Born Pretty's Twitter giveaway

Remember my post about Born Pretty having giveaways? There is a new giveaway already and there's a chance to win foil stickers! Born Pretty is going to host a giveaway on their Twitter on thursday 13 October. They are offering 1000 pieces of the foil stickers.

How to get the stickers?
1. Follow Born Pretty on Twitter and retweet this tweet about their giveaway.

2. Go to their website and find the foil stickers on the homepage.
3. Add the product to your cart and continue.
4. Choose non registered airmail which is free and paste the link of your retweet in the order comment.

5. Choose payment method (only Paypal available) and use the coupon FBREPLY2011. This coupon will be valid at 10 pm (New York time) 13 October. That's 4 am 14 October in the Netherlands and Belgium.

6. Check out. You don't have to pay anything! This is just to complete your free order.

Important: make sure you're one of the first 1000 people, cause they only give away to these first people!

Of course I'm going to enter this giveaway too! I already won the foil stickers once and I also tried them. But I failed ): I think this type of nail art can be very pretty once you applied them well. So I want to give it another try.

I hope you'll be one of the many 1000 people who are entering this giveaway too. Good luck!

Like them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BornPrettyStore2010
Follow them on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bornprettystore
Follow them on Blogspot: http://bornprettystore.blogspot.com/
Subscribe them on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/bornprettystore

Tutorial: elegant half moon

I'm not going to write a life story first, just start with the tutorial!! :D

1. Take a shimmery light blue colour as a base colour or any other colour you want. Since I don't have a shimmery blue I first applied a blue colour and after that a glittery grey one. When applying the nail polish you don't have to do the lower part perfectly, since you'll be removing this part anyway in the next step.

2. When it's completely dry, take a cotton swab and dip it into your nail polish remover bottle. Make round movements with the cotton swab on the bottom of your nails. You now should have half moons like in the picture below.

3. Add 3 dots (with a dotting tool) on your nail like the picture.

4. Now the hardest part of all! *___* Connect them to the border of the half moon with two thin lines. Start with the dot in the middle. Make sure the lines aren't too thick. You want your nails to be elegant so they have to be thin. Tip: think of your nails wearing 3 necklaces.

5. Now connect the 2 other dots with the border.

6. Do the same with your other nails. Add top coat and you have elegant half moon nails now!

Items used:
Essence - #74 Sure azure
Golden rose - #39 (bought in Hong Kong)
Catrice - #650 Goldfinger
Dotting tool
Old tip painter for the lines

Tutorial: cracking parts

Yay, already the second tutorial this week! And you can expect a lot more in the future ghehe :D Yesterday I went to the drugstore and saw Essence got a new colour for their cracking nail polish collection: silver! It made me think of the Shatter from OPI so I bought it right away. The difference between those 2 is first of all: the price. Essence is much cheaper than the one from OPI. But it also cracks differently! It cracks with long strips - like all the other cracking top coats from Essence - while OPI cracks with slightly more horizontal strips. Anyway, I think crackle nail polish can get very bored after a while so I tried different ways to do crackle nail art. 

Let's get started!

1. Choose a base coat you want to combine with the colour of your cracking top coat. I chose a dark colour for the silver crackle.

2. Use tape to achieve straight lines. Make sure the tape doesn't stick too well! This might screw up your base coat, even when it's completely dry!

3. For my pink finger I didn't do much effort, just painted the top. I didn't paint it straight as usual, but I painted it crooked. I personally like this crooked effect for crackle top coats better. 

4. I painted the whole nail of my thumb with small crooked stripes. While achieving this style you have to use little nail polish on your brush.

I don't use my cracking top coats often, but when I do I always do it the diagonal way. Simply because the usual way got too bored! Would you try this?

Items used:
Catrice - #330 Absolutely chinchilly
Essence - #04 Crack me! silver
Tape

Tutorial: gradient nails

I used to do a lot of gradient nail art with glitters, because this is pretty easy to do. I found it really hard to do gradient with actual colours. But I found a easy way to do a perfect gradient! In this blogpost I'm going to show you how.

Let's get started!
1. Choose two (or more) colours. I chose two purple shades from Essence. Apply the lightest colour on your nails.

2. Take a sponge similiar to the size of your nails. Paint the highest part the same colour as you painted your nails, followed by a darker colour underneath. Use a dotting tool to mix the colours so the border fades. If necessary, test the sponge on paper if you think the colours aren't mixed well.

3. Pat the sponge on your nails a few times. Repeat this step until you're satisfied with the gradient. I did this step twice (waited till the polish dried and patted again). You can protect your skin from the nail polish if you don't want to get a bunch of mess on your skin.

4. Remove the nail polish from your skin and add a top coat on your nails. Finished!

I feel you have to do this with shades from the same colour. The outcome might be weird if you use colours which are too different from each other :p

Items used:
Essence - #42 Dress for a moment
Essence - #27 No more drama
Catrice quick shine & high shine top coat
Essence glitter top coat
Sponge
Dotting tool

What do you think of gradient nails?

Mint candy

This makes me think of candy. Doesn't it make you think of candy too?

Items used:
Essence - 68 Perfectly true
Gosh - #597 Miss minty
Catrice - #650 Goldfinger
Thin brush