Applying a French Manicure in Nail Art

Video Transcript

"SUE: Hi. My name is Sue. I'm with Georgia Career Institute on behalf of Expert Village, and we're going to talk about freehand nail art today. Okay, now let's talk about applying the French manicure. I want to make a pretty "smile line." This is your smile line right here. The best ones are--they have the biggest tip; it looks like a big smile. So I always apply my white to the end first. I usually make the ends deeper than the middle part. And you can also fake a smile; if they don't have a smile line, you can make one for them. You make this any color you'd like, like for Christmas I'd use red and gold, for Halloween I'd use black and orange, for July 4th I'd use like blue, red, and white. And you would always put two coats, the first one thin, the second one thick so the polish would be evened up. And if they do have acrylics on, you would cap it off like this so it wouldn't show any clear parts. Then I would put acetone in a dappen dish and use my brush to clean up the smile line. You don't want too much polish on the hand, and you don't wanna--want too much acetone on the brush...and I always start from the middle and then go up to the side. And I would wipe that off so all the whites won't get in my acetone. And if you had any polish on her hand, on her skin, you could take it off with your brush just like that. And that's how you do a French."