I'm A Spoopy GHOST!

Sorry for my absence. I've been kind of all over the place the past couple weeks, but I'll save that story for another time.

Boo! I'm Spoopy!

Today I have something a bit different. I have these MaskerAide Hydrating Facial Masks from obsessedcanada.com. They are actually run by nailpolishcanada.com! Now I have never used facial masks before so I had no idea what to expect. Their line has six different sheet masks to address different skin concerns. All Nighter, Detox Diva, Weather Warrior, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, Beauty Rest'ore and Pre Party Prep. I ended up choosing the first three I listed to review.

Let's just get some basic stuff that applied to all the masks at once. They are described as "Hydrating facial sheet masks made from a thin fiber sheet. The facial sheet mask is designed to allow better absorption of vitamins and nutrients it contains." The best way I can describe them is they are like thin pieces of smooth felt, soaked in hair gel. They all have the same application process. 1) Clense and tone your skin 2) Unfold mask and place on face, and adjust for perfect fit. Rub excess serum into neck and chest 3)Leave on for 10-20min. Remove and discard mask. And either pat moisture into skin or rinse and then pat dry. 4) Use once a week, but can be used daily. Now onto talking about them individually.

All Nighter
Whether you were up all night studying or out all night partying, we’ve got you covered to face the long day ahead. Apply our ALL NIGHTER mask to awaken, refresh and replenish your skin. The cooling effects of the mask will help de-puff and awaken your eyes, while natural Peppermint Oil awakens your senses. Aloe, Argan Oil, Heartleaf (a powerful detoxifier), Honey, Super Fruit and Cactus Extracts work together to erase the signs of the previous night and get you “boardroom” ready!

If you have followed my blog for a while you know that at times sleep can be a problem for me. So there's many a night, when I don't get the amount of rest that I need. So I felt like this was an obvious choice. This ended up probably being my favourite. Not only did my skin feel great after using it, but that peppermint oil is amazing. You really do feel more awake after using it. When I took the mask off I rinsed it off a bit then patted it dry.

 

Detox Diva
Gone are the days of using harsh scrubs and drying clays. Our DETOX DIVA mask (formulated with natural Geranium Oil, Seaweed and Green Tea Leaf Extracts) helps to minimize pores, absorb impurities and protect from toxins and free-radicals without removing your skin’s essential natural oils. Chinese Plum, Strawberry and Lemon Fruit Extracts go to work to gently exfoliate and lift dead skin cells revealing clear luminous skin, while Argan Oil and Honey keep your skin happy and hydrated.

I used this one next because it sounded like one that I would use as a general go to. While this made my skin feel great I feel like for this one to work it's magic I would have to use it a bit more often. That being said I still liked it. It was a bit heavy on the lemon scent(for me), but that was no biggie. When I was done with this, I skipped rinsing it off and patted it into my skin.

Weather Warrior
Whether you’ve spent the day baking on the beach or skiing down the slopes, your skin has taken a beating. Exposure to damaging elements such as harmful UV rays, wind and extreme cold can leave your skin dry, flaky and screaming SOS! Caring for and moisturizing your skin after exposure to the elements is essential. Apply our WEATHER WARRIOR mask with Aloe, Green Tea, Witch Hazel and Argan Oil to help soothe, calm and heal your skin allowing it to breathe a sigh of relief.

This was sadly my least favourite. First the smell. I have these pore strips that have this kind of medicine like smell. These smelt like a mild version of them. I took it off, and then patted what was l decided to skip rinsing again and pat it into my skin. But unlike the other two I ended up with my skin feeling tight and feeling like I need to moisturize it. Which is a shame because I thought this would be the most moisturizing out of the bunch.

Over all I REALLY liked these. Dare I say even more than I expect to? All of them feel AMAZING on your skin while you are wearing them, and they kept their gelly, moistness, for the whole 20 minutes I was wearing them. Minus the Weather Warrior, my face still felt great and moisturized after I had taken off the mask. I will probably get the All Nighter and Detox Diva again. And I would love to try Beauty Rest'ore!

Anyways if you would like to try these you can get a mask at over here, where they retail for $6CND!
Have you tried this brand before? Have you tried face masks before?

*Products sent for honest review

A different kind of Halloween manicure...0_o

WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS TECHNIQUE AT HOME! YOU KNOW HOW I LIKE PUSHING WHAT I CAN DO TO NAILS! THIS IS NO EXCEPTION! THIS IS NOT AN EVERYDAY MANICURE KIND OF THING. (Never thought I would have to post that at the beginning of a post)

This is my entry for Nail Polish Canada's Halloween Nail Art contest! It's actually a manicure I wanted to do a while ago, but I never really had the perfect opportunity to. UNTIL NOW! So my manicure is kind of an homage to to gory slasher films. Now I have done weird nails before, but I REALLY wanted to up the weird(and gore) and make them as nasty as possible and push the limits of art.

First I started with a base of Essence Sweet as Candy, then I did the bloody "HEL-" and the bloody hand print with acrylic paint. Everything else you see is done with real blood. My blood(aka. The art supply that keeps on giving).

No Topcoat

Top Coat

Original Nails. "Needs more blood"

My mother was a nurse so I actually asked her if she had something I could use to get blood and not give myself an infection. She then showed me how to use the needle of her blood sugar monitor. She also had some needles for syringes(everything was already sterilized). When the time came I chickened out and couldn't use the machine. I decided to go with the syringe needle. First I wiped all my fingers down with alcohol, then came the hard part. Stabbing myself. After many failed attempts and gingerly poking my finger I gave up. Luckily for me as I was putting the cover back on the needle I missed and stabbed myself in the thumb :D The minute I saw blood my first thought was "MUST USE THIS FOR ART!". When that stopped bleeding I looked at the mani and I thought it needed more blood. So I sucked it up, and I took my middle finger and forcefully tapped the needle. Success! Originally I was going to use a nail art brush, but it turns out blood is a bit too thin to work with. So I ended up letting the blood roll down my fingers a bit and using the fingers on my other to apply it. Another thing that came as a surprise was how hard it was to get blood out of my cuticles. When I was done I added an older topcoat that was almost done and sealed it all in. And I actually wore it for a few hours, but I could smell that metallic-y smell that blood has.

WARNING BLOODY HANDS AHEAD
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The Great Polish Giveaway of 2014!! - Great is probably an understatement. It's Majepic(Majestic+Epic)

So Nail Polish Canada is holding what is probably one of the most epic polish giveaways in the history of giveaways! One person can win up to 200(TWO HUNDRED) bottles of polish from the sponsors (Cirque Colours, NCLA, and Picture Polish). And it is we bloggers who get to nominate the polishes we want to be in the prize.

Now the colour I originally nominated I quickly found out had been nominated shortly before. Which is cool because it deserves to be there. So I went with my second choice, which is actually a polish I don't own. It's NCLA From LA To Anywhere, a beautiful gray holo. Now while I don't own this specific product I thought it would be something loads of people would like. Not only that, but I think NCLA is a fantastic brand who I have never had problems with. So despite not having used this specific polish I would still recommend it(as well as all their other products).

To enter to win this polish as well as a whole murder of polish, simply go and enter with the Rafflecopter below.  Follow Varnished Valkyrie on Facebook, Nail Polish Canada on Twitter and join their mailing list! Easy as 1, 2, 3! Open to US and Canadian residents. To find out all the terms and conditions PLEASE read the terms and conditions at the bottom of the Raffcopter widget.

 Photo from Nail Polish Canada

Photo from NCLA

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you would like to see ALL the amazing polishes you could win go here to see them. If you are a blogger and you want to nominate a prize, simply go here.

Break a leg everyone!

This Isn't Your Grandmothers Easter Manicure Part 3

Today I have for you a recreation of a manicure I did two years ago! As you all know by now I REALLY like Monty Python, and am permanently scarred for life because I can't see them all live. And for the past 2 years I have done an Easter manicure inspired by the sketch troupe. Two years ago I did a manicure inspired by the The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog from film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of mt favourite films of all time.  This year I decided to recreate it!  The one main difference was the bunny. He is much cuter and throwing and eyeball. Awwwwwwwww.

This time around the egg nails look a lot better(even thought most got covered in blood).  I think the colours suit Easter a bit more. Apart from the white base, the eggs were done almost entirely from acrylic paint that I had mixed. The bunny accent nail was done with a base of Orly Liquid Vinyl and paint. I like it A LOT better this time round :P

I also decided that this would be my entry for Nail Polish Canada's Easter Nail Art contest!  So please head on over there and vote for me. I will also lower you taxes if you vote for me...I wont.

 Before the blood

Comparison

And just in case you don't know anything about Monty Python:

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.

It’s a Christmas Miracurl! - NailPolishCanada.com is giving away 3 Babyliss Miracurl’s ($600 value)

Now you may ask yourselves "How does Kas get her hair so curly?".  Well I'm here to drop a truth bomb on you.  I was born this way.  But if you weren't born with a mane that rivals a majestic lion after a fight, while trying to assert his dominance I have the next best thing:

Every holiday season millions experience a sense of sadness at the flatness in their life. In an effort to cope some find themselves straining important relationships. 

“I know my husband loves me, but another day where I’m running late trying to curl my hair in a mad dash is just a fight waiting to happen”  - Katie B

Could people go without curled hair? They could, but experts agree such a lack of regard and care is sure to result in a coal filled stocking.

“After the economic downturn Santa has had limited resources and he too has to make cuts, it’s not only naughty or nice anymore, but how you present yourself.” noted Mrs. Claus

Today Nail Polish Canada has announced their plans to take a stand and solve this important issue with the Babyliss Miracurl. In just seconds the Miracurl literally sucks your hair right in, curls it, then beeps letting you know it's done.  

In order to raise awareness Nail Polish Canada is giving away 3 Babyliss Miracurls, to whoever can convince us they are the most “in need” of one.

“This will impact people’s lives. Together we can make a Christmas Miracurl”
- Nikki Smith, VP Glitter *This is our favorite pun ever and we’ve been using it around the office for weeks

Simply describe why you or a loved one is in need of a Christmas Miracurl at: http://www.nailpolishcanada.com/products/miracurl-by-babyliss.html

In the spirit of a true Christmas Miracurl the winners will be announced Christmas Day!

Notes about nominations: Feel free to stretch the truth a bit and most importantly have fun.

For further info please contact tiffany@nailpolishcanada.com

Nail Polish Canada Holiday Challenge Week 3 - Holiday Memories: Children *facepalm*

So this is going to be VERY quick.  It's my week 3 entry for NPC's Holiday Challenge.  The theme was Holiday memories.  I did these in maybe 20 minutes.  I incorporated 2 memories.

1) All that holiday candy.  When I was really young I took a holiday candy and swallowed it whole.  It ended up getting stuck in my throat and I was too scared to tell anyone, because I thought I would get in trouble.  I remember every time I swallowed I could feel it sitting there.  I eventually told my mother and we waited to see if it would move.  Luckily it did and there was no hospital trip.

2) My index finger is the night sky.  Growing up my mother was a nurse, and she had a choice to work Christmas Eve night or New Years.  She would always work Christmas, so we would wait and open our gifts at night!

And if you like this mani, please head over here and vote for Varnished Valkyrie.

Nail Polish Canada Nail Art Challenge. Week 2 - Decorations: Finally the perfect opportunity to do my half naked, sexy, Christmas, Merman nails.

So I meant to do these nail a couple days ago.  BUT as usual my laptop was messing up again.  This is probably old news on this blog, there always is something wrong with it.  I was lucky that this time I was able to resolve the problem in a somewhat timely manner, thanks to my friend who keeps me warm during the long winters night...the internet. 

So this week is the second in Nail Polish Canada's Holiday nail polish challenge.  This was actually really easy for me to choose what I wanted to do.  A few years back I remember seeing a company(Diamonds of the Sea) that made Christmas tree ornaments, and they had a whole series that is mainly different sexy mermen.  Amazing, I know.  While they are all tree ornaments I decided to stick close to the Christmas spirit and do Jingle Merman(Although Officer Ripped Merman was a close second).  The description of him on the website is as follows:

Jingle Merman Christmas Ornament joins the December Diamonds Merman Collection. Come sit on Santa's lap and let's talk about the first thing that pops up. Just saying'… that sounds like Jingle Bells to my ear.

Hahaha!!!


So for the nails I used everything from nail polish, to acrylic paint, to glitter.  My thumb and pinky are both part of his tail, my ring finger are his abs, middle finger his Santa hat, and finally my index finger says 'Been Nice?'.  I wanted to say 'Naughty' but I don't have the skills to write a word that long on my nails.

Anyways if you like that, please go over here and vote (varnishedvalkyrie.blogspot.ca) for this sexy merman.

China Glaze Mingle With Kringle: I shall wear you with my Hannah Montana shirt.

Yes, I do own a Hannah Montana shirt.  Let me explain.  It was bought a few years ago for a show I was in.  It has been laying around since then eagerly awaiting Hannah Montana's comeback.  But the other night a did another show and it gave me the opportunity to wear it again!  Yay?  That being said if I'm going to be honest I DO have Miley's new album.  I'm under no assumption that her music is earth shattering or will touch the deepest depths of my soul.  It's pretty much words, put to noise, that you can dance to.

Anyways as usual I didn't know what polish I wanted to wear the other night.  That's when I saw that the Hannah Montana shirt had gold in it.  So I thought this would be the perfect time to wear China Glaze's Mingle With Kringle.  It is the third polish in the Dash of Dazzle trio sent to me from the people at Nail Polish Canada.  Mingle is a gold foil with slightly larger, and darker gold pieces.  I was a little 'eh' about the darker pieces, because I had seen photos of it already.  But it turns out I love it.  The darker its work well in real life, where the polish shimmers like crazy.  Application was 2 easy coats.

If you would like to polish the Dash of Dazzle Trio you can get it over at Nail Polish Canada for $15.00CND.  Or you can buy the polish on it's own for $6.95CND.  And for a limited time all orders(no matter what the price) will be shipped for free within Canada!

 T make it a bit more blingy I added China Glaze Gold Medallion.

 

What do you think of these polishes?   Also what fun random music do you listen to?

China Glaze Bells Will Be Blinging: Snow is great in theory.

I love looking at the snow fall while having a cup of something hot(BUT NOT TOO HOT), especially when its a heavy snowfall.  But the minute I have to go outside it becomes horrible, glorified, hard water, that will inevitably turn into dirty slush as it melts.  Also as most of us know due to science, it needs to be cold for there to be snow.  I hate that too, the cold.  The only thing good about winter is it looks pretty and Christmas.  I would say "Damn you Australia," but I also hate really hot weather.  As you can see I am a ray of sunshine.

Today I have another polish sent to me by Nail Polish Canada.  China Glaze Bells Will Be Blinging.  It is also part of their Christmas Collection this year as well as the Dash of Dazzle trio.  Now in theory I shouldn't love this polish.  It's a glitter storm that includes small piece of blue glitter, slightly larger pieces of silver glitter and the pièce de resistance, holographic bar glitter.  Now I'm not usually crazy about glitters, but I liked this.  It reminded me of a snowstorm, when all the snow is falling, and the wind is also blowing it about.  I was ok with the bar glitter because even though it was small they weren't skinny like in those "fuzzy" polishes.  So they never reminded me of hair, or creepy bugs.  Application was easy and even, I only needed one coat over OPI's Dating a Royal.  To me this is a great Christmas/Winter glitter!

Natural outdoor lighting

 Natural indoor lighting

 You can see the holo here

If you would like to polish the Dash of Dazzle Trio you can get it over at Nail Polish Canada for $15.00CND.  Or you can buy the polish on it's own for $6.95CND.  And for a limited time all orders(no matter what the price) will be shipped for free within Canada!

Who else hates snow but likes things that remind them of snow?

*Product Sent for honest review

China Glaze So Blue Without You: The Tea Incident. ALWAYS USE YOUR BRAIN!

So the other day I decided to have a nice, hot cup of tea.  Then I did something stupid.  AS SOON as I made it, without thinking, I took a huge sip.  Liquid that had less than a couple minutes earlier been boiling.  Immediately I spat it out all over myself, the dinner table and a chair and got a glass of cold water.  It was the worst.  And to make matters even better, two days later my tongue just started to seep blood.  It's been about 5 days now and it still feels weird but it doesn't hurt.  Lesson Learnt.  Always use your brain when doing anything.

Anyways you know what scolding drinks remind me of?  Christmas!  Today's polish China Glaze's So Blue Without You was sent to me by Nail Polish Canada.  It came with 2 other polishes in China Glaze's Dash of Dazzle gift set trio, and is also part of their 2013 Christmas collection.  So Blue Without You in an icy blue metallic foil.  It applied in 2 easy coats.  Word of warning.  I swatched this without base coat, and despite only wearing it for a few minutes I could see that it was beginning to stain.  So if that's not a thing you are fine with base coat is for sure something you will want to wear unless you want Smurf fingers.

I also decided to compare So Blue to Orly's Sweet Peacock.   They are close and look like they could be related.  Application was also pretty much the same for the two.  But is you can see Sweet Peacock is a deeper, dare I say peacock blue. 

If you would like to polish the Dash of Dazzle Trio you can get it over at Nail Polish Canada for $15.00CND.  Or you can buy the polish on it's own for $6.95CND.  And for a limited time all orders(no matter what the price) will be shipped for free within Canada!

Tell me you deep dark feeling of metallic blues.
*Product sent for honest review.

Top Down, Volume Up Nail Wraps by NCLA (Part 1): First Time Using Nail Wraps!!!

So when I was asked by Nail Polish Canada to review some NCLA nail wraps I was excited.  I've always been intrigued by nail polish wraps but had never made the jump.  No real reason why either.  I got to choose two sets to review, so I chose Top Down, Volume Up and another one which I will show later this week.  I decided to divide this post in two so in this post I can talk more about application and such and in the next tell you how it wears and removal.

I was extra excited when these came in the mail a few days ago.  I hurt my back and shoulder doing who knows what and I just didn't feel like doing nail art.  But with these I could have pretty nails and no back breaking labor!

First I have Top Down, Volume Up,  a colourful abstract design.  Two things I LOVED about this. 1)While there is a lot going on in the design it works perfectly without being obnoxious.  2)In the past I have seen nail wraps with fantastic designs, but were ruined by the fact that it looked like an old printer running out of ink printed them.  These do not :)

Each pack contains 2 sheets with 22 wraps(so 44 in total...MATH!)  You could use these 3 or 4 times as full manis.  Not bad eh?  Each pack also comes with a NCLA nail file.  All the instructions are on the back.  5 simple steps. I followed most of these steps.

The nails cleaning went dandy, and I used a coat of base coat.  The sizing is where I hit my one snag.  My fingers are long and narrow so out of the 22 wraps only 4 fit my fingers(ring and middle) without modifications.  The rest I had to trim because they were too big or in one case was too round for the base of my thumb nail.  This was easy to do.  As they aren't custom made for one person, I would rather have them too big than too small.  Next don't worry if your placement is off, these are resilient. You can peel them off and place them again.  I did this to my pinky finger maybe 10 times and it didn't get any less sticky(but it's probably best you do it less then 10 times :P).  Then I squished out all the air using my fingers.  Next I filed off the excess in a downward motion, and made sure the tip was perfectly flat by pressing down again.  Finally I made sure to wrap the tips, and added 2 coats of top coat.  I always add 2 coats when I place something that isn't polish on my nails.

 Light box.  The rest are natural light.

 Only photo of my thumb.

So far I love these.  It's a great way of having fantastic nail art but not have to do any of it.  Also it was super easy to use and really hard to screw up.  I can not wait to use them again!  Stay tuned for my second part to this post later this week!

What are your thoughts on nail wraps?  Have used used these, or any kind of nail wraps?  What did you think?  This is a safe place to speak your mind :)

If you would like some you can head on over to Nail Polish Canada.  Each pack retails for $16.00 CND.  And shipping on these is free!

*Product was sent for honest review.