French manicure, help please!

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pinkeedee

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Hi
I really need a bit of advice please on French manicure with ordinary polish. I have recently got a booking for a wedding party :Scared: and the bride wants a french manicure but doesn't want Shellac or gel polish.
I hardly ever get asked for just polish so am very out of practice. When i tidy up the smile line with a brush, do i use acetone? Do i use a base coat first, then white and then tidy smile line or does the white go straight on the nail, tidy smile line and then top coat?
Any advice would be very much appreciated thank you xx
 
I am terrible at french, I am still practicing though but for now if anyone requests it I use my manicure guides which I got off ebay for about £1!
They are not very smiley but they do give a nice crisp line, I don't leave them on while the polish dries as it causes it to crack, I apply all my guides then polish each one and remove the guide straight away then go on to my next one, hope this helps as it has saved me a lot of sleepless nights worrying about the dreaded french

I will get it perfect on my own one day though!!
 
Heres a pic of some I did with manicure guides
 

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I notices today they do these in £1 land lol
I was thinking of getting them! But didnt i couldnt work out if it was professional or not?!!!!
 
On here, people seem to recommend CND Nail Fresh over acetone or cleanser as it evaporates faster and doesn't make the polish gloopy where it over runs.

I think guides don't look very pro... I wouldn't be happy if I paid for a French mani and the tech used them.

Dashing Diva (nail tip wraps) may be an option, a few people on here rate them highly :)

Hth x
 
Thanks for the advice peeps but i really want to do it without the aid of nail guides or Dashing Diva. I want to do a first rate job especially as the client is getting married and all eyes will be on her hands when she flashes her wedding ring. I've got three weeks to practice but am not sure about base coat before white smile line etc. I do use nail fresh when i do shellac french so will try that instead of acetone to tidy smile lines. :) xx
 
Firstly... Stop panicking! Lol I do personally think that the sticky French manicure guides look highly unprofessional and do not make a nice job at all... But it's not right or wrong and that is just my opinion.

Have you explained the benefits of Shellac to your bride compared to regular polish?? No chips, smudges, zero dry time, 14 day wear etc not to mention the beautiful shine and finish... How can she say no' lol sometimes I will do them a nail for free so they can go away and try it before they buy! 😄

Have you already seen her nails to check they are suitable for a French polish?

We all have our own preferred methods... The best thing to do really is practice.. Try doing it different ways and see which you prefer.

Mine is base coat, then apply 2 thin coats of white, if need be tidy up with a clean brush and scrubfresh. Then 2 thin coats of a French pink such as CND Rose ??(can't think of the name I want)
 
And finish with a top coat of course! 😜
 
Firstly... Stop panicking! Lol I do personally think that the sticky French manicure guides look highly unprofessional and do not make a nice job at all... But it's not right or wrong and that is just my opinion.

Have you explained the benefits of Shellac to your bride compared to regular polish?? No chips, smudges, zero dry time, 14 day wear etc not to mention the beautiful shine and finish... How can she say no' lol sometimes I will do them a nail for free so they can go away and try it before they buy! 😄

Have you already seen her nails to check they are suitable for a French polish?

We all have our own preferred methods... The best thing to do really is practice.. Try doing it different ways and see which you prefer.

Mine is base coat, then apply 2 thin coats of white, if need be tidy up with a clean brush and scrubfresh. Then 2 thin coats of a French pink such as CND Rose ??(can't think of the name I want)
Hi
Thanks for your advice :). yes i did try my best to sell shellac to her but she had never heard of it and still wanted ordinary polish. My other problem is that i won't see her nails until i go to the appointment the day before the wedding as she doesnt live anywhere near me (she's travelling over here and staying in a hotel) so i've no idea what state her nails will be in.
I will call her the week before and do a consultation over the phone and that may give me a better idea of what to expect (will give the shellac another push too) x
 
Why dont you allow enough time in your appointment to show her one nail in Shellac at the beginning?

I'm sure she would prefer it over normal polish. :)
 
To put my 3 pennies in this, i really do not think that using NailFresh is unprofessional, besides is the best thing to correct the smile line. I hope the smell of wouldnt be so hard, though. Anyone of the pros i used to do my nails did that but not with CND rather with normal acetone - the smie line over base coat, then the pink or milky. If anyone can do it perferct from the beginning, its great, but its better to fix it than to send the client home with an uneven french or spend time to paint it over and over again. IMHO
 
To put my 3 pennies in this, i really do not think that using NailFresh is unprofessional, besides is the best thing to correct the smile line. I hope the smell of wouldnt be so hard, though. Anyone of the pros i used to do my nails did that but not with CND rather with normal acetone - the smie line over base coat, then the pink or milky. If anyone can do it perferct from the beginning, its great, but its better to fix it than to send the client home with an uneven french or spend time to paint it over and over again. IMHO

I don't think anybody has said that nail fresh is unprofessional... Only that the sticky white guides are unprofessional. Nail fresh is fine and often the recommended way x
 
On here, people seem to recommend CND Nail Fresh over acetone or cleanser as it evaporates faster and doesn't make the polish gloopy where it over runs.

I think guides don't look very pro... I wouldn't be happy if I paid for a French mani and the tech used them.

Dashing Diva (nail tip wraps) may be an option, a few people on here rate them highly :)

Hth x

This post said that, forgot to quote it :)
 
Pinkeedee,

I think you're over thinking this. If you can do a Shellac french, you can certainly do a french application with traditional polish.

You're probably really careful with your Shellac white polish application so you don't have to do too much tidying, right? Well, you do the same thing with traditional polish staying as true to the shape you wish to create so that you minimize the amount of tidying you have to do.

Don't sweat it. You've got this.

BTW, I use Nailfresh to tidy my french application because it's AWESOME. It's one of the best tips I've picked up here on SG. Thanks, Gigi!
 

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