Nail Designs for the French Manicure

French manicure nail designs are more artistic and creative than they have ever been. Using a manicure pen, manicurists can create very unique and precise designs on fake nails. A French manicure looks sophisticated and clean, but add some designs and it becomes young and hip.

To create a French manicure, the manicurist uses white nail polish to paint the free edge of the nail, creating a nicely curving smile line that best enhances your natural nail shape. Though the traditional French manicure uses white tips, you can also coat this with sheer pink enamel, either before or after you have created your French white tip, depending on the look you want to achieve.

You could also create your own French manicure designs on your nails, but often real nails are not strong or smooth enough to be a good canvas for French manicure nail designs. Manicure pens need a smooth glossy surface to draw on, so the best results are on fake nails or UV gel nail extensions. Artificial nails are easier for the manicure artist to work on and they exhibit the colors of your design more beautifully than real nails. If the nails are natural, the designs will be softer and not quite as bright.

The most popular designs are simple flowers and paisleys. A single rhinestone surrounded by the petals of a delicate flower can be quite stunning. Nail designs can also be created using embedding media or fiberglass extensions. Most embedding media such as bullion beads, glitters and acrylic shapes need to be applied by a professional manicurist because they are so difficult for non professionals to work with such small designs, especially when putting them on your own nails. A popular type of manicure lately is to embed tiny dried flowers directly in the acrylic bed of the fake nail that has been manicured.

Sometimes you can find a manicurist that is a talented artist. This type of manicurist can create great French manicure designs with just a manicure pen. However these types of artists are few and far between and you might consider some of these works too ornate for daily wear.