
Dovile Kopustas, Hands On Spa, Beverly Hills, Calif.
If you’re the type who prefers doing your own nails, allow me to make a suggestion: take your birthday off. Give yourself this one day out of the year and treat yourself to a salon experience. Let someone else worry about the design, spilling glitter, and application, while you sip champagne.

Nicole Richie’s heart tips by Kimmie Kyees
Sure, I had some ideas for birthday nail art I could do myself, but when it came down to it, I wanted things done right so my nails would look their best for all the festivities this week brings.

Mallory Choi, Federal Way, Wash.
I headed over to see the very talented Jae’tte and showed her some pictures of manicures I had in mind. Most of them were extremely blingy (which is my personality), so I found it interesting that her creation seemed to most closely resemble the mani above from Mallory Choi.

Jae’tte Burneo, Hand Jobs Nails & More, Costa Mesa, Calif.
She used Morgan Taylor glitter polish as the base, then drew the hearts on the tips with OPI polish and a striping brush. The black heart is done with my new favorite Morgan Taylor polish, New York State of Mind. The nails were cured with a gel top coat before adding the gold embellishments.
All in all, this manicure is pretty much everything I wanted and didn’t know it. I had loved the look of the heart tip for so long, and yet I knew I probably couldn’t recreate it myself. I also love that Jae’tte used lots of color (I’m a sucker for a colorful manicure) and blinged it up in a way I wouldn’t have thought to do myself. This nail art was the perfect birthday surprise. I learned that a good nail artist is like a mind reader, they just know what you want. And for your birthday you should get everything you want, right?
The heart tips I heart above are from one of my favorite nail art blogs. Learn how to get nail icon Nicole Richie’s punk-inspired hearts here. Follow Jae’tte on Instagram and catch more of her creations @hot_pink_polish.