My first gradient that I've liked liked :D

So I guess I should start with a story, because I have one.  So I spent this weekend in bed in pain.  If you read my last post you may have noticed I said I may have had a case of beard burn.  Turns out that wasn't the only injury that night ;)  But seriously though, my back was aching all of Friday, then I woke up on Saturday with lower back pain.  Not only that but if I moved too far forward or sat or stood up straight the pain would just explode.  It's safe to say the heating pad was my best friend for a few days.  But not to worry, I'm all better not for the most part, just a achy still.  Just glad I didn't need medical attention.  Lesson learnt, play safely :P

On to the nails!

These nails are my attempt of recreating Sammy from The Nailasaurus's Black and White Gradient.  Where she did a black and white gradient and then topped it with black and white glitter.  I used acrylic paints over a coat of white and topped it with Cover Band Sticks n' Stones.  In Sammy's original post Sammy points out how there is a lot going on.  Originally when I started doing this I was going to add onto it because I thought there wasn't enough.  Then the minute I put it on I looked at it and thought "That's enough".  There IS a lot going on, but in a good way.  I feared it I added anything else it would just be too much.

So what do you think of my gradient?  And have you even injured your back?  Doesn't it suck?

 Before glitter and topcoat

Steampunk

Hi friends. I had some time to while away this afternoon, so I glued things to my nails. Here's a steampunk look using things from my craft drawer. Today you will learn a little bit about beading and jewellery supplies.

 

 My base is Revlon Hot For Chocolate.

 

The long metal thingy with the holes in it is a divider. They're great for helping multiple strands of beads stick together in a straight line. These can be purchased for cheap at your local bead store.

This triangular thingy is a connector. You can do pretty much anything with it. I have no idea where the gear thingies came from, or why I have them.

I hope this post was informative.

Epicare review: What is this feeling so sudden and new?

So I was contacted by Nail Polish Canada a few weeks ago and asked if I would review this.  I had actually looked up info about this(or something similar to this) years ago, but never followed up with my looking into it.  I ended up forgetting this product even existed, so it was actually a pleasant surprise when they asked me to review this.

Now at this point you may be asking yourself "Wait, what is this?"  Its a do-it-yourself manual threading device.  Now if you are me you are probably asking yourself "What is threading?"  After figuring that out I was ready to roll.

I used it on my upper lip.  I'm not the marvelous mustached woman, but there is a bit more hair there then the rest of my face.  So the concept is simple, bend and roll each end.  Like this:

Here were my initial thoughts:

1. Nothing is happening.
2. Oh, there it goes!
3. Owwwwwwwwwwwwww.
4. Now I'm getting the hang of it!
5. Ow.

I can honestly say it hurt but once I got the hang of it it hurt a lot less.  That being said it did work in effectively removing the hair.  I also ran it along my jaw line, because it said it could remove fine short hair, so very fine peach fuzz would be a perfect test.  Let me just say, you never really know how much hair is on your body till you pull it out.  It for sure works on even the finest hair.

Here's where things get iffy.

On day one when I tried out the Epicare, it was all great.  Day two, nothing to report.  Then there day two(night) and day three(early morning).  So late on the second night I started kind of touching my upper lip.  It just felt weird.  At around 2 in the morning I felt it, and I could feel tiny bumps, and it felt like my lip was on fire.  Upon closer inspection I could see tiny pimples forming.  By day three in the afternoon, it was still burning but only when touched and the pimples were still there.  Now here is the thing,  I don't know if whatever happened happened because of the Epicare alone or because it had made my lip more sensitive to other things.  Other potential culprits from that night are:

• Beard burn
• Spicy chicken wings(normally very spicy food will cause around my lips to burn).
• A combination of making out with le bearded fellow, after both eating spicy wings aka a really good night.

I'm thinking that the Epicare may have irritated my skin a bit to begin with, and then with all these other factors just aggravated it some more.  But even with all that I am willing to give it another go, and maybe this time lay off the wings and tongue battles....maybe.

If you would like to give this a try it only cost $15 CND and you can get it from Nail Polish Canada.  If you are in the United States or the rest of the world you can get it from Epicare's website for $15 CND.

 *Product sent for honest review.

Neon Pop! Oh, and Varnished Valkyrie turns 2 today!! Huzzah!!

Sorry I haven't been updating often, but I have been having bouts of insomnia and it leaves me feeling drained.  I'm hoping that passes soon.  I have nothing really interesting to share apart from I made the best slow cooker ribs ever.  The end.

Today I have this simple manicure inspired by Silvia Lace Nails: Textured nail art with a subtle splash of neon.  I loved how the colour looked just popping through the black textured polish.  For mine I used Milani's Dude Blue and Zoya's Dahlia.  I kind of changed up the french as you can see.  It's still simple, but a but a bit funky.  And even though the textured polish was layered over polish it still wore like iron.

In celebration of turning 2 don't forget to check out our 2 year anniversary wishlist giveaway!!

If I had done a top nail art list for 2013, this would have been on it.

So I'm a bit late posting this.  I actually did this last year, shortly after Christmas.  It was one of those manicure that you look at and think "I am never taking you off".  And when you do take it off a small part of you cries.

Even though I rarely do them I love fashion inspired nails.  Like I said I don't do them often, but I do have a whole folder full of fashion stuff for inspiration.  I just think fashion is a really great place to look if you are in search of some fun ideas, or you are just flat out of ideas but still want a neat design on your nails.

For you today I have these Vivienne Tam, Spring 2014 line nails.  The minute I saw it I knew I had to put it on my nails.  This was super easy to do.  I simply painted my nails white, blobbed on dots of acrylic paint an polish in varying colours(You don't have to use one or the other, the colours I needed I don't own all in polish or all in paint), finally using the sugar spun technique I strung black polish all around the nail.

What do you think of these?  What do you use for inspiration?

 

First Holiday Swatch of 2014!!!: Finger Paints - Sparkle In The Sky

Let's get the party started 11 months early! Today I have an older Holiday polish, from way back in 2013.   It's Finger Paints Sparkle In The Sky, from their 2013 LE Enchanted Winter Holiday collection.  Also a near dupe for OPI's polish Alcatraz...Rocks.

Sparkle In The Sky is super, duper pretty.  It's a navy textured polish with what appears to be fine pieces of  light green and purple(maybe pink) glitter.  I used 2 coats and it dried quickly.  Although not as fast as her sister Snow Crystals.  I also added 2 coats of top coat after a day or so.  It didn't smooth it out completely, but it wasn't noticeably bumpy.  It was noticeably pretty.  It really was like a sparkly night sky.

Overall I love this polish and I'm really happy I picked it up.  Do you have any polish from this collection?  I honestly don't think I heard much talk of this polish online.

 W/ top coat

 In sunlight

I don't know how I feel about you... I think I just fell out of like.

So just a quick post because I've been a bad blogger this year :P

1)  I don't think I have mentioned it here(or I may have just mentioned it in passing), but we have an Instagram now.  So everyone should go and follow us over there because that's the cool thing to do.  Everyone's doing it.

2)  This man.  All I did was use some white and then I used the saran wrap technique and blotted on Essence Ultimate Pink and Milani Dude blue.  I finally ended with a square neon pink stud from The Born Pretty Store.  I don't know if I like it.  I liked it when I originally finished it, but I kinda just fell out of like.  There's nothing wrong with it, I just had a really short like affair.

What do you think about this mani?  Are you in like with it?

*The colour of the pink stud was REALLY hard to capture in some of these.  In real life it is probably closer to the second picture.

Also if you would like to buy these studs you can get them here. And you can also use our 10% Born Pretty Discount code EAL91.

*Some products were sent for review.

2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY WISHLIST GIVEAWAY!!!

Wow, so almost 2 years(Jan 21st) and over 400 posts later this blog is still a thing.  We would like to thank the academy.  Also the producers and writer.  George Clooney you are great, and you deserve this.  Finally we would like to thank the fans.  Without you guys we would not be standing here on this fictional podium.

I know, shut up and get to the prizes :P  Well we don't actually have the prizes...yet.  We need your help for that.  We are having a wishlist giveaway!  What's that you ask?  Here's the deal, you send us your polish wishlist and we send you 3-5 polishes off of it!

Rules
- Send us a link to your wishlist.  No wishlist, no prizes.
- Make sure we are able to see that wishlist.
- This is an international giveaway, but please make sure shipping polish to your country is ok.
- Please have at least 15-20 polishes on your list(you can have more), but we would love a selection.
- Know that we are not made of money, so please make sure you have a decent number of reasonably priced polishes.  Which leads to the next point.
- We have the right to select a new winner if we don't think your wishlist is possible.  So maybe you shouldn't enter if your wishlist consists of only Dior, discontinued Chanel polish, and a bunch of HTF polishes.
- That being said you don't have to limit yourself and not put discontinued/HTF stuff, but be aware that some discontinued stuff can either be pricy or just really hard to find.  But that doesn't mean we wont try.  So try to have a least a fair number of polishes that are somewhat easy to find :P
- ETA:  Feel free to add brands as a whole to your list. (So you can put OPI down and saw what type of colours you like for example). 
- ETA:  Because I have already taken a peek at some of the wish lists ;) I'm going to say you can add things like stamping plates.  But please still have mostly polish.
- Must be over 18, or have parental permission.
- Must complete all mandatory entries.

Extra Info 
- Ends Feb. 15th, Midnight EST. (So plenty of time to make a wishlist up :P)
- While some polishes are harder for us to come by don't exclude stuff.  We still may somehow be able to get out hands on it.
- Know that receiving the prize may take longer than normal as after we choose a winner we still have to go about finding the polishes.
- We will keep the winner updated on the polish hunt if they like.  If they want a surprise we can do that too!
- Feel free to edit your wishlist while the contest is running.  We will not look at them till after the contest is over. 
- A giveaway like this is new to us(and I don't think I've seen it any where else before) so please be patient with us if you see some flaws.
- If something is confusing you don't hesitate to ask. 

How do I make a wishlist to send?
- Make a Pintrest wishlist board.
- If you have a blog you may already have one on it, but a wishlist tab.  Send us that link!
- Create a Google Doc.
- Facebook photo album
- Tumblr entry
- Amazon wishlist.  If you have the Amazon app on your browser you can add stuff to your wishlist from other sites.
- Elfster
- If there's another way please tell us and we will add it to the list.

So here's to two years!  Oh and I guess Happy New Year...

a Rafflecopter giveaway