy I was to find it.  I put it at the end of the post and I think everyone should check it out!

So this is the first polish this month that I wore in honor of the sacred holiday of Halloween.  It's like Christmas, but for Satan!  Nothing fancy, but it is orange.  A colour I normally don't wear, unless it's Halloween.

Moonlit Dance is actually an orange and gold shimmer.  Depending on how the light is hitting it you'll see more or less of the gold.  My only problem with this was that it needed 4 coats.  Not only that but drying time was blah.  I can forgive that though.  Because of the ultra shimmery finish, you never really notice any nicks.  I wasn't too fond of this colour at first, but the more I wore it the more I started falling for it.

Any one else know this song?

Ps. Giveaway winner and your answers will be posted tomorrow :)

The Monarch has many ways to sting!

I love cartoons. Especially inappropriate cartoons. The Venture Bros is a long-standing favourite. When season 5 was (FINALLY) announced, oh man, a handful of friends and I were pretty much barfing with excitement.

If you're not familiar with the show, here's a quick summary: it's a parody of Jonny Quest-style boy adventurer 60's cartoons, put in a present-day setting with heaps of modern cynicism. The plot revolves revolves around Hank and Dean Venture, teenaged sons of failed superscientist Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, who lives bitterly in the shadow of his own very successful father. Every superscientist worth his salt needs an arch-villain...enter THE MONARCH!

 Pictured here with his faithful and way-smarter companion Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. He's the best villain in the history of villainy. He's obsessed with butterflies, while demonstrating limited understanding of them. Go watch it. You will hurt yourself laughing.

 Colours used: Orly Liquid Vinyl, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Orly Androgynie. Acrylic paint for the butterfly, rhinestones for shazam.

 You can see some drag on the crown  :(

 This kind of looks horrible close up. But from a standard hand-to-face distance, it's good.

If you're not sold on this show yet, just watch this:

Any Venture fans in the house?

ALSO just to let you all know, I think my camera is about to die. I have no means to replace it, so unless I can get it repaired for cheap, I may not be around for a while. Going to try to make it last for a while longer but who knows!

Morse Code Nails!

These nails were a NIGHTMARE to do.  And if you think you know why they were a nightmare you are wrong.  It had nothing to do with the glitter by N.Nail which I got from KKCenterHk.

1) I did this manicure twice. I really wanted to used this glitter and do some Morse code.  Specifically Morse code tips.  But that didn't work out because the code was too long on my ring finger so I just replaced it with the actual letter.  I hand drew the dashes but they just turned out blah.  And to top it all off the black essence polish I used bubbled and then my top coat bubbled  So I just took it off.

2) Attempt number 2 I LOVE!  I think it looks fantastic!  I used OPI's Dating a Royal and it went on perfectly sans bubbles.  Also this time I did the codes vertically on my nails and they fit perfectly.  And to make sure my dashes were also perfect I taped it off and used Sally Hansen's Gilty Pleasure(I also used it in mani #1).  My problem was photographing it so I could show you it's beauty.  Glare city.  I must have taken maybe a few hundred photos.  That's also why my photos look more different than usual :P

That being said I love this glitter.  I got it in Jasmine Gold, because you can do a lot with gold, and I just really like this shade of gold.  It's not too yellow or orange.  The glitter is a tad on the bigger side of small at 2.5mm, but it applied easily.  And the pot it came in was quite large.  This will probably last me for a very long time.

One more thing:
_. = N
._ = A
.. = I
._.. = L
.. = S

 Attempt #1...*twitch twitch*

If you would like to grab a pot, head over here.  They retail for $8USD.  But you can use our coupon code 'varnishedvalkyrie' and get a 10% discount!

*product sent for honest review

The Art of Doing Nothing

So as you probably know I sort of like a group called Take That.  Or have I not mentioned that?  Oh yes I have.  If you didn't know this chances are you are new here.  But I'm also a fan of the stuff the members do on their own.  Case and point Mark Owen.

I decided to use some art work from his up coming album The Art of Doing Nothing.  Which is due for release on June 10th of this year.

 

I like how it's one of those manicures.  Where people may not understand what it means so they have to ask.  I like conversation starter manicures.   And it was really easy to do.  Who doesn't like a simple mani?  Horrible, soulless people, that's who.  Elizabeth Bathory would hate this.

Check out his first single Stars off of The Art of Doing Nothing. 



Also...

 

Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2 of my NCLA Nail Wrap review.

Neon Matte Madness!

Hi friends! I've been sick as balls for the last few days…which has meant Hannibal and nail art! Have you guys been watching that show? It's REALLY good. Mads Mikkelsen, get in my bed. You can bring Hugh Dancy too. *AHEM* Sorry, the cough syrup is getting to me.

For this design, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted something loud. Mission accomplished!

 Started with a yellow base, I then sponged randomly with blue, green and orange. Pink stripes in the remaining yellow patches. Then added black chunks. Then dots. I'm sure I could have kept going but it's probably good that I stopped there.

On my left middle finger, the topcoat caused some drag - which I thought looked really cool! The rest of my fingers had dried quite well, though, so this was only cool smudgey one.

I would normally never show you a picture of my thumb, because my thumb cuticles are always so gross. But this looks so rad.

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Essie Orange It's Obvious, Prevail Roof Top Bar, Personelle Emy, Art Deco Wild Fuchsia and Black, Warpaint Beauty Matte Topcoat.

These were going to be my Valentine's Day nails. Nails the boy will like (Somewhat mature content...don't worry no n0odz)

When it comes down to it I do my nails for me.  If people notice them that's great.  But in the end if they make me feel great that's perfect.

These nails were half for me and half for someone else.  The words on my nails(if you seek amy) are from a Britney Song by the same name.  It's also a double entendre(you see now why the nails aren't just for me?).

I actually wanted to do these around Valentines Day because I'm a class act.  And let be honest no one is really surprised I would do this?  Something fun and a bit cheeky :P

More about the actual nails now.  I started with a white base and the sponged on pink, blue and yellow.  Which when sponged over each other can create orange, purple and green.  Then I topped it off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.  I wrote the lyrics with a roller ball pen.  I know people have tried using sharpies(which I haven) and said they smear but I have yet to have this problem with roller ball pens.

Winner for our giveaway should be announced tomorrow!

I'm going to call this art.

So I have an appointment with those Mac Geniuses tonight and we'll see what going on with my laptop.  Until then I am relegated to taking iPhone photos, uploading them to tumblr, and then uploading them to photo bucket where I attempt to tag them.  Like some neanderthal.  Also the compute I'm using right now is so-so.  I gets the job done but as far as photo quality on this computer I can't actually tell if photos look good or not.

If they decided to keep my laptop hostage I will still try and post.  But unless it is a proper review for something that was sent to us I won't be taking photos with a real camera.

Well yesterday I really wanted to do some nail art but I had no clue what I wanted to do(as usual).  My brain immediately was drawn to these colours(I would name them but all the bottle are in another room and I don't have it in me to get them atm).  In the end I ended up blobbing them together.  My only problem was it bubbled a bit but it's not that noticeable so I'm not going to complain.

Easy nail art.  My favourite!

Born Pretty Stamping Plate...and Rhinestones!

Hello friends! It has been a while. While I love the changing weather, unfortunately, it does a number on my cuticles. But I'm back in action to show you a wonderful stamping plate from Born Pretty Store.

The plate may look a bit scratched - most of that is just acetone streaking. It arrived in very good condition. I started this manicure with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Gilty Pleasure and stamped with Kleancolor Black (5).

This was the design that really caught my eye on this plate.

Feathers...sorry about the bubbling. Clearly not the plate's fault.

I find the designs on this plate lend themselves very well to rhinestones. As a glamourous bitch, I do love me some bling. There are also a lot of creative possibilities here for loose glitter, microbeads, gold leaf...anything! As you can see, the images are quite crisp - very impressive for a $3 plate! Some of the smaller circles don't stamp fully, but it looks like hits of sparkle.

If you love nail art like we do, be sure to head to Born Pretty Store and use our coupon code!

*Products sent for honest review.

Why yes, my nails do have a healthy uranium glow!: Introducing my Wiki Series.

First don't forget our giveaway!  Only a few hours left!!!

So the past couple of weeks I have been busy so I haven't really had time to make my nails pretty for you guys.  Not only that but as far as nail art goes I've just been feeling a tad uninspired.  I do have some manicures planned but I'm saving them for specific days.

While looking for inspiration, I remembered something.  A friend who I do sketch with said that he always carry's an encyclopedia around.  If he doesn't know what to write about he just turns to a random page and writes about whatever he sees first.  Now I didn't have a encyclopedia(The children's one I have does not count).  But I have Wikipedia.  So I decided to see if Wikipedia could help me get inspired.  And it's easy because they have an option where you can choose a random article!

Now I made up a few rules/cheats:
1) If I don't like the first article or I just want to see if I can find something that inspired me more I can select a max of 3 articles.  Once 3 are chosen I must choose one.
2) Things that are inappropriate I can disregard and they are not counted as one of my possible 3 articles. (War, murder etc.)
3) I can disregard things that aren't articles. (If the word has different meaning or it's people with the same name it will sometimes send you to a page that gives you options for different articles that have the same title).  Not counted in possible 3 choices.
4) Vague articles can be disregarded.  I had an article pop up that was a sentence saying it was a patch of land somewhere.  Depending on article I can choose to disregard it.

So what was my first random article? *Drumroll*

92!

Yup the number 92.  I looked over the article and saw that it was the atomic number of uranium.  Huzzah inspiration!  I have Sally Hansen's Ivy League and it reminded me so much of glowing uranium, I knew I had to use it somehow.  So I ended up doing these toxic nails!  I used that, BK polish in number 19 from the Born Pretty store and acrylic paint and OPI's black shatter(didn't think I would be using that anytime soon).

I can't want do another wiki article inspired manicure!

Holographic Purple Rectangles: A post inspired by art. All of it.

So despite our incredibly slow response time to their emails the very kind people over at KKCenterHk still were nice enough to send us something to review.  I ended up choosing the Laser Purple Rectangle Studs.  1)Because they looked cool and 2)Laser purple.  You have to get it if the word laser comes before the colour. Common knowledge.

These are purple, holographic, 5mmx3mm studs.  For some reason in my head I thought they would be bigger.  But I was actually happy they were smaller.  They xome with around 50 studs per package.

I knew I wanted the design to be simple, and let the studs do the talking.  So I was inspired by all that geometric art I've been seeing lately.  I painted my nails first with Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, then I taped of the corner of each nail and pained it with Sephora by OPI's Just a Little Dangerous.  Finally on the corner of those squares I places the studs.  And topped it of with topcoat(which I was worried would kill the holo, but it didn't.)

I really love the look.  For me at least it works well for valentines day without being sappy.  But still girly.  Well as "girly" as I get.  My actual Valentines Dan manicure will be interesting.  Trust me.

Anyways, if you haven't already you should totally check out KKCenterHk's website. They pretty much have all things you could think of if you love the nail art!  And you can use our 10% discount code 'varnishedvalkyrie'.  Woot.

Product was sent for honest review

Blue Valentine

I'm hardly the romantic type, so this is probably as mushy as things are gonna get from me.

Here's my V-Day mani - no goofy pink hearts here. I used Bundle Monster plates BM08-09 and this simple decal tutorial from Layniefingers.

Base: China Glaze Stone Cold
Glitters: Kozmic Colours HD Sparkle, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Tender Teal (thumb only, under crackle)
Crackle: Maybelline Colour Show Shredded Purple Possibilities (thumb only)
Stamping: Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Silver Sweep
Decals: China Glaze Hanging in the Balance
Topped with Warpaint Beauty Mattify
Scrapbook punch from Dollarama, ooh yeah

Sally Hanson Kwik Off: This has to be some sort of nail polish removal record right?

My mother gave this to me the other day.  Originally I wasn't too keen on using it because it said it was for removal of fake nails aka this here be full of the chemicals.  But the other night I ran out of remover that wasn't pure acetone so I used this.

I had been wearing Milani Dude Blue, which is just a bright blue cream.  I stuffed all five finger in and twisted them around (now where have I heard that before?)  Within maybe 15 second one hand was done.  And another 15 seconds for the second hand.

I decided I wanted to actually try this again and record my results.  So I used Butter London Two Fingered Salute.  I figured while it does have shimmer in it it would be slightly harder to remove than say a cream polish but not as hard as a pure glitter.  I did the same thing as I did with the DB.  In total it took 55 seconds to remove both hands...polish from both hands.  I would sue if it took my hands.

Overall I really liked this.  It was a tad harsher than normal polish remover but less harsh than acetone.  And it kind of left my hands feeling sticky after *giggles* but it got the polish off fast.  I will probably use it for polishes like Two Fingered Salute. Not hard to remove polish or polish that you can practically wash off with soap.

You should note that the remover in container is black. That's because I has used it a few times by the time I took the photo.  This does not affect the way it works.  Also the container is about 2 knuckles deep...*sigh* The jokes practically write themselves.

Have you tried this product or anything like it before?

 

 Lol 5:25am.  Don't worry it was a Friday night.

Nails right after removal.  This took about 25 seconds.  IGNORE the yellow nails.

Rudolph Nails! + It's George's Birthday!

I actually wasn't going to post today because I assumed George would.  But it's after 10pm and I know she's working.  So I doubt she'll post tonight.

Anyways you should all wish her a Happy Birthday!

Speaking of birthdays these nails are actually almost a year old.  I did them last Christmas.  And I just never posted them till now.  I used mostly Lippmann's Razzle Dazzle, as well as Sally Hansen's Gilty Pleasures, Essie's Fishnet Stockings, OPI's Over The Taupe and Suzi Loves Cowboys.  I assume I used OPI's Black Onyx for the eyes.  I'm not sure what the white or the pink is.

And just an FYI the tips aren't tip wear.  It's shrinkage.  The Lippmann's I have NEED to be wrapped around the tips.  This photo was taken not long after I did the manicure.

Find out our giveaway winner tomorrow!

Ripping Out My Wisdom One Tooth At A Time

So I'm getting all four of my wisdom teeth pulled today!  Huzzah!  While I'm not looking forward to the next few days I'm excited because, if it means no more constant pain I'm all in!

Anyways I couldn't decided what I wanted to do so both my hands are worlds apart (and I don't care). 

I guess my right hand is Halloween/teeth themed.  Each finger was originally going to be a bloody mouth.  But after I did the splatter I decided to leave it as it is.  They still kinda look like individual bloody teeth right?  It also doubles as general murder blood splatter. Double duty nails!  Also after I did the blood splatter (which as you guessed is a tad messy) I looked at my thumb and there was a smiley face on it.  Cool, or creepy?

 

Next up on my left hand I have my Take That nails.  Each nail represents a different song in some shape or form(Lyrics, music videos, tours). The songs are (T-P) Fun Times, Blurred Vision, Crossing, Innuendo, Higher Than Me. I really liked this mani so I had to post three photos of it.  Well that's sort of a lie.  I think the nails are ok.  The reason I posted it three times was for the surprise giveaway so you can see some of the nails better.  First off all the song titles I listed aren't real. I made them up.  If someone can tell me the real songs in the comment section you'll get your choice of any polish off ninja polish dot com. This is open internationally for the most part.  You know minus places that have rules against shipping polish.  Finally it closes at eleven fifty nine eastern standard time on Thursday night.

So I'll see you guys in a couple days!  Wish me luck!