How to Give the ULTIMATE French Pedicure at Home
Many people love the French Pedicure for their toenails. It is a classic and perennial style, giving your pretty toes a look that is natural, but still has a touch of glamour. So once you are done, you can leave your ladies shoes at home and put on your ladies sandals instead!
For all its seeming simplicity, it’s actually pretty tricky to give yourself a good looking French Pedicure at home. Read this entire article, as it is packed with great tips. By the time you are finished, your friends will think that you got your nails done professionally at a salon!
French Pedicure feet instructions:
1. Before you start, make sure your nails are completely free of nail polish, and totally dry.
2. First add a basecoat, thinly and evenly, across all your toenails. Wait for the basecoat to dry.
3. Place the tip guide strips on your toenails, covering the lower part of your nail. Carefully place the strip right beneath the white of your nail, so that your pedicure follows the same natural curve that is already on your toenails. Strips usually come in a curved shape anyway. This will ensure that you can paint the tip of your toenail easily with no chance of mistakes.
You can choose the thickness of the line by where you place the strip. You can either make the line very thin (a more natural look) or somewhat thick (a more pronounced look). Be careful not to make the line too thick if you go with the pronounced look; this tends to make the toes look chunky!
4. Paint the tips either white or off-white. Although an off-white color may help your French Pedicure look even more natural, I personally prefer the traditional snow white. It stands out and gives your toes a crisper look. You can use a regular sized brush to paint the line, but a brush made specifically for detailing is much more effective. It will help you avoid sloppiness and is much more accurate.
NOTE: If you don’t have tip guide strips, you can always freehand. Some people can draw a perfect line on their first try. Others (like myself) aren’t so artistic! Sloppy lines are an easy fix, as long as you have the top of the nail covered in white, you can straighten out the bottom with nail polish remover. Simply soak the end of a Q-tip with remover, wring it out so it’s not drenched, and wipe off the excess polish from left to right while straightening out that line. Of course, if you use this method, make sure you don’t use a basecoat, since you’d end up wiping it off as well.
5. Once the tips are completely dry, remove the tip guide strips from your toenails. Do so slowly to not mess up the line because it may still be wet. When peeling them off, peel back instead of up; this helps to avoid any spilling over the line.
6. Next, apply neutral nail polish over each toenail. Neutral nail polish is nail polish that is very, very pale. Go for a neutral nail polish that is either beige, peach, or pink. The most commonly used neutral color for French pedicures is pink. For those of you familiar with the acrylic nail term “pink and white,” you know that this is a very common look because pink goes very nicely with the white tips. For tips on how to apply nail polish to your toenails perfectly, please read the article painting toenails. Once that first coat is dry, apply a second coat.
7. Once the second coat is dry, add a thin topcoat. For recommendations on good basecoats and topcoats, read the article other nail care products. Wait until the topcoat dries completely.
8. Once the topcoat is dry, you are finished! At this point you should have really pretty feet. This is how you do a proper home pedicure. Go show off your French pedicure toes!
