When I saw the makeup products breakdown at Cafe Makeup for the Chanel Couture Fall/Winter 2012/13 collection, I was immediately drawn to the manicure on the models. And this time, instead of a new color, Chanel picked two shades from their past collections to create a fancy variation of the french manicure. Instead of just a french tip, this time you leave a border at the base and the sides of the nail. The centre part is painted a different color, as shown in my completed picture above. This type of manicure is not new, and I have done similar looks in the past before, using Illamasqua Baptise and Essie Topless & Barefoot.
The combination of colors in this manicure is crucial, and totally attracting me. In keeping with the collection's pink and silver themed wardrobe, the manicure consists of the same shades.
They used Chanel Silver which is a release from their 2007 Summer Collection (gosh, LOVE that collection, with the willy wonka shades, the metallic gold and silver eyeshadows...and Agyness Deyn sashaying down the runaway with her cropped hair...and Hilary Rhonda too..And the soundtrack Young Folks!!!) so well, anyway, I bought the polish from that collection when it came out, it was sold in a set of the polish itself and a special base coat. A topcoat isn't recommend for this exremely foiled silver shade, I tried once with a topcoat, it pretty much ruined the finish of the aluminium like silver finish. The pink that was use in the manicure is Chanel May, which is from this year's summer release, and which I totally skipped. It is a soft pink, which is easily duplicated with my existing pink nail polishes.
I recreated this manicure the day I saw the feature at Cafe Makeup, and today I am recreating it again, with some step by step pictures. It really isn't difficult at all.
The trick to painting the pink portions, is to follow the shape of your nail base, it is just like painting a second coat of nail polish on your nails, except you don't go all the way to the base, and to the sides. And I don't think this needs to be perfect either. It is awesome, because the centre colored part hides all the imperfections on my nail bed that the foiled silver polish seem to enhance.
Without further ado, here we go:
Things you need - Silver Nail Polish, Pink Nail Polish, and a Topcoat. I didn't use any basecoat for this manicure.
Step ONE
Paint the Silver polish. Only one coat is needed. This is very opaque.
STEP TWO
Paint the Pink Portion. Follow the shape of the base of your nail.
I used OPI Pink Friday, because it is opaque enough to cover the silver. But it is a tad too bright and light.
I will be applying a softer muted pink over it to mimic Chanel May.
STEP THREE
Apply the second pink shade. This should be easy.
STEP FOUR
Apply topcoat over the pink portion only.
This is super easy, yet it looks chic and like you have done 'more'.
Makes the silver totally more wearable too.
Thinking of matching the silver with a sky blue next, maybe with Chanel Coco Blue. Hmmm...
The end results
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