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Styles that Stick: French manicure

Filed under: Cosmetics

french manicure
Shiny metallic pink.

Creamy powder blue.

Oh, and then that awful Chanel black.

Trends in manicures come and go, but there is one look on fingernails (and sometimes toes!) that will stand the test of time and trend: the French manicure. Something about the white-tipped, sheer colored look is timeless. Perhaps it is that the French manicure can be at once natural with its pale pink to almost clear nail color, and yet glamorously polished, for it a more expensive job at the salon. (The girls at my nail salon are always trying to upsell me on a French manicure when I go in.) Perhaps it is simply that, unlike any other color, it seems to go with just about anything you're wearing.

Sure, there are strange variations of the French manicure, with odd shapes at the tips, grotesquely long nails, or even reversing the colors, but that traditional, semi-natural, semi-polished look makes the French manicure a style that definitely sticks.

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