My Travel Essentials

Find out why these things made my makeup travel essentials list! All you have to do is head on over to Jacquie's Claws Up where I was a guest blogger. If you don't follow her, you should. I have a few go to blogs, that I will always check on my own to see if they have posted something new, and her's is for sure one of them. She started out as a mostly nail blog, but over the years has seamlessly transitioned it to a blog that not only features nails, but everything from fashion, makeup to her planning her upcoming wedding! She is also ok with mismatched socks, which makes her a good person in my books.

What am *I* thankful for??? ALL THE THINGS.

So I also did a "What Am I Thankful For?" guest post for Veronica at Gorgeois this week!  As John Green would say, "Link in the doodly-doo!" (Points for anyone who gets that, DFTBA!) 

There's also a mini-announcement contained in that post, so head on over there and see what I'm doing in the not-so-near future(almost exactly three weeks! Goodness!)...

So instead of doing a little mini list of things I'm NOT thankful for, like Kas did, I'm going to give you a list of things I AM thankful for that I didn't do my mani on...

- The gorgeous view of treetops outside my family's new apartment.

- Harry Potter.

- William Shakespeare.

- Musicals.  Especially ones that make me laugh and cry and laugh and cry.

- Getting snail mail.

- My now pretty finely honed bullshit detector.

- Yoga.

- Having a roof over my head, food on my table, and change in my pocket.

- Having enough extra change in my pocket to be able to give a little bit back.

- The fact that THERE IS NO MORE TWILIGHT.  IT'S FINISHED.  DING DONG, etc.

So what did I do my mani on?  Squint away....

What am I thankful for? Guess.

If you said any of the following things you would be wrong:

• Hard drugs
• The sound of drums
• Most wars (Seriously if all Westeros weren't at war where would I get my fix?)
• Bugs
• The Twilight Saga
• The fall of the Roman empire
• The fall of the dinosaurs
• The future uprising of the dinosaurs as they rise from the depths of hell.  After many years underground then have returned...as dragons.  We will bow to our new overlords.  Seas will rise, cities will fall.  Earth will no longer belong to us.  And eventually we will be nothing.  Just dust.  The dragon have won.  Zeus, was sad.
• Grus (But I think this is something we can all agree on).

Anyways it you want to see what I'm actually thankful for go over and check my post over at Gorgeois!  Veronica(Who has guest blogged for us before) was kind enough to let me do a guest post!  Thank you! 

If you want a sneak peak squint away!

Thank You!

We're back! And we Just want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to all the guest bloggers over the past few days. Everyone should go and check out their blogs!  You will not be disappointed :D

The Lacquer Tracker
Kelsie's Nail Files
Nailpocalypse
abbienail
The Gorgeois Pig 

And since this all went so smoothly we'll probably have guest bloggers every once in a while! Yay!

Thanks again everyone!

Kas & George

Guest Blogger No.5 - The One With The Dog Wearing Shoes

Hello everyone! I'm happy as hell to be guest posting for you all today. The ladies asked me to do a little nail art, and when I asked for suggestions they said "Anything but Stalin or One Direction." So I thought it would be fun to do One Direction with Stalin moustaches, but I was warned about rabid OD fans rioting my blog and I was too scared. Kas suggested a puppy in shoes, and that was just too funny to pass up. So here is my manicure rendition of a dachshund wearing converse high tops.

The base is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, topped with OPI I Juggle... Men, which you can't really see. The puppy and shoes are acrylic paint, and if you're curious, the laces were done with the tip of a very tiny striper brush. 

Thanks for inviting me to post, ladies! 

Veronica, the Gorgeois Pig

Guest Blogger No.4 - The One With The Strings

Hi I’m Abbie a blogging newbie (abbienail has only been around for 4 months!) yet Kas and Georgia have let me loose on their lovely blog. So today I figured I show you what my blog is all about; nail art! Swatches as well but I love me some nail art ;). The mani I have for you is something I have only seen on one other blog (makeup withdrawal) I’m going to name it the string mani, you heard it here first.

I wanted to use only British brands and for some reason I found it so hard to find any in my stash….anyway I found L’oreal Perle de Jade, I realise now that L’oreal is not a british brand but we have these cute little skinny bottles over here so that counts as British right ;)? Perle de Jade is a two coater creamy jade *duh*.

To make the string effect you simply decant a small amount of polish onto something, I use a piece of paper, then wait for it to get tacky once it is use a dotting tool, toothpick, hair grip anything really and dip it in and then simply go over your finger with the string of polish.

 

You are going to get strings of polish all over your finger but it’s easy to clean it up as it’s only thin. Repeat as many times as you like and in any direction. I chose to alternate colours between a white and Barry M blueberry Ice cream. I like both of them over the jade, they almost change the base colour, the white makes it look lighter whilst the blue makes it look darker.

I really like this look, it looks like it was complicated to create but it really wasn’t, I think that literally everyone could do this and with endless colour combos. I didn’t put a topcoat on as I liked the look of it without, I don’t like the feel though paha. It kind of reminds me of spiderwebs *bleurgh* but in a pretty way not a creepy massive spider in the middle of kind of way.

I hope everyone enjoyed this mani and I’d love to see people’s recreations J. Thanks again K&G for this opportunity!!

Guest Blogger No.3 - The One With The Wicked Awesome Flower

Hello Valkyries! I'm Kelly (also known as KawaiiKagura) from Nailpocalypse and I'm really excited to be guest posting today. Thanks so much to Kas and George for even reading my blog and for thinking of me to do this post. This is my very first guest post anywhere so I also put together another first to share with you all, my first tutorial! Are you excited? I'm excited. I have said the word excited a few too many times in this intro so let's move on and pretend my awkwardness didn't happen.

A while ago I did a latte inspired mani (http://nailpocalypse.blogspot.com/2012/05/latte-inspired-mani.html ) using the needle marble or dry marbling technique. Since the flowers got quite a bit of attention, they now get their own tutorial. Before I turn you loose to play with gobs of polish (I know you want to), I will share a few tips and tricks not included in the tutorial itself.

• Be generous with your polish but try not to flood the sides of your nail bed. If the polish starts to slide to the sides, it will pull your hard work with it.
• When dragging with the pin/whatever you use, try not to be heavy handed. If you push too hard down to the nail, it may be harder for your base coat to self-level as you go. I tend to just let the pin rest on the polish and pull to the side, if that makes sense.
• Okay so I lied, this one IS in the tutorial but it's a big one. Working quickly is essential to making this work! To help that happen, have all your colors open already before you start. If you take too long to start needling the polish will start to set and you can get ridge lines in your base coat as you drag. No bueno.

Flowers are just one of the many many shapes and designs you can do with this technique. It really is so versatile and that is why it is one of my favorite things to do with nail polish. Play around with where you place your dots, the size of your dots, how many colors you use, heck make stripes and drag those around! I like to add dots and stripes to my finished marbles to add even more to the effect. There's really no wrong way to do this. So go forth, my new friends, and make messes! I hope this has been able to help a few of you along the way!

Polishes used in the above tutorial:
    •    Sally Hansen Salon Manicure base coat / Seche Vite top coat
    •    Essie Master Plan
    •    Sinful Colors Cinderella
    •    Sally Hansen Black Heart
    •    China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le
    •    Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

Guest Blogger No.2! - The One With The Butterfly...And The Girl Who Answers Emails ;)

Hello fellow nail art enthusiasts, I am Kelsie from kelsiesnailfiles and I am so excited to be doing this guest post here at Varnished Valkyrie! I am fairly new to the nail art and blogging world so I love making new friends (especially Canadian ones!) and getting the opportunity to showcase some of my work on other blogs :)

First of all I want to say that I have been a follower of Varnished Valkyrie for a little while now and I adore it! I think that having two contributors to a blog is a fantastic idea! Kas and George each have a unique style so it keeps things fresh and interesting.. it also sets them apart from other blogs (in a very good way). Thank you ladies for having me here, it really is a pleasure. 

Now, on to the nail art.. This mani was loosely inspired by a stamping manicure that I stumbled upon a while back, which you can see here (http://nailartandthings.blogspot.ca/2012/04/spring-morning.html). Before I decided to purchase my own stamping set, and long before i started blogging, I used to attempt to freehand a lot of stamping manicures that I found online. Today is no exception... I couldn't get my hands on that plate with the two butterfly halves, so I decided to wing it! 

I used Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Midnight in NY as my base (I only just noticed how perfect that is because Kas and George are probably lounging in NY right about now lol)

I freehanded the butterflies and added the dots using KleanColor neons in blue, pink, and amethyst.

Once again I'd like to say a big thank you to Kas and George for having me here! :)

Guest Blogger No.1! - The One With The Domo

Hello Valkyries of the Varnished persuasion! I was seriously stoked when Kas and George invited me to guest blog while they are away. This is my first time as a guest blogger, so I'm a little nervous and excited. I hope you'll all enjoy my little contribution to this fantastic blog.

I have an ombre manicure to share with you all today- my first ever ombre manicure, as it happens, which is very fitting for my first ever guest post on another blog. I decided to do a greyscale ombre manicure, which is inspired by a greyscale-themed Domo I have. If you are familiar with my blog, you'll know I often feature those little guys in my posts- I find them irresistible, and have amassed a small army of them (they happily coexist with my nail lacquer collection, if you're wondering).

Here's the line-up!

From left to right we have Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement, Nubar Palisade, Nubar Stronghold, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out. Up front we have an adorable Greyscale Domo, the inspiration behind today's manicure!

This is, of course, Greyscale Domo taking a picture of himself, which I assume he'll later post on Facebook ("Guys! Check it out! I was totally partying with these sexy polishes on Varnished Valkyrie!").

Ahem. Onward to the nail pictures!

What did you think of my first ever ombre manicure? Which shade of grey is your favourite? Myself, I love a light grey, so Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement is my clear favourite here.

Before I finish up my post here, I want to give a quick heads-up to anyone who might be interested in entering my Lynnderella Connect the Dots Giveaway, which is currently going on at my blog, The Lacquer Tracker. You have until June 21st to enter, if it's something you'd like to do. Click here to check out the details.

This has been a blast, and thank you so much to Kas and George for inviting me to write a post for Varnished Valkyrie! It's pretty awesome to be able to be a part of a blog that I admire and enjoy reading so much. Thanks!

Guest Bloggers!

So we are going to be gone for just over 10 days or so.  And we didn't want to leave you guys without any post.  Because we knew you would all be really, really, really sad.  Logically we knew we couldn't post because we are on vacation.  And vacationing is a time to be lazy.  So we decided to get 5 other bloggers to blog in our place.

These are all bloggers we really like.  And we think you should all go check them out and give them some love.  They have super swatches, nail art, layouts, write ups that are interesting, and they are all nice people...well they all seem like nice people.  They could be horrific (but I'm sure they're not).

So check in tomorrow to see who the first guest blogger is!!!

It's Bon Jovi.

It's actually not... but wouldn't that be cool.

See you guys in a couple weeks!

Kas & George

Guest Blogger Robyn - If Simon Cowell Had A Nail Blog This Would Be An Entry.

Welcome Robyn!!! She is our first guest blogger!!!  She's an wicked awesome friend of ours who can be brutally honest. (You'll see).  Now on to Robyn!!!

Hello Valkyries! What a joy it is to share this horror with you.

Disclaimers:I don't love pink. I have red hair and a very pale complexion, so it tends to make me look freshly exhumed. I'm horrified to have been presented with this colour.

I don't love Revlon colours. I've never seen one that made me say WOW. To be honest, I think "Whimsical" is completely disgusting. Kas showed it to me and I couldn't understand why people are sh*tting themselves over it.

I'm a complete nail n00b. Geez, I only own about 50 polishes. I don't do the nicest paint jobs and I'm not much with cleanup. I also have icky dry skin…this is actually the best my cuticles have looked in a while. I would apologize, but my skin hurts all the time, so no. Not sorry.

Onward!

Revlon's Pink Freeze is a salmon-bubblegum monstrosity with just about nothing going for it. My immediate thought was that a clown ate too much cotton candy and Barbie had to perform a stomach pump. There really isn't anything unique or interesting about this colour - it's a very basic pink with minimal shimmer. Irredeemable.

Formula: Quite acceptable. I had no trouble applying this eyesore, and found it evened itself out nicely in 3 coats. A little bit streaky, but easy to get under control. There was a single bubble on my index finger that made me extremely angry. I hate bubbles with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.

Wear Time: I decided to submit myself to the humiliation of wearing this out in public. For you, dear readers. It survived karaoke, which tends to involve a lot of flailing and beverage-related incidents. I experienced no tip wear or chipping within a 24 hour period.

Verdict: This is gross. F*ck you, Revlon.

Art.

 

Crackle!

 

Matte!

 Glitter!

It's still ugly!

Learn more about Robyn's booze-fueled anglophilia and nerdlust on Tumblr (http://awfullydull.tumblr.com/), where she occasionally posts terrible webcam shots of her own half-assed nails arts.