ANOTHER Attempt at French Nails!

I'm going to make it happen. I really am. I'm so determined to get French nails right that I'm going to do it if it's the last thing I do.

You may all remember my first try with Zoya Tanzy for my tips. It turned out alright enough, but I thought I could do better.

Well, then my mani with Zoya Natty and Kristen happened, and I'll admit - I was pretty discouraged. I went awhile thinking that French manicures were unattainable. Impossible.

And then this week, the new Taylor Swift album came out! And lo and behold, track 15 tells me not to dream impossible dreams. (It's a wonderful, amazing, beautiful, outstanding, sparkling song!)

And since "Starlight" is from the wonderful, amazing, beautiful, outstanding, sparkling album RED, I thought I'd try to fulfill my not-impossible dream with a red-tipped French manicure!

I promise there are a bunch of almost-pretty pictures coming. But I really have to tell this story.

I spent at least forever on my left hand, doing one coat of the red I was using on my tips. It was definitely messy. And then I tried to move on to my right hand, and that was essentially a tragedy - picture a goopy mess of nail polish that won't dry but won't go where it SHOULD go - and I almost gave up. Definitely thought it was the last time I'd ever try to do fancy nails...

(For your information, "The Last Time" is definitely my favorite track from the new album. Get it. Now.)

But I said to myself, No, Natalie! You can do this! So I went back to my left hand, managed to fix all my mistakes, did my right hand without it looking borderline awful, and got up to show my sister (who, by the way, did not even care). Of course, on the way back, I ran into my desk and messed up one of my nails...

After painstakingly removing the messed up nail polish without messing up any of my OTHER nails (okay, admittedly a few of my nails have particles of cotton ball stuck to them), I moved on to my favorite step of every manicure - topcoat.

FAVORITE STEP NO LONGER. Stupid topcoat smudged up a couple of my nails...

Whatever.

Anyway, I think it's a major improvement over last time, albeit multiple failures throughout the entire manicure process. And a few gross smears of red from my topcoat. 

It's not TOO bad, is it? I'll get there. It definitely looks better than my last attempt, at least...

My sheer base was Essie Hi Maintenance, and the red tips were China Glaze Ruby Pumps (which is currently in a battle with Zoya Elisa for my favorite red nail polish). 

What color combo should I try for my NEXT French combo? Have you mastered the art of French tip manicures?

Stay happy!