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. 

Born Pretty Star Stickers Review.

I have another Born Pretty Store review for you today! The product I have to talk about are glitter star stickers. I have them in six colors; silver, white, hot pink, black, purple, and pale pink. 

For today's manicure I used two different sizes of stars in the white color. The white has a very pretty iridescent glitter that reminded me of snow. 

The base color I used is Wet n Wild Saved by the Blue (I hadn't broken this color out in forever but I love it!) So far the stars have received very positive reactions and the stars in combination with the blue have elicited comparisons to the 4th of July, Boogie Nights, and Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.

These work great as an easy way to make any manicure special. They're of course super simple to use, my only tip is to use a thick top coat because they're not completely flat!

Born Pretty also sent me a couple of accessories; a bow ring and a pink lipstick pen which I've been getting a lot of use out of lately.

It's easy to forget that Born Pretty has non-nail related things since they have so many great nail art products. But they have plenty of cute things that aren't related to nails, these are just two examples!

If you want to order one of these items or anything else from BPS you can get 10% off with the coupon code below!

Patriotic Explosion Nails.

Last year one of my 4th of July manicures was a freehanded firework design, this year I decided I wanted to use fireworks as my inspiration again, but take a different route. I decided to do a tape manicure and do the explosion design I've been planning to do for quite a while.

The polishes I used were Mary Kay Radiant Red, Sally Hansen Silver Sweep, and OPI Dating A Royal.

This design takes a bit of patience since there is a lot of waiting for layers to dry completely, but besides that it's pretty easy and I love how it turned out!

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!

Firework Nails.

For Memorial Day I chose to do American Flag nails, so for the 4th of July I decided to go with a firework design. 

I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to go about it, but I ended up just adding lots of lines and sparkle until I was happy. 

The base color is OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue, and I used red, white, and blue acrylic paints. For the shine and sparkle I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep, LA Colors Star Light, and China Glaze Some Like it Haute.

Happy 4th!

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.