Patriotic Skittle Nails.

I've tried a bunch of different designs for the 4th of July in the past, so deciding on something different to do this year took a little extra time. I ended up choosing a red, white, blue and silver holographic theme. Any excuse for a glitter and holographic-ness. 

The polishes I used were China Glaze First Mate, Mary Kay Radiant Red, Sally Hansen Hard to Get, and LA Colors Star Light.

The holographic flakes on the red nail were done with nail foils from Born Pretty and the hexagon glitter on my blue nail is my favorite Born Pretty glitter.

If you still need more ideas for your 4th of July mani, here are all my patriotic designs of the past! And hopefully I can manage to share another new red, white, and blue design before the week is over. 

Glitter Tip Nails.

Today's manicure was my first attempt at covering an entire nail or most of a nail with loose glitter. I had never tried it before because I suspected it would be trying on my patience. And although it was worth it to end up with super cute and sparkly nails, my suspicions were definitely accurate. 

To create this manicure I used Nails Inc. St. Martins Lane and my favorite loose glitter, which is from BornPrettyStore.

Holographic Bling Nails.

I was very excited to see the new Bling Ring movie and I figured I needed blinged out nails for the occasion. I considered a few different ways of going about it and ended up deciding on using lots of chunky glitter! 

The base color for the manicure is OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees, and my ring finger is painted with China Glaze Some like it Haute. The hexagon glitters are from Born Pretty Store.

This manicure is a lot darker than the ones I've been wearing for the summer, but I think all the shininess balanced it out and made it very fun, and I liked the results of varying the design a little for each nail.

Born Pretty Silver Glitter Review.

I've seen hexagon shaped glitter used in a lot of great manicures (particularly a bunch from The Nailasaurus) and knew I had to try it out for myself! 

Born Pretty sent me their loose hexagon shaped glitter in the silver color to test and review, and it may just be my favorite item I've received from BPS so far! Looking at the glitter from this angle in the container you can't tell just how pretty it is, but as soon as a little light hits it...

 ...it becomes gorgeous!

And here is the glitter in action. One of my favorite ways I've seen this type of glitter used is to create a border around the nails, so that is what I decided to try. The base color I used is China Glaze In the Limelight.

I was a little worried the glitter might be tricky to work with since loose glitters can be such a mess, but it was surprisingly easy. 

I used an orange stick to pick up one piece of glitter at a time, I found it was easiest to pick up the pieces of glitter that were stuck to the lid or stuck on the edges of the container. That way you aren't accidentally picking up a bunch of pieces at once. 

Then I just put a tiny bit of clear polish where I wanted the glitter to be and gently put each piece in place with the orange stick. 

I can't wait to try and use this glitter in different manicures, I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it! If you want to try the glitter for yourself, it costs $2.38 (and you get a lot of product in the jar) and it can be purchased here. And once again here is a 10% off coupon code you can use on any Born Pretty purchases!

Lastly, don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already. I'll be choosing the winner tomorrow!