Dolly Wink Inspired Nails - French Manicure

7:11:00 PM mandy 2 Comments

After a few months of having naked nails, mine finally recovered from their weak and brittle state. I wish having my nails all pretty didn't come at such a cost! Or maybe I just need to take extra care of them if I want to paint them? What do you think? Anyways...! I couldn't wait to play around with nail polishes! I was even able to do swatches and take photos for 3 polishes and try a nail tutorial.


I've done this particular Dolly Wink french mani tutorial a couple of times in the past but that must have been a good year or so ago. Back then I followed the tutorial from I Love Nail Polish and I was kind of successful. The problems I had then were the same I had this time as well.

The most difficult of course was doing the French tip portion. Normally I would have used tape to get a perfect tip but with this particular curvy styled tape is out of the question. But I think that a little bit of practice could help get it perfect!

Here I used Essie Mademoiselle for the base and Essie Marshmallow for the tips.


Marshmallow is a very tricky polish to use. Too light a coat it'll be sheer and streaky like above. I found that putting on a second layer of the white doesn't look very good either.

Mademoiselle on the other hand is a lovely sheer and natural pink shade. It isn't anything special on its own and looks as you have nothing on...probably best for those who work in a more conservative setting but still want something on their nails. But it makes a great base for a french manicure. For these attempts I only put on one coat of Mademoiselle.


Since the first attempt didn't look too hot, I decided to redo it (ahh the perfectionist in me...!). This time I tried to use a thicker coat of white to do the tip and made sure not to touch it again after I applied. This way there is a thicker layer but as the polish dries down it does get flatter and won't have the streaks and patches like before. I used a dotting tool for the dots, but I think that toothpicks may work as well!

Does anyone have any tips to perfect this look even more? Are there any tutorials you've been eyeing to try?