Glitter French

On the whole, I dislike the look of traditional French manicures.  However, when you take a traditional French and add in a konad design or some glitter along the white line, then I love them.  There's something about taking the boring and adding a small detail to make it un-boring that makes me love it. 

I've recently become a wee bit obsessed with Frenches.  In fact, when I recently ordered basecoats from TD, I made sure to add in several French Manicue polishes from Orly's French line, as I didn't have any clear tinted polishes, or even a good tip white, for that matter.

Unfortunately, Frenches are a little time consuming and time is something I am sorely lacking, so I am not able to do them very often.  In fact, I rushed this one and thus, it didn't look the best, so I took pictures and then promptly took it off (there was a lot of bubbling on my thumb).  Next time I try, I'm going to do so when the twins are asleep and when I have more than 20 minutes to devote to my nails.

Anyway, I started with Orly's French manicure guides.  Sure, you can free hand it, and I often do, but it's much easier to use the guides.  You simply put them a little below the white part on you names.  One trick is to take them off quickly, like a Band-aid, especially if they aren't fully dry when you remove the guides. 

Next, I applied 2 coats of Orly Pointe Blanche, a heavily pigmented, thick (yet not chalky) white to the area on my nail, above the guide. 

Then I applied 2 coats of Orly Beverly Hills Manicure in Beverly Hills Plum.  BH Plum, is actually a sheer rose, but it has a bit more pigment in it than Orly French Manicure Bare Rose.

 

Lastly is one coat of quick dry TC and then a bit of silver glitter along the white like with Art Deco striper in Silver Glitter. 

I had plans of applying a silver konadded butterfly in the "natural" portion of my nails.  Unfortunately, that didn't come to fruition.  I just couldn't stand the bubbles on my thumb and I didn't have lots more time to wait for it to set.  Plus, I'd only done one hand.  LOL. 

I know it's really conventional, and perhaps doesn't appeal to the vast majority of nail blog readers, but I really love this look.  I plan on doing them more in the future, but adding glitter and/or konadding over top.  Now, I need to go apply a bright green, to get over my "normal" problem.  :P