Summer polish.

Happy first day of Summer!!! I hope everyone takes some time to enjoy this time of year!

While summer is not my most favorite season - I prefer fall and winter - I'm glad it's hear because it means longer days, June gloom (a fun little weather phenomenon in Southern CA), and Friday's off at work! Win - win- win. 

If you know me, you know that I love nail polish and easily paint by nails 3 to 4 times a week. And I love it. Really, I do.

And specifically, I love Essie. It's by far my favorite brand and their huge variety of colors is one of the primary reasons! They release a new line of colors every season and although I lean heavily toward fall like, neutral colors most of the time, the summer months are a perfect time to brighten things up!

Here's their latest Summer 2012 collection...

At Target the other day, I finally picked up my first polish of the collection - it's called Off the Shoulder and it's fantastic!

It's described as a "bold, hot pink" but with just enough boldness as to not be over the top (at least for this 32 year old.) It's such a fun, cheerful color...how can you not love it? 

My other Essie favorites are Merino Cool...a gorgeous mulberry like color.

 And Sew Psyched...a soft sage pewter like shade.

I get quite a few compliments when I wear these two shades so I wear them a lot! What about you?? Do you have a favorite brand or color? And by the way, this isn't a sponsored post - Essie has no idea who I am or just how much love them :-)

I love nail polish.

Here's something you may not know about me - my nails are always polished. And I mean ALWAYS. I easily paint them at least every 3 days, maybe a little longer if the polish still looks good. Chipped polish rarely stays on longer than a day and they are easy to do because I keep all of my polish and supplies in a plastic box close at hand.

So this weekend, I went to a little birthday get together with friends and family. We've developed a fun tradition when we get together - we do our nails! So after lunch we busted out the nail polish and four of us were treated to amazing manicures by the designated manicurist of the bunch - who's very talented!

The polka dot designs were inspired by from ideas I saw on Pinterest. Oh, how I love Pinterest!

Here are mine...grey base with dots in progressively darker shades of pink.

 Linda's...blue base with pink, white and green dots.

Joanne's...pink base with gray animal stripes.

And Andreea's...brown/gold base with taupe animal stripes.

I love all the designs so much but I am especially fond of my polka dots! Needless to say, I will be very sad when they start chipping (so like tomorrow.) Until then, I can't stop looking at them :-)