Every girl needs to know the basics of a manicure.  Thanks to The Beauty Department, Lauren Conrad’s Beauty Blog, here’s a great how-to, step-by-step tutorial!

There’s something really nice about taking a break from nail polish for a second, right? There are so many fun nail trends today that it makes  you want to change things up… a lot! In this tutorial, we show you how to give yourself a perfectly polished, natural manicure that looks lovely and allows your nails to breathe.

• Always clean your tools properly before you begin. You can simply wipe them down with alcohol and a cotton ball, b for proper sterilization we placed our metal tools on a cookie sheet (make sure they don’t have plastic on them) and baked them at 375 for 15 minutes. Make sure to let them cool off completely before using.
• You want to file your nails dry. Filing wet nails can cause splitting or peeling. Not cute!
• Soak your nails in a bowl of warm water. Add a little bath salt or Epsom salt to your water for softening. Or add liquid soap for cleansing. We added 5 chamomile oil drops as well to soothe an moisturize.
• Next apply a cuticle oil or cream to keep the cuticle soft while you’re doing your manicure.
• Using an orange stick or a metal pusher as seen above, push your cuticles back. Apply light pressure and don’t be too aggressive.
• If you don’t have an orange stick or metal pusher, you can push the cuticle back with a hand towel.
• If you’re a pro, you can very carefully trim the cuticle. It’s best to leave this step to a manicurist, but if you want to do it yourself at home, make sure you know what you’re doing! It can be very painful if you cut yourself.
• Last, buff the nail using a 3 or 4 sided buffer. The shine from buffing is AMAZING!! It’s better than any top coat you could ever apply. Buffing takes patience, but it’s so pretty once it’s done. Don’t forget to buff the edges of the nail where you filed! This will keep it from snagging.