*Heart Eyes*

Today's review is going to be quick, because the item speaks for itself. I have today this wax pencil for picking up things like rhinestones and studs from LadyQueen. Let me just start by saying I love this. When I would pick up things to put on my nails before I would use a dotting tool dipped in clear polish. Always cleaning the dotting tool throughout the manicure, or it became too sticky and made placement hard, and sometimes the clear polish would leave a mark. This eliminates all those issues. It picks up pretty much everything from iridescent paper pieces to larger studs, and makes it super easy to place them on your nails. And the point of the pencil you see in the pictures is the point after doing a manicures worth of picking stuff up. Judging from it, these will last for quite some time!

If you like doing nail art designs with rhinestones, or studs, or any tiny item that can be applied to the nail, I would highly suggest getting this! It makes manicures soooooo much easier! If you would like to buy a pair, you can head on over here, where you can get them currently for $1.29 USD. AND you can use our 15% discount code LAKS15!

 Iridescent Paper

 Gold stud

Stop! Hammer Time!

I don't know why but the other night I really wanted to do nails inspired by Luboutin shoes. Don't know why, but I just did. When I saw these studded heels I knew I had the PERFECT Born Pretty rhinestones to go with it. And I of course HAD to pain the other side of my nails red(Revlon Red Carpet)!

My nails were on fleek!

Sadly the fleek died a day later when I stopped liking them.

Ps. I will do my Wiki Challenge nails this week, but when I have time. I have a pretty nifty topic(This week you had to find a random article!).

Pps. The rhinestone wheel was a NIGHTMARE to open. They have since fixed the problem, but the cases they were in used to have a lid that swivels, but mine wouldn't budge. So I ended up using a hammer to open it.

Indecisive Valentine

I AM WOUNDED!

What I thought was a crack in my polish, was actually a crack in my nails. It's been there for a few days but I only realised it was a crack today when it started to hurt. I fixed it with that Orly nail rescue, but I don't really like it because I feel I need to touch it up often. I usually like the teabag method, but for some reason my nail glue has been taking FOREVER to dry on the teabag.

Anyways let's talk Valentines day! Any one do/doing anything interesting? I don't celebrate the day, but it is a nice excuse to bake a totally unhealthy cake. I "celebrated"on Friday with the boy. We just hung out, ate cake that I had made, and then went out for dinner(In that order). And by went out I mean we walked outside, felt how cold it was, walked right back inside and ordered pizza and wings. I was a bit disappointed because were were going to get Korean, and I am in love with Korean food at the moment. I am REALLY in to it.

So that mani I wore that night wasn't the exact mani I started with. I decided I wanted to do some watercolor roses. Which turned out pretty fantastic(as you can see). Then I painted the rest of my nails red. Now I had these on overnight and it was bothering me that the red(Cult nails Quench), was a different shade of red. So the next day I HAD to take it off and I swapped it for  Sinful Colors Secret Admirer, which I thought worked way better! Then I added some rehinstones from the Born Pretty Store because faux gems make me happy. This is the third manicure in a row where I havent been happy with the first version.

Which version do you like best?

Roses are red, violets are- Wait no my roses are pink. The poem is irrelevant now.

Funny story(but not really). It's a nice surprise getting comments from you guys. And I mean it when I say surprise. I've started binge blogging(it's like binge drinking, but you feel a lot better the next morning). I will do maybe 5-7 blog posts at once and then schedule them, just so I have stuff for a while and I don't have to worry about it. That's not to say I don't do any non scheduled posts and move stuff around. But sometimes with the scheduled posts, and my insertion of new posts into the mix things get moved around and I totally forget about something I scheduled eons ago. For example I TOTALLY forgot about my Robbie Williams Nails and my Louboutin Nails until I got comments :P

Non-funny story aside let's get onto the nails! Today I have these Rose nails. It's only the second time I have done floral nails, but I love how they turned out! I originally was wearing just the green polish(Essie Sew Psyched) for an audition. When that was done I added the flowers to it with acrylic paint(I used bright pink and green. Then to make the pink lighter I added white, and to make the green darker I added black). I looked at a few tutorials, and honestly they were pretty much all the same general idea. If you would like to try this just google 'Rose Nail Art Tutorial' and I'm sure you'll find one you like. I then added some rhinestones to my index and pinky finger. Now the story of those rhinestones is actually a funny one.

So how was my second attempt at flowers?

Black on Rainbow: My first rainbow gradient

For the first time in a long time I did something the other day that I hadn't done in years.  I fell off the bed.  I wasn't laying down either, I was sitting at the edge and gracefully toppled over backwards.  Luckily I put my hand out and caught myself on a step stool I had.  I ended up breaking my thumb nail on my left hand when I caught myself.  But looking back I'm grateful.  It was either me, or the nail.

My design today was inspired by these nails by More Nail Polish(who was inspired by other blogger, who were inspired by other bloggers :P).  I decided that since I had these black circular rhinestones from KKCenterHk's Candy Series I would do it in reverse.  Black on rainbow!

I'm honestly pretty bad at gradients and rarely do them.  This is maybe my 4rd attempt.  I painted all the colours(Red, yellow, green, blue, and purple) on a makeup sponge and dabbed it against my nails which already had white polish on them.  It was MUCH easier then I the past few times I did it.  And although it's not perfect I still think it looks good. The only thing I would do differently next time is do the colours in reverse so the red isn't near the cuticles.  It was flippin hard to clean!

Then I  easily placed the solid black rhinestones.  They are 2mm in diameter and they say they include around 100 rhinestones.  If I were to take a guess I would say there was well over 100 in the bottle it came in.  I used 20 and you would never know I used any if looking in the container.  My only "problem"(and reason I only did the row of black as an accent nails) was it's really hard too see what side was the top or thw bottom when you were picking them up.  The colours in the Candy Series are solid colours unlike their other rhinestones, which are transparent, and have silver bottoms, making the bottom easy to identify.   It also probably doesn't help that my eyes are bad.

Overall I really did love these rhinestones!  If you want some head on over to KKCenterHK they also come in MANY other colours.  They retail for $4.50 USD, but you can use our 15% coupon code 'varnishedvalkyrieevent15off' and get them for a bit less :D

What do you think of my gradient?

You have to look close to see if you are picking it up from the top or the bottom.

*Product sent for honest review

Nightmare Before Christmas Nails: You can't tell me you didn't see this coming!

So with all the polishes inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas I decided to do a Nightmare Before Christmas manicure.  Again I haven't seen this movie in forever but I remember the gist of it.

First I did 2 coats of Claws Polish Voodoo, a red jelly full of red shimmer *drools*.  Then when that was good a dry I taped off triangles and painted the rest black.  With a striper I added some white stripes with acrylic paint.  Finally I finished with a rhinestone at the tip of the triangle.

See what I did there?

It's the pattern on Jack Skellingtons suit AND a Santa hat!

Note:  Remember how I said my internet was all wacky and not working.  Well my internet has been semi fixed.  It's now sort of working.  Do you know how long these photos took me to upload?  Almost 10 minutes.  What is this 1997?  I can't deal with this.  And email is even worse.  I don't wanna get into this.  *weeps*.

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!

It's my party and I'll watch spend all day doing my nails and watching cartoons if I want to

I am 25 today! Not into it. Being an adult is not cool. So I've spent all day watching Samurai Jack and putting together a fabulous manicure.

2 Kleancolors for this look: Mystic Grass, stamped with Black. I added some striping tape and rhinestones for shazam. Super digging these!

The unicorn stamp is Winstonia W117 and the leopard is M57 from Born Pretty Store.

A rare thumb shot! My thumb cuticles are normally totally gross but they're not too bad lately. Enjoy!

Oh, happy birthday to Canada as well. I guess I can share.

Holo-zebra-skully-rhinestone-geometric what is this hot mess I love it

Here's a quick design I did on Monday. I see a lot of great "mix" nail arts on Tumblr (my internet home...I'm one of those people), and have really wanted to try my own! I have trouble with pattern mixing (I have a very strict sense of what does and does not go together) so these were a fun challenge for me.

The pictures are lousy and don't show the holo well at all, please forgive me - was in a rush to get out the door for my beloved Monday night beer-and-hot tub extravaganza- but I loved how this turned out and really wanted to show you my first MIX!

 So as not to waste my precious GOSH Holographic Hero, I first applied 2 coats of a silver bargain bin polish. Anyone own/heard of Charm Limit? I have 2 and they wear pretty well. I used "Colour 14" (so glam, I love their names).  The ring finger and thumb detail is Orly Liquid Vinyl. An Art Deco striper polish was used for the middle finger and stamping. Zebra stamp from Bundle Monster, skull from Konad.

Since the whole design was done was done with stamps, tape and minimal freehanding, I was able to do both hands identically. Maybe that defeats the purpose of a mix? Who cares, I love it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

How are you guys feeling today?  Good?  Good.

Well I hope you all had a great night ringing in the new year.  This is being written at 6am(despite being scheduled for later) as I am still awake :P  I had a great time tonight.  I didn't throw up,  I didn't fall onto the hood of my fathers car when he kindly picked me, along with a gaggle of my drunk friends up when we missed the last train,  no strange man kissed me and I didn't even dry heave!

HUZZAH!

I usually party quite hard come NYE but as much fun as that it I REALLY didn't want to wake up feeling blargh.  So I just got a tad drunk, spent most of my night exercising...well playing Just Dance 4(I got tired and out of breath=exercise), trying to get a TV show to air my drunken tweets, and just in general hanging with a bunch of cool people.

This manicure actually took me a while to think up. I had so many ideas and not enough fingers yet.  But I'm happy with what I came up with.  Along with polishes(China Glaze Medallion and OPI Black Onyx) I used a combination of microbeads, striping tape, 2mm nail studs and a single rhinestone.  My biggest problem(apart from jacking up a nail when it was wet) was I was doing the year, and was starting on the 3 when I realized I had put 200.  Soooooo I had to pick them out of tacky polish which was harder than expected.  My friend said I should have left it and just called my manicure a celebration of the 10th anniversary of 2003 :P

Well I hope everyone had a great night!  What did you guys get up to?

 

This last picture was a really, really bad shot but it was perfect to show you guys something else.  See on the 2 and the 3 there are some beads that look red?  Well they are literally bleeding.  Now in real like you have to REALLY be looking to notice.  I realized the beads bled when I used my gold beads and the looked slightly less gold after I put on top coat.  But this seems to confirm it.  These are from a brand called Recollections.  Now I don't know if all brands do this so just be warned if you use coloured microbeard they may bleed.

Merry Bling-mas? Stud-mas? - My Foray into Born Pretty and Nail Studs

I'm excited to be showing you guys some 2mm gold square studs I was sent from the Born Pretty Store!

First these come in a small resealable bag with a few hundred studs.  Maybe I have weak child like fingers (How does one measure finger strength?) but I could not for the life of me open the bag.  I had to get someone else to open it. The next time I openedd it  I just cut the top off and put it in another bag.  This probably means I need to spend more time clicking away on Tumblr.  That sounds about right.

Now I fell in love with these 2mm studs over the 4mm studs (which they also sell) because you can do so much with them.  Like the larger studs you can do the simple designs. But if you want you can also do something a bit more detailed because you can fit more on your nails. And also they aren't so small that you don't know what they are!

Keeping with the holiday spirit I painted my nails Fright Night Claw Polish VooDoo, and China Glaze Glittering Garland.  Then I studified it(That's a word now).  On my thumb I did a tuque because Christmas = Winter... Et je suis Canadienne.  And on my ring finger I did a Christmas tree!  I kept the rest simple by just adding a single stud to each finger.  I didn't want it to be overwhelming. In addition I used some random clear rhinestones and microbeads.  I finished with two coats of top coat(SH Insta-dri then SV).  Mainly because I have a fear that things stuck to my nails will fall of in the shower.  And I was happy because the top coat didn't make the studs look odd, or twice their size :)

I love, love, love how this turned out!  These studs will for sure be part of my NYE mani!

Again you can buy this over at the Born Pretty Store for crazy sweet prices, and free shipping.  And you can use our coupon code if you order, for 10% off!

 AND on top of that since it is Christmas there are having even more discounts that you can use on top of that! Huzzah!

-Site wide 20%-50% off from Dec. 23rd-25th
-All orders over $20 will get a Christmas stamping Plate from Dec. 15th-25th
-All orders over $30 will get a $5 coupon feedback from Dec. 15th-25th
-And  big prize for the biggest purchase from Dec. 23rd-25th

This product was sent for honest review.

Zoya - Sloan: Why is your shimmery face in the discount bin? :( (+ classy rhinestones!)

So I think if you were to ask too choose what season I love when it comes to nail polish I would have to say fall.  When I think of fall I think of deep, rich, warm colours.  This polish is no exception.

I found this beauty in a discount bin!  At first I though "It's ok.............................LOOK AT THE PRICE...SCORE!".  When I originally bought it 1)I was just starting to get into polish so I never really looked at it. 2)Blind to it's shimmery beauty due to my naive, polish virgin eyes.  I did not see the truth!  But brothers and sisters I am here to show you the truth! The truth that is Zoya Sloan! Can I get an Amen!

Zoya Sloan is 2 coats of deep plum goodness.  Filled with some amazing pink and purple shimmer.  The formula was great.  This actually bubbled the last time I wore it.  But I'm pretty sure I used really thick coats, and didn't give it enough drying time in between.

Love this.  But I will pretty much go for anything vampy.  And to class it up a bit (Ha!) I added a single rhinestone to each finger.  A bit of bling yet not overdone.

 Why does this look berry? It's just another mystery of the universe. Plain and simple.