The killer question: How to achieve perfect manicure on ugly nails?

Put all the tips together, and – voila! – perfect nails.

Cut the nail…sneakily!

With special scissors with round toe, cut your nails, but always either rounded, or squared with slightly rounded sides. This softens the nail and gives the optical illusion of elongation. Avoid cutting the nail tip too straight, too square or to sharp.

Additional trick: Always check the shape of the nails each time you put on nail polish. If one is broken, it is out of the question to have a mix of short and long nails. Rebalance them, shortening all 10 or setting a false nail on the one that is broken.

Refine the shape and the sides

With a file (the softer side, usually the one inscribed with the name of the brand) gently round the sides. This softer new shape “narrows” the width of the nail, at least visually.

Lengthen the nail

Apply cuticle cream to the nails. Wait for one minute, then with a toothpick covered in a piece of cotton, gently push down the cuticles to increase the surface area of the nails. On wide, square-shaped nails, you can probably lengthen the nail by a good millimetre if it is your first time. To be repeated no more than once a week.

Choose the right nail polish colour

On nails which are not that pretty or have unsightly shapes, opt for bold, bright or deep colours (red, gray, black, blue…). Nail polishes in pastel and faded shades neither highlight nor improve the effect of this type of nail.

Additional trick: Opt for matte-effect polishes over shiny ones, as they have the advantage of visually shrinking the nail.

Cheat application:

Put on nail polish in a pronounced “Italian-style”. That is to say, voluntarily leaving a “corridor” on either side (up to 0.5 mm, otherwise the cheating will be too blatant).

The correct way: Apply a strip straight down the centre, a band on the right, and a band on the left, following the shape of the brush without sticking to the rounded shape of the nail.

Useful tool: get yourself a pen with solvent for a perfect result. Nail Corrector manicure corrector pen (Essie Pro, USD14, available online and in select nail salons).

Alexandra Raillan