The ‘Ice Cream Manicure’ Is the Softest Way to Wear French Nails

New year, new me, new mani. I don’t know about you but I’m feeling a clean, fresh-start design with a little extra presence. Luckily the ice cream manicure is here to fill the assignment.

We spotted the look on manicurist Harriet Westmoreland‘s grid just in time to carry us through grey January. The nail artist, whose clients include Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Zendaya, has made elegant, minimal manicures with a modern twist her signature, and this latest design already has clients in the comments booking it in for their next appointment.

What is the ice cream manicure?

At its core, the ice cream manicure is a subtle ombre French, where the soft white tip disappears into a glossy pink base (like soft serve disappearing into an ice cream cone). It’s already introducing those sorbet tones that will rule again for spring, but the sheer, strawberry, syrupy pink keeps it feeling clean and nearly-naked. As always when it comes to barely-there manis, the success is in the prep. Immaculate cuticles, a tidy shape and buffed nail beds are an essential pre-requisite. As for the finish, they key is to make it extra glossy.

How to get the ice cream manicure?

While Westmoreland hasn’t confirmed the exact technique and shades she used, she did share how she created a very similar manicure (her most popular of last year). She started by gently buffing bare nails with Willow Buffer Bands, applied the Biosculpture Evo Flex Base before layering up the Biosculpture Bio Gel in 87 Strawberry French and topping it off with Biosculpture Evo Gloss Top Coat. But for the ice cream manicure, it looks as though Westmoreland blended a soft white tip into the top. To recreate it at home start with a smoothing base coat, like Chanel La Base Camelia. You can color match to Biosculpture’s pro colors with the matching Gemini nail polish in Strawberry French, with a sheer white like OPI Funny Bunny on the tip. Then finish with a high-gloss top coat like Seche Vite Instant Gel Effect Top Coat.