Fall/Winter 2012 Nails: Classic Nude, Brown and Pearls

In my last post, I commented that this season's Fall/Winter 2012 nail trends were kinda boring, especially where colours were concerned, since this season's shades were mostly all dark vampies and fleshtone neutrals. So, I set out to jazz it up with a little bling, while still retaining some element of its classic, timeless feel. And here is the result - classic bling, in the form of pearls!

For inspiration, I actualaly looked at this modified french manicure, with a nude base and a vampy tip. It was making the rounds on the runway as part of the Fall/Winter 2012 trends this year. When I saw the look, I thought to myself, "That's a classic colour scheme, but I wonder if I could do something to it - it looks like it could use a teeny bit of bling."

(Source: Vogue)
So, I did just that! I retained the colour scheme - don't wanna mess with a good thing too much - but added the pearls, and changed the shape of the painted tip.


For the base, I used Rimmel Beige Style, which is seriously one of the most underrated polishes out there. It's cheap, available, and a classic shade that would probably look good on most people. Beige Style is a fleshtone nude creme (I think it's a creme anyway - it has the slightest of shimmer in the bottle that doesn't show up on the nail). For the nail tip, I used Megan Miller Ganache, which is a rich chocolate brown creme. I basically free-handed the curved tip using Ganache. It doesn't have to be THAT neat because the smile line will be covered by the pearls.


Can I digress a little at this point? I love Megan Miller polishes - the two I have are fantastic in terms of colour payoff, texture, and brush shape/size, but man, I really hate the bottles. The cork cap really annoys me to no end, because fluff and dirt and dust get onto the cap really badly. I have to like, do some dust removal every now and then. I think my cork cap is eventually going to get all moldy and gross (I live in a very hot and very humid climate near the equator), and I'm not looking forward to it. But anyway, moving on.


For the pearls, I used three different sizes of pearls and aligned them along the smile line from large to small. For handling of the pearls, I used the ever-helpful wet toothpick tip - basically you dip the tip of a toothpick in water, and the wet toothpick will pick up the pearls due to the surface tension of the water. When the pearl touches the wet nail polish, the pearl will stick to the polish. Much easier than using tweezers!


Anyway, this is my slightly-more-blinged-up-but-still-classic take on this Fall/Winter's French manicure. I'm really liking it, as it's easy to do, and looks great, even if you aren't into crazy nail art. In fact, my non-nail-polishaholic sister commented that she actually liked this look! I think it would be great to try this with other colour schemes too.