Love them or hate them, the staying power of the French manicure is undeniable. Nail artist Gina Edwards tells Allure they probably fell out of favor for a while because of their lack of creativity. “Most people viewed the French as a classic and kept true to the white tips,” she explains. “It became stale, mundane.”
However, as the French manicure sticks around in 2022, it has spawned into dozens of different colorful designs with the same timeless DNA: arcs of color along the tips of nails. (New York City-based nail artist Miss Pop arguably predicted this time would come way back in December 2019.) Genius nail artists have shown off their unexpected takes on Instagram, with half-moons in neon, tie-dye, and eggs — yes, eggs, specifically sunny side up.
“I like to think of a [French manicure] as a blazer,” says nail artist Betina R. Goldstein. “It will never go out of style, it goes with everything, but there’s also a lot of way to make it feel more young, fresh, and updated. And how you pair it (like a blazer) depending on color choices, shape, width, pattern can make it really feel new and different.”
French manicures work on both long and short nails (with the latter rising in popularity, potentially due to people seeking out the most hygienic nail length possible). Plus, the tips can be painted onto nude or bare nails, so you can let your nails grow out without your nails looking awkward and having to run back to the salon for another appointment.
On this list, you’re sure to find at least one French manicure trend that speaks to your aesthetic. Show your favorite to your nail artists at your next appointment or experiment with painting them on yourself.
If you’re ready to take on your tips yourself, New York City-based nail artist Lolly Koon recommends starting by putting the polish brush on the center of your nail and making a small dash. Then, make arcs on each side of the nail that connect to it. “If you go from one side to the other, one side is going to be thick, and the other side is going to be thin because you’re going to offload all the polish onto one side,” Koon tells Allure. Then, voila, you’ll ace your half-moon tips.
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Pick your favorite florescent hue, and sub it in for white tips with inspiration from San Diego-based nail artist Nyah’s electric lime or British manicurist Michelle Humphrey’s Day-Glo lemon.
Instead of just picking one, takes cues from Riley Miranda, aka La Lady Nails, and go for a neon Skittles look or paint your bright tips onto a nude base like Amy Le. The multitoned French mani take even recently got Kourtney Kardashian’s seal of approval.
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Sprinkle a teeny-tiny assortment of cherries or strawberries atop your classic French Manicure just as Miami-based nail artist Kimberly Thu has on a couple of her clients. Fruits in other hues, like lemons, oranges, watermelons, and grapes, are sure to be just as deliciously fun.
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Instead of a solid line of color, consider a thin frame around the typical half-moon area. Los Angeles-based nail artist Hang Nguyen outlined her French manicure with classic rainbow colors while Le and Nyah went with neons. Nyah also tried out the trend with gradients of orange and blue.
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Tie-dye may have taken over your wardrobe long ago, but have you considered adding the nostalgic aesthetic to your nails yet? Le and British nail artist Rosie Lynall, aka Nails Bab, painted on arcs of ROYGBIV before swirling them together for their psychedelic rainbow tips.
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No matter what your nail shape may be — almond, coffin, round, square — you can finesse your French manicure from rounded slivers around the tips to sharp Vs to emphasize the same area. A beige base helped make Riley Miranda’s handiwork look as vibrant as possible. London-based nail artist Pria B aka BhamBNails complemented her rainbow points with eyes. Anouska Anastasia, the cofounder of London’s Nuka Nails, proved how well this look works on square nails in the lower-left corner. Barcelona-based nail artist Violetta aka @yeswhatnails showed it off with a matte top coat.
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With ’90s fashion influencing nail trends, butterfly manicures have made a comeback. However, New York City-based nail artist Honey tells Allure she believes their return has a deeper meaning. “Butterflies represent rebirth,” she explains. “We have to go through the struggle first to actually get some type of newness, and all of this is new to us.”
Riley Miranda tacked butterfly-shaped glitter all over her French manicure. Stickers adorned Pria B’s V-shaped take. Humphrey took a similar approach for look for Dua Lipa while Nyah hand-painted her interlocking wings and gold half-moon tips.
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By now, we’ve established you don’t have to limit your French manicure to a single shade. You shouldn’t have to settle on one design either. (You have Miss Pop’s permission.) Adorn each finger with a different look. Nail artist Miya Adams aka @thenailritual added ’90s elements to the mix while British nail artist Amber Hancock painted on a pale pink base and cute crescents of eggs, clouds, and sparkles. In the bottom row, Lynall combined cow print with cherries, as well as a smiley face and flowers. Thu’s take, on the other hand, included flames and strawberries.
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Nail artist Jessica Washick terms this look “hot girl color,” aka the nail art companion to hot girl summer. The look multiplies the classic French by adding additional striped shades. This medium-length nail is complete with five colors, but with longer nails (or thinner stripes) you could get those numbers up as high as you want. Mimic these bright shades for a summery look, or switch ’em up for pastel girl color, Christmas girl color, Pride girl color, etc.
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Le’ana of lecame.shesaw.shepainted took this sparkly French — courtesy of Cirque Colors in Subculture — on vacation, but there’s really never a wrong time for a holographic manicure. This look is the essence of the “new French.” It’s still recognizable, it’s still chic, but it’s painted with a modern twist.
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Can’t you feel the serotonin flocking to your brain while looking at his photo? This joyful manicure, painted by Carla M Negrón, is modeled after fashion designer Tyler McGillivary’s latest collection. “We were inspired by the colors and fabric of one of her designs,” Negrón says. With or without the matching dress, the colorful balance of flowers and French here is enough to keep anyone smiling.
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This modern French take is deceptively simple, and requires only one more tool than normal: a dotting tool (or a bobby pin, or a toothpick). Nail artist Jessica Beard started with a standard French (albeit one with hot pink tips via Gel Bottle Inc. in Madonna) then alternated overlaying it with royal blue Bolt and pastel yellow Queen Bee dots. The result has almost a 3-D effect, which brings this French straight into the 21st century.
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“I’ve encouraged my classic French clients to try a twist and attempt something new,” says nail artist Hope Jung. For this lucky client, that meant adding a hand-painted cheetah print that, let’s be honest, is worlds away from your old school Essie Ballet Slippers-style French. “[Something new might be] a different color tip or adding a contrasting color to their design to give their nails a pop of color,” she says. Some of her favorite takes on the classic are to use neon colors or add a matte top coat.
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Similar to a mix-and-match design, this assemblage of styles is all held together by the browns and greens in its color palette. “The client brought in an inspiration photo, but she wanted a rustic, retro feel,” nail artist Nessa tells Allure. “I changed the colors and used more muted tones to match her vibe.” The tones may be muted, but the designs are not. With dots, zebra stripes, flames and snakeskin, this set is so extra it comes all the way back around to being a neutral.
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This delightful Halloween manicure is a cross between French and ombre, with holographic white, pumpkin orange, and neon orange working together to create ten life-size pieces of painted-on candy corn. Whether you save this for October, update the colors to reflect the holiday of your choice, or just get your candy corn on all year long, this love child of two trends is a nice way to nod to French without getting bogged down in tradition.
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This spring-ready manicure looks like it’s stepped straight out of the Delia*s catalogue, and that’s the highest compliment I know how to give. Just a few twists — mixing up the colors and adding little daisies — give it a young, sweet update. “French tip is one of my favorite nail art designs because there are so many possibilities,” says Emily of @bycheznails. “It’s so easy to add on design elements like swirls, florals, or line work to really take your look to the next level.”
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With just a few strokes of the brush, Emily updates this French by…oh, about a century. “Sometimes I enjoy leveling up a classic French with a fun color palette, like rainbow pastel or neon,” she says. “Other times I incorporate geometric or organic shapes for a funkier twist.” Here, she pairs basic black with periwinkle shade Kanpai OPI!.
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It takes a true artist like Aistè P. of @heygreatnails to be able to “randomly,” as she puts it, create a look this chic. “[I] experimented with variations of designs while trying to create a modern twist,” she says. Mission accomplished. While it keeps the two-color palette of a traditional French, the creative use of negative space makes for a very contemporary flourish.
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At first glance, the designs on this set look like they could be flames. Then, I thought it might be neon-colored malachite. Or is it oceanic waves? According to artist Gabriel Medina, the design is simply abstract, which means the answer is D) all of the above. “I started with a milky nude pink base, cured, and then matted it out. Then I went with an opaque white, drew on the outline of a French, and added some abstract lines,” Medina says. “Then I went in with neon pigments with a tiny brush, packed the pigment in, and ombred it down.” Lastly, Medina added a few hot pink crystals.
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To take this look from colorful French to zoologist French, Niq of @nailsbyniq hand-drew scales to mimic a snake’s slithering skin. Keeping the nail art to just a few fingers will help those of us with a fear of reptiles, but the rest should feel free to snake this design around all 10 fingers.
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With various shades of blue and purple and some carefully chosen glitter, nail artist Ester turns the classic French shape up to eleven. The beauty of the whirlwind of color is that it’s easy to recreate at home if you’re not afraid to color outside the lines. The same can’t be said of the free-painted Mickey Mouse design, which happens to depict a very ripped version of the world’s favorite mouse. “[My client] she was going to Disney with her granddaughter, so I offer her a six-pack bodyguard that match[ed] the Disney theme,” Ester said.
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This design takes clever advantage of an almond-shaped nail, using the pointy tip as the starting point for a hand-drawn heart. Nail artist Natalie of @playing_with_nails created the romantic look with four OPI shades (R-L) OPI Red, Aurora Berry-alis, Tagus in that Selfie, and It’s Pink PM. Using a thin nail brush, Natalie says she “approached it the same way [you] would drawing a heart on paper, starting with one half of the heart, then the other.”
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Without a fancy nail design, neon color, or abstract inspiration, Betina Goldstein still manages to completely innovate the French manicure here, thanks to a barely-there accented tip. The classic red and white combination is an elegant one, but even if you want to switch things up, we suggest keeping it to an opaque base coat so that the white of your nail doesn’t show through.