3 Tips to Sculpt a Better Smile Line with Acrylics

To create that perfect and crisp smile line, it’s all about your brush work.

1. Use the tip of the brush to your advantage. When working with the smile line to put it in place, keep the brush tips (or flags) right at the edge of the line to ensure a crisp finish. Taking the tips of the brush past the smile line toward the nail will flatten it down and will cause a gray area, on the other hand, from pink being brushed over the white. Having the tips or flags of the brush below the smile line, creates a small trench across zone one that requires adding additional product or extra finish filing to remove the peaking product.

2. Mind your brush angle. Getting corners that you do not file off when you finish file can be achieved by having the brush angled back toward the extension edge. When working into the corners you want to roll the brush to the side so that you keep the flat part of the brush’s flags parallel to the shape you would like the finished nail to be. This will keep the product off the skin in addition to tapering it toward the sidewalls, sealing it, and making for less work finish filing.

3. Work from the corners in. The smile line can be the most difficult part of creating zone one when you’re doing a Forever French. Placing the smile line corners before filling in the extension edge can be the difference between a beautiful crisp smile and a halfhearted average smile.