French tips are inarguably the most classic manicure to date. “French tips are deemed a classic because they’re a way to make the nail resemble a natural nail but elevated,” nail artist Kinaya Haug tells ESSENCE.
“They look very fresh and clean and give your nails a very ‘clean girl aesthetic’ appearance.” While we’ve seen French tips be reinvented time and again throughout history, the more rare chunky 2004 French tips have returned.
For example, this week, Beyoncé released a new promo video for her SirDavis American Whiskey wearing an oval set of French tips. With a cigar clasped between her fingers and a glass of whiskey in hand, her white tips were set deeper than the normal nail, which covered a third of her natural pink base.
The chucky French tip? Revived. “Everyone is into the Y2K aesthetic so the chunky French tips are making a comeback,” Haug says.
Of course, there’s the original French tip, which was first worn in 1975, to reduce the time it took to change an actress’s manicure between scenes, and is still popular five decades later.
But there’s also the original location of the style (hint: it’s not France), which was founded by Jeff Pink, an American beauty supplier working in Hollywood. So, it’s no surprise America’s favorite mega-popstar, beauty icon, and artist Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is partial to a French manicure.
“I have people that love a little micro-French and I have people that love a throwback French with the nail majority white,” Haug says. For Mrs. Carter, a macro-tip says just enough, turning the look into her new signature (next to her ‘70s platinum blonde wig and caramel-toned makeup, nonetheless). “I personally love a deep French tip and I think a lot of other nail techs would agree.”
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