Guest blog: how to create the perfect smile line

Nataliya Al-Ta’ai, CND education ambassador for Global Team CND, reveals how you can make your dreams of the perfect smile line a reality.

Are you dreaming of creating that perfect smile line? While this classic look can be created using traditional polish, Shellac or an enhancement service, for this post we’ll be focusing on enhancements.

A smile line is a purely aesthetic element of nail enhancement design, meaning you could have a beautiful and structurally correct nail enhancement spoiled by a misplaced smile line.

As Jan Arnold, co-founder of professional nail brand CND, always says: “Beautiful enhancements with elegant deep smile lines do for the hand what a dramatic pair of stilettos do for the leg. It’s all about illusion!”

French Smile lines are works of art that need continuous practice, and there are certain rules you must follow to create perfect smile lines time after time.

Let’s look at the basics:

• You need to have excellent product control – so the perfect mix ratio, bead size and timing as this will ensure you stay in control and achieve the look you desire.

• Visualise the finished enhancement before sculpting for proper placement of the smile line – and to create an illusion of a longer nail bed, use the fingertip as a guide.

• Determine the desired level of the smile arch to balance overall design – square nail enhancements should have a shallow smile arch, while oval, round and almond shapes should have a deeper smile line for a sleek illusion.

There are two techniques for creating smile lines:

• Classic – when the smile line zone is sculpted first

• Reverse – when the nail bed is sculpted first.

The reverse method is a lot easier when it comes to working on clients with bitten, wide and ski-jump nails, or to create fabulous nail art styles. However, the best way to perfect smile lines is education combined with lots of practice.

Nataliya Al-Ta’ai is CND education ambassador for Global Team CND, which is distributed by Sweet squared.

For more technical advice from Al-Ta’ai, check out our textured metallics nail art tutorial video

Sweet Squared offers bespoke one-to-one training which is ideal for developing your skills as well as building confidence. It has also launched a new Perfect French classes where you will discover the tips and tricks of a classic smile line, reverse smile line and a perfect baby boomer French ombré.

Images: ©CND/Sweet Squared