Colorful French Tip Summer Nails + Making Gel Swatch Sticks

In this post I’ll be sharing a fun and colorful french tip manicure and my tips for making nail polish swatch sticks!

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

How cute are these colorful french tip nails for the summertime?! Click here to jump straight to see the colors I used and my french mani tips + tricks.

Last weekend I finally got around to making nail swatch sticks for my gel polish collection. It’s been one of those backburner projects that I’ve put off, for no particular reason other than the fact that it’s pretty time consuming. Now that I’m on the other side, I totally regret not doing this sooner! It was a fun and relaxing way to spend my afternoon just zoning out and looking at pretty colors.

If you read this post about my DIY/at-home gel mani, you’ll know that I’m a fan of doing my own gel nails at home. I’ve even expanded to gel nail extensions too, check this post to see my faves and application process.

Over time, my collection of gel polishes has grown quite a bit and I know it will only keep expanding… ha!

The downside to having a large and growing gel polish collection is that it takes a while to search for a specific color if you’re not super organized.

Nail swatch sticks are the perfect solution.

Since most gel polish bottles are opaque and the little color indicator stickers are often pretty deceiving, creating a set of labeled swatch sticks makes it much easier and faster to pick out the exact color/shade you’re looking for.

Making Swatch Sticks for GEL nail polishes:

You’ll need the following tools:

swatch sticks and metal rings
UV lamp – I use the one that came in this complete gel kit and I love it!
a piece of paper or foam to protect your work surface
gel top coat
fine tip sharpie or label maker

Some tips and things to keep in mind:

If you have a lot of gel polishes, this will be pretty time consuming so be sure to set aside a chunk of your day and set yourself up at a table or desk where you can watch a movie/show.

I recommend swatching 2 colors at once to save time. Swatch one color, place under the UV lamp, and while that’s curing, swatch the second color. I wouldn’t do more than 2 at a time because gel polish can be kind of runny until cured, so you don’t want the swatch sticks to sit around with uncured gel polish sliding off the edges.

There’s no need to use a base coat. Just apply the gel color directly onto the plastic swatch stick. I did 2 coats for all regular gel polishes and 1 coat for all jelly and glitter polishes.

Add a top coat to all swatches. This will help set/seal and remove any stickiness. A top coat will also prevent the polish from chipping as the swatch sticks rub together over time.

Stay organized to avoid confusion. Line up all the bottles of polish and place the swatch stick in front of each bottle as it’s finished. Doing this will make labeling way easier and you won’t mix up any of the color #s.

To label the swatch sticks, I used a fine tip sharpie to hand write the brand and color code number on each stick. I have also seen many people use label makers with clear tape if that’s more your vibe.

pink storage boxes with clear lids linked here!

Once I had all of my swatch sticks completed and color coded, I was super inspired to create this colorful french tip manicure for the summer.

To recreate this, all you need is a sheer or jelly base color, and an assortment of 10 different colors for the french tips. I think using a combination of bright and pastel colors keeps the “rainbow” aesthetic but with a more elevated look.

HOW TO – tips & tricks for a colorful French tip gel manicure:

Swatch all the colors you plan to use for the tips and make sure they all have similar coverage. Avoid using colors that require a different amount of coats or layers.
Use a light, neutral, or jelly base over the entire nail. This will even out your natural nails while still giving that “sheer” effect.
Apply color on nail tips in 2 thin layers to avoid bulkiness.
To create an easy half moon shape, place your finger on a table or flat surface. Take the nail polish brush tip and hold it perpendicular to your finger. Create one full sweep across the nail, rotating your finger in oppostie direction at the same time to help ease the movement.
Don’t worry about getting any on the skin around your nails. Use a small brush dipped in nail polish remover to clean up the excess polish off the skin before curing under the UV light.
Finish with 2 thin layers of top coat.
Admire from afar and remember nothing hand drawn is ever 100% perfect. 😉

I have used these French manicure nail sticker strips in the past, they are great for regular manicures, but I find they are a little too messy to work with when using gel polishes. I also know of this silicone French nail stamper and although I haven’t used it, it’s definitely on my list of nail tools to try!

And that’s all for today! Hope this inspired you to organize your nail polish stash and maybe even get creative with a colorful summertime mani.

Xx Laura

My GEL mani favorites + tools:

Complete gel kit (it comes with basically everything you need to start doing your own gel nails at home, including the base and top coats.)
Gel extentions kit (it comes with a ton of different nail extensions, plus the glue and UV lamp)
100% acetone or a strong nail polish remover
Cuticle nippers
Cuticle oil
E-file (electronic nail drill)

In my opinion, NAIL PREP IS EVERYTHING. If you have issues with gel nail polish lifting, chipping, or just not lasting as long as you’d like, it’s most likely because your base (natural nails) have not been prepped properly.

Click here for a more complete and in-depth DIY gel manicure routine.