Introducing... Wedding Wednesday! Perfect French Manicure

- SOME PRODUCTS PROVIDED FOR REVIEW -

Hello everyone! Today I have a very special series of blog posts to introduce to you, that I've decided to call Wedding Wednesday. This series is in honor of my brother and his beautiful fiancee, who will be tying the knot this May!

(Keith and Ashley at their engagement photoshoot last year)

A bit of background - when my older brother Keith first confided in me that he was planning to propose to his beautiful then-girlfriend Ashley, I was so excited! I am already lucky enough to have an older sister, but it's an incredible feeling to be able to welcome another sibling into my family. Anyway, Keith asked me if I could give Ashley a manicure before his planned proposal so that she would have nice nails for photos. It was right around the Fourth of July, and I asked unsuspecting Ashley if she would like me to paint her nails for the weekend. I remember her asking me to paint red and blue fireworks on her nails - definitely not engagement appropriate! I finally convinced her to go with OPI Solitaire, a soft white and silver textured polish. It turned out looking so lovely, especially with the new ring on her finger!

Much later, when Ashley asked me and my sister to be bridesmaids, she proposed with little bridesmaids gifts, including, of course, a bottle of nail polish - OPI Sweet Heart, to be specific. (Are you noticing a theme here?! Nail polish definitely played a part in my brother and his fiancee's romance, am I right?!)

Anyway, all of this wedding related nail polish got me thinking - wouldn't it be great to have a directory of sorts where people could see a bunch of wedding nail art ideas to help them decide what to wear on the big day? And thus, Wedding Wednesday was born. So from now until the wedding in late May, I will be posting a wedding inspired nail art look every Wednesday for all you brides-to-be (and future wedding guests who also want to have nice nails!)

Whew, that was a long intro! Let's get into the nail art look.

I decided that the first post in this series should be a classic French manicure - which, believe it or not, I had never done before! To achieve this look, I started off with a base of Essie Mademoiselle. Once the base was completely dry, I used these French tip nail guides from Whats Up Nails to block off the free edge of my nail. I painted the edges of my nails with Color Club On Cloud Nine, then quickly peeled off the nail guides. Then, I finished everything off with some glossy top coat!

I can't believe this is my first time trying a French manicure after almost four years of being a nail art addict! (Of course I got a French manicure at a salon back in 2009 when I was getting ready for my high school prom, but that doesn't count!) I think this look is so classic and gorgeous - perfect for any bride, or anyone celebrating a special occasion!

My only complaint with this manicure is that Essie Mademoiselle took forever to dry - probably due to the fact that it's a sheer jelly polish that I painted on pretty thick. (And probably because there's been a lot of humidity lately in New Jersey, which is making most of my manicures take a long time to dry!)

Here are the polishes I used for this manicure. I purchased the Essie from CVS but the Color Club shade is available from HB Beauty Bar (use the code POLISHCHALLENGE at checkout for 15% off your order!)

I hope you all enjoyed my first Wedding Wednesday post! I have a few different manicure ideas lined up already, but I would love to hear suggestions for what you guys would like to see (or what you are planning to wear/did wear on your wedding!) Let me know in the comments!

PRODUCTS USED:
Base: Nailtiques Formula 2 Plus, available here
Polishes: 
Essie Mademoiselle
Color Club On Cloud NineVinyls:
French Tip Nail Guide, available here
Top: KBShimmer Clearly on Top, available here