To celebrate Independence Day in the US, I decided to get my red, white & blue sparkle on. I even planned to get all crafty incorporating scotch tape and the result ended up being one giant mani-fail! Of course, instead of getting down on myself for it, I’m learning from my mistakes and sharing my missteps with you.

To create today’s look I went straight for my Milani One Coat Glitters in Red Sparkle and Blue Flash. When you want full-on sparkle without multiple, thick layers of polish, look no further. It’s just a shame they didn’t come out with a white version to complete my manicure.

In order to conserve my favorite white sparkler, China Glaze White Kwik Silvr, I pulled out another untried, China Glaze Cloud Nine from the Specialty Glitters collection.

As much as I believe that you never get the whole nail polish story until you see the juice on the nail, I love looking at bottle images. One of my favorite things about scrolling through Tumblr posts is when I stumble across a great bottle shot. So I started photographing my collection, in bottles, by brand, with the intention of eventually posting them in my gallery.

FYI, my gallery hasn’t allowed me to upload photos for a year and that’s why it isn’t updated. I haven’t found a fix or a better gallery solution which is why it remains unchanged since April 2010. It’s not that I’m neglecting it.

Anyway, I decided to start with Chanel, going color drawer by color drawer though my Helmers. I’ll be posting the pics on my Tumblr in the meantime so if you want to follow along, subscribe to my account over there.

I started with my white, black, gray and silver drawers and that inspired me to finally try Chanel Pearl Drop. Pearl Drop seemed to be the forgotten child in the Spring 2011 collection as Black Pearl garnered all the buzz so I was curious to see if it would end up being a sleeper hit.

If you’ve read my previous shatter/crackle reviews you know I’m not all in on this look but the base colors in this collection really drew me in.  Unlike the Katy Perry collection that left me pretty indifferent, the polishes in this collection are Game.Set.Match. wins!

It’s always been part of my life plan to have a boat of my own to enjoy everything Lake Erie has to offer. The Lake Erie islands, the Sandusky Bay area, it’s all so beautiful and fun. This spring my dream of summering on a boat just may come true. The boyfriend and I are signing up for a safe boating course and starting to shop for our own floating home away from home which has me on an all things nautical high.

I’ve been shopping for new deck shoes, conjuring up boat names, contemplating the boat themed manicures I’ll wear, etc. And after seeing a mani/pedi combo using the navy and orange cremes from this collection, I already know what is going on my nails first.  But before we get into the bold Knotty Nauticals let’s take a look at the softer side of the Anchors Away collection, the Sand & Sea six piece set.

If you missed the first part of my China Glaze ‘Tis The Season To Be Naughty Or Nice review make sure you check it out to see the blue and greens from this collection.

Today we’re talking about the Golds, Silver and Whites from the sixteen piece collection.  You may remember that my all time favorite white nail polish on the planet is China Glaze White-Kwik-Silvr.  It’s white polish perfection.  So when I spotted a sparkly white coming out for holiday I hoped I would find a WKS twin.

Read on to see if Frosty lived up to my dream and to check out Cheers To You, Jingle Bells, Midnight Kiss and Snow.