How to Apply White Tips to Nails for French Manicures

The signature of a classic French manicure is the white nail tip. The tip makes nails look clean and polished. Although it looks difficult to apply, adding the white tip to a manicure is easy to master with a few tricks of the trade.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• French tip nail polish
• Nail polish remover
• Small make-up brush
• Cotton swab

1. Allow the base coat of the polish to dry thoroughly before applying white polish to your nail tips.
2. Coat the nail brush in white polish and dab off any excess polish on the bottle. The brush should have enough polish to cover your entire nail tip area without dripping.
3. Brush the white polish down the middle of your nail, starting just beyond the desired tip length. Immediately brush the white polish down each side of the nail, avoiding the skin. The white polish can go beyond the desired nail tip because any overage will be removed. The white polish should cover the tip completely and evenly.
4. Dip the makeup brush in nail polish remover and dab off any excess. Use the makeup brush to clean the inside edge of the white tip to the desired shape by pushing the rough edge of the white polish to a clean line. Clean the polish off the makeup brush by dipping it back into the nail polish remover after each nail. Dab off any excess remover before starting the next nail.
5. Use a cotton swab dipped in nail polish remover to remove any white polish smudges on the skin underneath or on the sides of the nail.
6. Allow nail tips to dry for five minutes before applying sheer polish.