Friday, August 16, 2013

Contest entry- Born pretty store "Happy Summer"

My first entry is an older design, but I thought it suits the theme. Roses, sparkles, a lot of green. Everything is made with acrylic powder.


I got first!! Never expected this to happen because there were designs so much better, especially nr 13 who was my favorite out of all. So happy she got second. Thank you everyone for the support!!! Please check the list of voters who won the bracelet watch here. Congratulations to all of you!

http://bornprettystore.blogspot.com/2013/09/winners-for-happy-summer-nail-art.html








Thursday, August 8, 2013

Weekly nail care routine for guys

I'm not saying this is the professional way of doing it, but this is how my husband gets it done, without any trouble. He knows how to do it himself and I do it for him often also.



Having good looking hands is a must have in men or women. You don't need to go to a salon to have your hands taken care of. You can do it at home, on a budget. There are just few simple steps that you can follow to have good looking hands.

Here's a list with basic tools that you need. You can get them at a drugstore or if you prefer buying your stuff online like me I'll post links for everything where you can find them. I get most of my nail supplies from bornprettystore.com.


  • cutticle knife or you can use an orange stick instead. my cuticle knife is multi purpose  get it here

Everything will be easier if the manicure is done after bath, shower, or after the hands are held in warm water for about 10 minutes.

The overall process takes about 15-20 minutes and it can get faster once you're getting used to it.

Start off by clipping your nails, making sure you don't clip too far to avoid damaging of the nail bed or cutting. Simple nail clippers work fine, but i prefer using small blunt nail scissors for precision.

To shorten it more, file the nail, making sure you achieve the shape you want in the same time. Most guys I know like their nails rounded some.

Use a cuticle knife or an orange stick to push back the cuticles. If the cutticle is too thick and doesn't look right, cut it off with a cuticle fork. Be extra careful because small cuts get infected easy. Don't cut too deep, but if you get a small cut in the cuticle that gets red or bleeds, applying an antibiotic cream 2-3 times will avoid even the smallest infection. Neosporin usually does the trick.

Use a buffer to remove the excess dead cells on the surface of the nail and even it out. Buffer blocks that are too hard might damage the natural nails. Those are indended for acrylics and gel nails. Use a block with medium or soft grit. The block can also be used to even out any rough spots on the edge of the nail if the file didn't do it right.

Optional, you can give them some natural looking shine using a file intended for that.  Usually the shine that the file gives lasts for over a week, even when you work with your hands a lot.

Appling the cuticle oil might be the most important part, other than trimming the nails. It moisturizes the skin, nourishes the nail and instantly fixes the dry, split cuticles. It's a wonderful thing to have. I have an article on it in my nail care section here on the blog. Most people prefer the expensive cuticle oil, but i find the cheap oil pens to work wonders. They have natural ingridients and a soft scent. They also come in a variety of scents you can chose from. If you don't want cuticle oil, you can always use olive oil. It gets absorbed by the skin way harder, but it works about the same.

You can apply cuticle oil or hand cream every 3 days to keep your hands in perfect condition. Most guys won't like the oil first few times of using it, but they get used to it after a while. Is absorbed by the skin fast and it leaves it soft and great to touch.


Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Simple half flower design featuring Born Pretty holo polish nr 8

Ok this is my favorite color out of all of them and i'll probably be using it a lot. I already stacked up on polish bottles from this color so i'll have enough for a while. I didn't step step by step pictures this time, but I have the step by step video here.


for the materials here's the list and links where you can get what i'm using or similar items

on bornprettystore.com you can use the site-wide 10% off coupon DNLW10.



  • born pretty holo polish:
click here for product


  • purple acrylic paint ( any color works) mine is from art deco, the 6 pack of brights



  • topcoat - mine is from wet'n'wild and can be found at any drugstore. i got mine from dollar general

  • shimmery silver nail polish- mine is NYC i got it from walmart



  • jellry or candy rhinestones, also known as AB rhinestones
click here for product


  • nail art brushes
click here for product

















Saturday, July 20, 2013

Wet'n'Wild swatches part 1

This is my favorite drug store brand, cheap and extremely good quality.

All these swatches are from the megalast series.

Pictures are taken under atificial light.

Theres no topcoat over the polish.

Each swatch has 2 coats of color.



  • "Under your spell"

















  • "Sea Change" - it changes green-purple depending on light. unforunatelly i couldn't catch that in a picture
















  • "Tahitian Pearl"
















  • "Blue Visionary"













  • "I saw a comet" - personal favorite














Have  lot more coming soon <3

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Kawaii 3D Hearts Design




Materials used:

  • Confetti- Pink Paradise (nr 13)
  • Wet'n'Wild - Megalast- Whipped Topping
  • AB rhinestones 3mm- blue and light pink
  • Caviar beads- silver and pink
  • Baby blue acrylic powder
  • Wet'n'Wild megalast topcoat
  • Wet'n'Wild Shine- Kaleidoscope
You can find these nail polishes at almost any drug store. I got them from CVS.

You can get the decorations I used for a small price here:
micro beads
AB rhinestones
colored acrylic powder

Use code DNLW10 for a 10% discount on everything.


This is fairly easy to make but a little time consuming.

1. Add 2 layers of any pale nude pink polish.
2. Coat with a transparent glitter polish and paint a french.
3. Using the acrylic powder build or mold a heart and add it wherever you want on the pink side of the nail.

4. Add a blue AB rhinestone in the middle of the french line.
5. Start making an outline with silver microbeads on each side of the stone. I used a toothpink for it. Doing this while the topcoat is wet will help you glide the beads around very easy.
6. Add 1 pink rhinestone on both side of the blue one and continue adding beads around all 3 of them until you get something like this:
7. Add some pink micro beads under each side of the heart. Make the beads line curve a little.
8. Coat the hearts only with glitter topcoat so they won't look dull.
9. Seal everything in 2 layers of topcoat and add cuticle oil.

If you use my design and post it or make a better tutorial please use DeeDee Livesay inspired.

if you like my designs please follow me on facebook and subscribe on my youtube channel.