NaillyAsk five people for a French manicure and you will get five different manicures — not because anyone is wrong, but because the French has a hidden variable nobody names: tip depth. How far down the nail the white (or colour) band reaches changes the entire character of the set, from a hairline of light to a statement block of colour. Salons increasingly price and book these differently, so it is worth knowing the vocabulary. This is the guide to the depth spectrum: micro, classic, and deep.
Micro French: the whisper
The micro French is a tip band of roughly one to two millimetres — a bright line tracing the free edge, visible at conversation distance only as a certain crispness. It is the biggest French trend of the past two years for a reason: it delivers the clean-hands signal of a French with none of the retro weight, works on the shortest natural nails (where a classic band would eat half the nail), and grows out almost invisibly. If your reference photos say “expensive minimalism,” you want micro.
Ask for: “A micro French — the band no more than two millimetres, following the natural smile line, over a sheer nude base.”
Classic French: the standard
The classic band covers the free edge as it naturally is — typically three to five millimetres on a medium nail, the proportion most bottles of white polish were born to make. It reads timeless rather than trendy: bridal, interview, everyday-elegant. The success factor is symmetry — ten smile lines at the same height — which is precisely what separates a good tech from a great one.
Ask for: “A classic French, the band matching my natural free edge, same depth on every nail.”
Deep French: the statement
The deep French drops the smile line toward the middle of the nail — a third to nearly half the nail in tip colour. It is the editorial version: bold, graphic, and the best canvas when the tip itself is the art — chrome, glitter fade, cherry red, or a colour-blocked two-tone. On long almond and stiletto shapes it is glamour; on short nails it becomes a colour-block design in its own right. Deep tips also hide tip-wear longest, a practical bonus nobody mentions.
Ask for: “A deep French — drop the smile line to about a third of the nail, [colour] tips, crisp line.”
Choosing your depth
Three questions settle it. How long are your nails? Short favours micro; long can carry deep. How fast do you want grow-out to show? Micro forgives most; deep shows the gap soonest (there is simply more design to drift). Is the tip the whole look or the frame? If the tip carries art — chrome, glitter, colour — deeper gives it room; if the look is the base colour, micro stays out of its way. When in doubt: classic, which is classic for a reason.
Set the depth yourself, precisely
Depth is exactly the kind of instruction that dies in translation — “not too thick” means nothing at the salon. In the Nailly design studio, tip depth is a control, not a hope: choose French, micro French, V-tip or gradient, then set the depth — micro, classic or deep — and watch the smile line move on your actual design. The choice rides along when you send the set to a local artist, written in the recipe next to the colours. Ten matching smile lines, at the depth you chose, on purpose.