a decade ago, if you’d asked me what i thought was the height of sophistication, my answer would have been immediate: a french manicure, dahling. oh how i adored a frenchy. i thought it made me look so grown up and elegant. that clean, classic nail staple adorned the hands of every second lady on the street. in recent years, it has fallen out of favour as even the chicest of women embraced the young, fun world of nail art, and experimented with the nail polish rainbow – from pastel to neon.
my love affair with loud and proud nails is not going anywhere soon, but when i spotted this fun take on the french manicure recently, i just had to try it. one of my favourite blogs, the beauty department, shared this idea a few weeks back and i couldn’t wait to give it a go myself. it takes an old, tired look and turns it into something as clean and sweet as the original, with just enough cheeky to get me interested.
you’ll need your favourite pale pink (i like opi ‘makes men blush’ here), a good opaque white, and either a pointy tip cuticle stick or a professional dotting tool. paint on two thin coats of your pink base and allow to dry completely.
next, paint a thin-ish line along the edge of your nail to create a french tip. if you’ve got a steady hand and can do a smooth line in one go, yay! good for you. all you shaky hands just need to use a brush dipped in polish remover to make a nice neat line, so don’t stress.
now if you were doing the classic look, you’d be about done now. but we’re gonna mix things up a bit, just you wait…
next use your pointy stick dipped in a little white polish and make three or four (depending on how wide the nail) dots along the edge of the line, making sure you overlap the dots a little with the line. now add a second row of dots a little further back, interspersed in the spaces of the previous dots.
wait for your dots to dry completely. they might be a little gloopy so ensure you leave plenty of time. watch an episode of your favourite half-hour show with your hands on your knees, that’s my little trick: i’m distracted, and have waited long enough by the time it’s over.
finish off with a final coat of the pink. i like how the last layer makes the white a little softer and just melds the whole look together.
and you’re done! a fun, fresh new take on the french manicure. have you reworked a classic lately? let us know!
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