Beauty Tutorial Tested (sort of): faux French Manicure

I'm so excited about this one that I can't even wait until I've cleaned the excess off my fingers before showing you my chubby digits (see left). So, uh, pardon the lil gunk around the edges there. Later they'll look better.

The Premise

So yesterday I announced to my in-house editor that I needed to find some sort of template for my nails so I could create the faux French manicure look I've seen popping up all over the place. I considered cutting semi-circles in cardboard, magazine pages, plastic sheeting, all sorts of ridiculous things -- but figured none of it would work in the end. He was kind enough to look up some things on the Internet for me. While we didn't find an answer for this, we found some other things to try when I got a chunk of disposable income. I'm sure I'll post about that some other time.

The Fix

Then my new Internet love, Pinterest, gave me the answer this morning! Self-adhesive reinforcements, the kind you buy at the office supply shop to fix those broken holes in pages you stick into three-ring binders serve as the template on your nail. It's so brilliantly simple...and best of all, cheap! And I'd just happened to find a box of them while cleaning out an old desk last weekend.

The How-to

Paint your whole nail with one color (I used Wet n Wild's Fast Dry "Teal or no Teal" because its cheap and pretty).
Let it fully dry. (15mins or so. This is important so that you're not peeling up your color.)
Apply reinforcement stickers to the nail at your preferred height.
Paint the upper portion (or lower portion if you want to create the classy half moon look). (I used Wet n Wild's Fast Dry "Sage in the City").
Let it set.
Carefully peel the sticker and then apply a top coat. Voila!

Check out the beautiful tutorial & images over at The Beauty Department blog, my inspiration for this. Also you can hit me up for an invite to Pinterest (send me your e-mail address).

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