Panda Nails.

When I was transitioning from a nail polish obsession to a nail art obsession, one of the first designs I tried were pandas. I loved looking down to see cute pandas adorning my nails, and that was enough to get me hooked to nail art. 

It's been a long time since I first tried out that design, and I realized I had yet to revisit it, so that is what I had to do for today's manicure! 

I did a few things differently this time, and I think they ended up extra cute.

The base color is 2 coats of Essence Movie Star followed by two coats of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy. The pandas are done with Milani White on the Spot and CND Asphalt.

Nautical Nails.

Nautical nails are a design I've had on my list to do for quite a while now, but it took me a while to decide how exactly I wanted to do them. 

I played around with a few different ideas and eventually decided on this fun combination...

The polishes I used are Milani White on the Spot, Julep January, and Essence Just Rock It. I used striping tape for all of the stripes, and the silver balls are the steel balls I reviewed here.

I wore this design on the 4th of July so the color scheme was perfect, but nautical nails are so perfect for any summer day!

Aztec Print Nails.

Today's manicure was inspired by an aztec print shirt I saw. I ended up just adding a bunch of triangles until I liked what I saw. The base color is Essence Movie Star, and all the triangles are done with acrylic paint. 

Boysenberry Paisley Nails.

When I decided I wanted to do paisley nails, I immediately knew what would make for the perfect inspiration.

I used the Vera Bradley sticky note set in Boysenberry. I've been looking at it a lot lately since I've been using the long list sticky notes to jot down manicure ideas, and it was hard not to be inspired.

I really liked the color combination in my inspiration so I tried to stay true to that. The base color is OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries and the other polishes I used are Essence Just Rock It!, China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle, Sephora Myrtille, and Wet n Wild French White Creme.

American Flag Nails.

I've seen a lot of great Memorial Day manicures, but I decided to keep things simple and classic for my design. Maybe I will do something crazier for the 4th of July.

I created stripes on my pointer and ring fingernails using striping tape, and stars on my middle and pinky fingernails. For the stars I used the BM-20 plate, but I ended up going over them with a small brush so the white would be more opaque. 

 The blue polish I used is Essence Just Rock It! and the red is Julep January. The white I used for the stripes is Wet n Wild French White Creme and the white for the stars is Konad Special White Polish.

Neon Music Note Nails.

I think today's manicure ended up being pretty fun and cute! I was inspired by a coin purse I own and decided to center the design around music notes. Then I added various dots and stars around the music notes. 

I used Essence Just Rock It! for the base color and did the design in Color Club Glitter Envy. Then I added just a little more glitter with Color Club Starry Temptress. 

Colorful Balloon Nails.

I saw these balloon nails on tumblr and had to give it a shot. I went about doing it a little differently, but I was very happy with the outcome. These are definitely nice and cheery.

The colors I used for the balloons are OPI My Chihuahua Bites, OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, OPI Ogre the Top Blue, and China Glaze Spontaneous. The base color is Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and the balloon strings are Essence Movie Star.

Stained Glass Nails.

This stained glass manicure is one of my favorites. The base is Essence Just Rock It! with OPI I Lily Love You over top. This isn't a polish I hear get much hype, but it's gorgeous layered over a dark blue. It really makes all the flakes stand out.

I stamped overtop using a Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Turquoise Chrome. The image is from BM-208.

This had the hardest time choosing which photos to post of this manicure, my desktop was completely covered in photos when I was deciding. Each one just caught a different, pretty angle of the flakes. Somehow I narrowed it down to just six!

I've really enjoyed looking down and seeing this manicure, I'll be hesitant to remove it tonight.