It all starts with your chosen base color, whether something neutral or a little punchier. Nail techs might approach this design differently, but Natalia Mercedes, a nail artist and founder of Sad Girl Nails Studio in New York City, has a solid technique: “To establish the framework of the design, I begin by mapping out the vertical striping from the cuticle down to the smile line,” essentially where the nail bed ends and the free edge — or white tip — of the nail begins. Mercedes adds, “From there, I layer additional stripes that subtly construct the illusion of a French manicure, playing with placement and spacing to guide the eye.”
