Love them or hate them, the staying power of the French manicure is undeniable, but the look has evolved immensely from its classic pink and white. The last few years have spawned dozens of different colorful designs with the same timeless DNA: arcs of color along the tips of nails. Genius nail artists have shown off their unexpected takes on Instagram, with half-moons in neon, tie-dye, and eggs (yes, eggs — specifically sunny side up).
For Tiffany M., the salon manager at Finger Bang in Portland, Oregon, inspiration comes from beyond the nail: “ceramic artists, tattoo artists, textile artists, and so on.” As she explains it, “Following other nail artists [on social media] is fantastic, but by admiring all different types of artistry, I am able to convert some of those techniques into new designs that aren’t just a replication of something another nail artist has already done.” As the collected works below prove, innovation can strike even within the confines of a French.
Los Angeles-based nail artist Betina R. Goldstein sees the French manicure as a blazer for your nails. “It will never go out of style and it goes with everything,” she says. “There are also a lot of ways to make it feel more young, fresh, and updated. And how you pair it (like a blazer), depending on color choices, shape, width, and pattern, can make it really feel new and different.”
Can you get a French manicure on short nails?
French manicures work on both long and short nails (with the latter rising in popularity, possibly due to people looking for the most hygienic nail length possible). Plus, the tips can be painted onto nude or bare nails, so you can let your nails grow without it looking awkward and having to run back to the salon for another appointment.
How to do French tips at home
If you’re ready to take on your tips yourself, New York City-based nail artist Lolly Koon recommends starting by putting the polish brush on the center of your nail and making a small dash. Then, make arcs on each side of the nail that connect to it. “If you go from one side to the other, one side is going to be thick, and the other side is going to be thin because you’re going to offload all the polish onto one side,” Koon tells Allure. Then, voilà, you’ll ace your half-moon tips.
French manicure inspiration
Here, you’re sure to find at least one French manicure trend that speaks to your aesthetic. Show your favorites to your nail artists or experiment with painting them yourself — many of the examples below also include handy directions from the originators of the work.
Patterned
“One of my favorite techniques is a ‘flat French,’” says Natalie Minerva, the nail artist for HBO’s Euphoria. “Rather than a curved French, I will split the nail in half and do a straight line, then fill in the tip with a fun pattern that I may pull from a shirt or wallpaper design, like the one featured here.”
This particular look, which could have been inspired by the bathroom wallpaper at the Moulin Rouge, uses basic black and red to create a sexy, harlequin pattern. As Minerva points out, the “flat” technique used here “is also great because these nails grow out much better than a full color, since the cuticle area is clear.”
Underlined
Add some extra emphasis to your manicure with a 3D element set between the tip and the base. Sophie Dos Santos, a nail artist at Destination BTY in London, played with tradition even further by keeping the lines mismatched and wavy. “3D French is very popular at the moment, as is chrome, so we combined them both. It’s been one of our most popular looks this summer,” she says.
Watercolor
This abstract watercolor, by Ohio nail artist @nailsbyblake, manages to perfectly capture a frothy ocean wave. Blake created the look with five shades of polish swirled together, while studiously avoiding getting any color on the nude base.
Fleur-de-lis
Doubling up on the French theme, UK-based nail artist Jema Baynes painted crisp, clean fleur-de-lis, with the “stem” at the nail tip and the petals opening up onto the nail bed. As for technique, “I apply the gel slightly thicker at the top and pull the droplets into sharp points at the bottom,” Baynes says.
Drippy
“We couldn’t decide if these would be ice cream drips or graffiti drips,” writes London-based nail artist Manami Bloom. However you interpret that particular Rorschach test, the design creates the sense that your French is slowly (and trendily) melting, much like the now-popular method for icing a cake.
Lava Lamp
These aren’t the first ‘70s-inspired lava lamp nails that we’ve seen, but they are the first to combine the style with a French manicure. Marseille-based nail tech Zbobinails used “different jelly gel colors to make an ombre French and add some bubble effect inside the nails.” She had summer in mind when choosing the neon shades, but the colorful bubbles would look just as good with darker, moodier hues.
Negative Space
Instead of a solid line of color, consider a thin frame around the typical half-moon area. Los Angeles-based nail artist Hang Nguyen outlined her French manicure with classic rainbow colors, while Le and Nyah went with neons. Nyah also tried out the trend with gradients of orange and blue.
V-Shaped Tips
No matter what your nail shape may be — almond, coffin, round, square — you can finesse a French manicure from rounded slivers at the tips to sharp V’s that emphasize the same area. A beige base helped make Miranda’s handiwork look as vibrant as possible. London-based nail artist Pria B, a.k.a., BhamBNails complemented her rainbow points with eyes. Anouska Anastasia, the cofounder of London’s Nuka Nails, proves how well this look works on square nails in the lower-left corner. Barcelona-based nail artist Violetta aka @yeswhatnails showed it off with a matte topcoat.
Mix and Match
By now, we’ve established that you don’t have to limit your French manicure to a single shade, so you shouldn’t have to settle on one design either. (You have Miss Pop’s permission.) You can definitely adorn each finger with a different look. Oakland, California-based nail artist Miya Adams, a.k.a. @thenailritual, added ’90s elements to the mix, while British nail artist Amber Hancock painted on a pale pink base and cute crescents of eggs, clouds, and sparkles. In the bottom row, Lynall combined cow print with cherries, as well as a smiley face and flowers. Thu’s take, on the other hand, included flames and strawberries.
French x 5
Nail artist Jessica Washick terms this look “hot girl color,” a.k.a., the nail art companion to hot girl summer. The look multiplies the classic French by adding additional striped shades. This medium-length nail is complete with five colors, but with longer nails (or thinner stripes) you could get those numbers up as high as you want. Mimic these bright shades or switch ’em up for pastel girl color, Christmas girl color, Pride girl color, etc.
Cheetah girls
“I’ve encouraged my classic French clients to try a twist and attempt something new,” says Wisconsin-based nail artist Hope Jung. For this lucky client, that meant adding a hand-painted cheetah print that, let’s be honest, is worlds away from your old school Essie Ballet Slippers-style French. “[Something new might be] a different color tip or adding a contrasting color to the design to give their nails a pop of color,” Jung says. Some of her favorite variations on the classic are to use neon colors or add a matte topcoat.
Half French
It takes a true artist like Aistè P. of @heygreatnails to be able to “randomly,” as she puts it, create a look this chic. “I experimented with variations while trying to create a modern twist,” she says. Mission accomplished. While it keeps the two-color palette of a traditional French, the creative use of negative space makes for a very contemporary flourish.
Grandma’s Little Helper
With various shades of blue and purple and some carefully chosen glitter, Eagle Mountain-based nail artist Ester turns the classic French shape up to 11. The beauty of the whirlwind of color is that it’s easy to re-create at home if you’re not afraid to color outside the lines. The same can’t be said of the free-painted Mickey Mouse design, which happens to depict a very ripped version of the world’s favorite mouse. “[My client] was going to Disney with her granddaughter, so I offered her a six-pack ‘bodyguard’ to match the Disney theme,” Ester said.
Skinny French
Without a fancy nail design, neon color, or abstract inspiration, Goldstein still manages to completely innovate the French manicure here, thanks to a barely there accented tip. The classic red-and-white combination is an elegant one, but even if you want to switch things up, we suggest keeping an opaque base coat so that the white of your nail doesn’t show through.
