Yellow With Black Dots Nails

ORIGINAL POST DATE: September 3, 2010
So... what happens when I try to be patriotic for my school? This happens:

Colors used:

• China Glaze: Solar Power
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear: Black Out

So, yeah. My school's colors are black and gold. So I came up with this design. It's simple, but sometimes the simplicity of something makes it beautiful. Not saying that this design is beautiful, BUT I think if I added something to it, I would ruin in. Half of a design is to know when to STOP.

As far as doing the design, it was super easy. I first painted my nails "Solar Power" which is the yellow color. I used three coats. If you want to know more about this color, click my Review and check it out! Then, using my homemade dotting tool (a bobby pin), I made a large dot in the center of each nail, using "Black Out", then I made the dots go from large to small, putting them in a swerving direction. It's easiest to just look at the photo for the way I did the dots. :) And then I added a large-ish, silver rhinestone on the fourth nail, on top of the large, center dot. You know how much of love rhinestones... I obviously couldn't do without them. :D

And I lastly put on Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. That's why my nails are so shiny! I just got hat top coat yesterday, and I'll have a review on it maybe tomorrow, but in short, I love it! Before Seche Vite I just used some cheap top coat, but it makes a difference to use a nice one.

OH! And I know I don't mention this every time (or anytime? I don't know/remember), but I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS use a base coat and a top coat WHENEVER I paint my nails. NO EXCEPTIONS. :) Thought I'd get that out there.

I got "Solar Power" from Sally Beauty Supply and I got "Black Out" at Walgreens.

This was a short one today, guys. I don't know if you like the short, simple ones, but I'm going to apologize for its shortness anyway. I just have that everlasting headache you get when you're sleep-deprived. But it's the weekend, and I can catch up on some Zzzz's.

♥ ☮
~LinZ

China Glaze: Grape Juice

ORIGINAL POST DATE: September 2, 2010

Surprised? Maybe not. Lol. This review wasn't on my To-Do list. BUT... I ended up wanting to wear purple polish for school, and I thought, "Hey, before I add a design, why not take some pictures, and make a review!" So, that's how all this happened. I'm going to make this as short and sweet as possible. :)

So, here's my review on China Glaze's Grape Juice. Here are photos of the bottom of the bottle and the bottle itself:

"Grape Juice" is a purple, glitter polish. I KNOW. GLITTER. Which means it's not the most fun thing to remove from your nail. But I don't really mind that much. So yeah. :D It's glitter, but even without a top coat, the polish, when dried, feels smooth on the nail.

The application process was enjoyable. Lol. The first coat goes on really transparent. It takes three coats to really build up the color, but I used four coats, as seen in the photo below:

It's so pretty. :) The color kind of grew on me. At first, I thought it was just nice. I wasn't CRAZY about it, but it's not like I disliked it. But the longer I wear it, the more I like "Grape Juice." It's a nice purple that gets darker the more coats you layer on.

I took a picture of a close up of the bottle so you can see the sparkles.

Pretty, no?

You can see the tiny silver flecks of glitter.

The camera managed to capture the color very well for all the photos! The color of the polish in the photo is spot on to the color in real life. I like this color a lot, and I recommend it to any one.

It's not thick and chunky and it's somewhat subtle. But it still draws attention. Good attention!

And the last picture for you all:

Sorry to get off topic, but do I seem less enthusiastic than usual? I'm just tired from school. I keep going to sleep late and waking up early. Oh well. I still had a good day, and I hope you did too! And I hope you enjoy the quick, simple review!

Feel free to click on any of the photos to see larger, more-detailed versions of them.

P.S. I have had "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young stuck in my head all day.

♥ ☮

~LinZ

O.P.I Nail Lacquer

ORIGINAL POST DATE: August 26, 2010

I shouldn't be on the computer right now. I shouldn't have gone to the mall today. There's a lot of things in life that we SHOULDN'T do, but we do them ANYWAY. Like for example, today I was supposed finish my summer reading for school. But I had accidentally discovered the other day that the mall by my house has O.P.I Nail Lacquer. I went into a fit. Sort of. I kind of just jumped around and got all excited. Do I have problems? Maybe. I ramble because I have so many things I need to say!
Anyway! So there's a Trade Secret in the mall and when life hands you nail polish, you don't say no. So that's how I ended up going to Trade Secret today and got my first three O.P.I bottles of polish EVER! I always just had China Glaze and some other small brands. I have been CRAVING for O.P.I. And now I have it! SCORE FOR ME! :D
SO. I don't have time to review each of the three bottles right now. But I WILL have the reviews sometime next week, along with several other posts that I have been putting off because I am a procrastinator and left all my school work for summer the week before school starts. I had three months. And I leave it for 7 days. *sigh*
Oh well. I always get it done anyway! Here are the three polishes I got!

Aren't they beautiful... They look so... OFFICIAL. Is it sad that nail polish makes me so happy?
I got "Heart Throb" which is a light pink. "Fiercely Fiona" which is a light yellow-green (from O.P.I's "Shrek" collection). And "You Don't Know Jacques" which is a brown/gray color (from O.P.I's France Collection). And I'm wearing that right now. Lol.
I don't have time to dawdle too much over the polish. I'll have the reviews up soon. Until then!

♥ ☮

~LinZ

PHD'S "Song Inspiration" Challenge

ORIGINAL POST DATE: August 24, 2010

Polish Hoarder Disorder's most recent challenge is "Song Inspiration" which means you pick a song and find a way to translate the lyrics and its meaning onto your fingernails! Quite a challenging challenge, no? Lol. But I guess that's why they're called challenge. To challenge your creativity with your nails! I plan on entering designs for all the Weekly Challenges because they are so much fun to do! Anyone can participate! And it's a great way to interact with people online who also have a nail obsession. It makes me feel not quite so strange.

If you want to check out everyone's nail designs for the challenge, click this link!http://polishhoarderdisorder.blogspot.com/2010/08/challenge-gallery-song-inspiration.html

Here are the photos I submitted:

Song: "White Houses" by Vanessa Carlton

Song: "City of Blinding Lights" by U2

~

I'll probably make separate posts for each nail design, explaining how I did it, what I used, etc. But I know I'll definitely make one for the "City of Blinding Lights" because I took a BUNCH of pictures while I did the nails. So I have pictures of the nails in process. And I'll get some better, close up pictures of the design.

Unfortunately I have to make this post short because I am REALLY behind on my reading for school. I would LOVE to keep typing and even type up more posts, but I can't afford to. I've already wasted enough time as it is.

But I'll definitely have more to say later. I don't know when that "later" is, but I'll figure it out.

♥ ☮

~LinZ

Funky Pink and Black Nails

ORIGINAL POST DATE: August 23, 2010
I'm back with another nail design that I did not too long ago. Maybe a month. I have all these photos of nail designs that I've done, and now I can share them with the world through my blog.
This nail design is very... glittery. :) And sparkly. :D
First my nails looked like this:

And then I decided I wanted all my nails to match, so I redid the fourth finger to match the others. And then to give the design a little something, a little "je ne sais quoi," I added a rhinestone to each nail! I love my rhinestones. I hope you know that. So this is what my nails ended up looking like:

Polishes used:

• Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition: Byte
• It’s So Easy Stripe Rite: Silver
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear: Black Out

I really like this design! It's simple, but it's nice. And I love the color combination. I have ALWAYS thought black and pink went well together.
So, first I just applied "Byte" as a base color. I waited for Byte to dry. Then I used "Black Out" on the tips of my nails, like a French manicure. Wait for that to dry. Then I used the Silver glitter polish. It has a thin brush so it's easy to make a nice clean line. Lastly, I added the rhinestones. And obviously I applied a base and top coat. I never mention that I use a base and top coat, but I always do, and I think it's obvious!
Now, these nails are kind of a wild French manicure. The hot pink and black combo kind of makes it look punk-chic. SO. In my opinion, this would be really cool for prom, if you have a black dress, especially if it's accented with pink. It's a daring nail design. :D Do you agree?

♥ ☮

~LinZ

Rhinestone Mania!

ORIGINAL POST DATE: August 21, 2010
I'm back! And tired. And sad. Seven hours of driving takes a lot out of you. And now my sister is all settled in her dormitory. And now I'm alone. But I guess it's just another part of life and growing up. Anyway, you aren't here to hear about my personal problems, you're here for rhinestones!
I love rhinestones. Simple as that. But if you put too many on one nail, it looks gaudy. But if that's the look you're going for, then by all means, go ahead. Rhinestones give that extra "je ne sais quoi." Which is French for "I don't know what," but is used in English as a way of describing a quality that makes something distinctive or attractive, a "certain something". For example, "She has a certain je ne sais quoi about her." :D I love saying that phrase. And I have an excuse because I'm half-French! Ha!

Can you tell that I love this color? I've been obsessed with it lately. It's China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise (Neon). If you want to know more specifics about this color, go to my post for Autumn Tree Nails. I have a good paragraph describing the color. But I will quickly say that my camera is unfortunately incapable of capturing the true color of this polish. It's Turned Up TURQUOISE. It looks strictly BLUE in the photo. But it's actually more green than blue in real life. Just trust me when I say that it's a really nice color.

Now, the rhinestones, they're different sizes. Which was done purposely. :) I got them at Walgreens. They're the kind with the sticky back to them, so you just stick them on your nail, but I took off the little stickers, because I like putting on my rhinestones the way I always do.
Anyhow. Rhinestones add bling, glam, and bedazzle to your nails! And they're good attention getters! If you want your nails to be noticed, bedazzle them with rhinestones!
My favorite rhinestone to use is the classic silver, which is seen in these photos. I think this is most people's favorite. And it's classic for a reason. It goes with ANY nail color or design you have! VERY versatile. I LOVE IT!

I only have one rhinestone wheel and the rhinestones I got from Walgreens. I got the wheel at a kiosk in the mall, for a really good price, but unfortunately, that kiosk is gone. If I would have known that, I would have stocked up. Haha. So I'm pretty limited when it comes to rhinestones. But I LOVE them and I WANT them, but the only other place I know of that has them is Sally's, and that store is so darn expensive. I refuse to pay $12 for a wheel that only has a few stones that I would use up like water. So, yeah, I have to go find some place that has some good prices. Because I would LOVE to have some star-shaped and some heart-shaped stones!

♥ ☮

~LinZ

French Manicure

ORIGINAL POST DATE: August 18, 2010

Well, I'm leaving to help my sister move into her dorm for college so I'll be gone for three days. I leave tomorrow morning (very early) and get back Friday. It's a 7 hour drive up. Oh the joys. But I REALLY wanted to post something for the 18th so I'm typing this the night before. And I'll post it up when I wake up tomorrow. Sound good? And I'm going to try to post something on Friday, when I get back. :D

Okay, so. Let me start by saying I love French manicures. I AM half French. :) They are simple, classy, elegant, and ageless. They will NEVER go out of style, and you can wear them with anything! Anytime, anywhere. They're just THAT versatile.

So, I painted my nails a French manicure the other day and took a bunch of pictures. I always take like 20 pictures of my nails and then only post 1 or 2. I don't want to just fill the blog with photos, no matter how fun that sounds. But I might do that with this post, considering that most people know how to do a French manicure, so there's no need to explain how I did it. But I'll still tell you what I used.

I used "Sweet Blush" by Orly for the base, and China Glaze's "White on White" for the tips. Now, "Sweet Blush" is a great nail polish, it goes on really smooth, but it is not for everyone. "Sweet Blush" matches MY skin tone pretty well, but it may not match yours. But don't fret! Orly's French manicure polishes has a bunch of different pink colors. :) And the "White on White" is just a simple white. Any white polish will do.

Some people will use the stickers for the tips, to make a perfectly curved line. I, on the other hand, do not use them. I've tried it a few times, and it's fine, but I just prefer doing it myself.

Photo time! Here are pictures of my left hand.

Unfortunately, my pointer finger nail broke, so it's a lot shorter than the rest of my nails. But I REFUSE to cut my other nails to match. So I just have to wait for it to grow out.

And here's a photo of my right hand.

And the pointer finger nail on this hand ALSO broke, but not as short as my left hand, thankfully. So, yeah, for some reason, it's ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS the pointer finger nail that breaks.

And here are photos of my rhinestone rainbow that I'm so gosh-darn proud of. :)

My left hand, sporting my rhinestone rainbow. I like to call it a "ring for my finger."

A close up of the rhinestones. Ignore the fact that my finger looks wrinkly. Thank you.

♥ ☮

~LinZ