Squoval French Tip Nails

What it is, precisely

A square nail has a straight free edge and two sharp corners. A squoval keeps the straight edge across the middle of the nail and softens the corners into short curves. It is not an oval, which rounds the whole edge; the flat centre is the point. From the front, a squoval reads as square. From the side, and to the fabric of every jumper, it reads as round.

The French tip follows the filed shape exactly: a straight bar across the flat centre, curving up gently in the last millimetre or two at each corner. That gentle curve at the ends is what distinguishes a squoval French from a square one, and it is also what makes it the easiest smile line to draw well — the eye forgives a soft curve far more readily than it forgives a straight line that is slightly off.

Filing it

1. File straight across the free edge, one direction, until the edge is level. This is a square.
2. Hold the file at roughly forty-five degrees to the left corner. Three or four light strokes, checking after each.
3. Repeat on the right corner, matching the left.
4. Look at the nail from the front. The middle of the edge should still be visibly straight. If it is not, you have made an oval; on the next nail, stop a stroke earlier.
5. Check both hands together. Squoval corners drift wider on the dominant hand, because you file it with the weaker one.

Over-rounding is the only mistake, and it is easy, because the shape looks finished a stroke before it is and looks like an oval a stroke after. Three strokes per corner is the usual number on a medium nail; two on a short one.

Why it suits short and medium nails

Squoval keeps a square's width. Width is what makes a short nail look longer — a wide free edge reads as more nail — and an oval gives that width away by rounding it off. So on a short natural nail, squoval is the shape that looks longest without being longer, and the thin French bar across it adds a second visual edge that lengthens it again. That is why most of the photos on the short French tip nails page are squoval whether or not the caption says so.

At medium length the shape is at its best: enough edge for a proper tip, a flat centre that carries a straight line, and no corners to catch. The medium-length squoval French is, by the numbers, the version people search for most, and it is the salon default for a reason.

At long lengths the soft corners begin to look like a blunt oval, and the graphic shapes — square, coffin — carry length better. Squoval is a short-to-medium shape and is happiest there.

Squoval, square, oval: the same French three ways

• Square French: straight edge, sharp corners, straight tip line with a gentle curve across the middle. Graphic, slightly severe, catches on everything, chips at the corners. The square French tip nails page.
• Squoval French: straight centre, soft corners, tip line straight across the middle and curving up at the ends. Natural, forgiving, snag-free. This page.
• Oval French: fully rounded edge, fully curved smile line. Soft and elongating on longer nails, shortening on short ones. Closer to the almond French in feel.

If a set has to survive a fortnight of hands-on work, squoval is the honest choice of the three. If it is for a photograph, square.

The tip line, and where people go wrong

Because the edge is straight in the middle, the smile line should be too. Draw it as a bar across the flat centre, then let the last millimetre or two at each end curve gently up to follow the softened corner. Two strokes — left side wall to centre, right side wall to centre — with the curve happening at the start of each stroke.

The error is drawing a full curve, as for an almond, on a squoval nail. The line then lifts away from the flat edge in the middle and the tip looks like a crescent floating above the shape. Follow the shape. If the corners were filed soft, the line curves soft; if they were filed barely, the line barely curves.

Depth: thin to medium. Squoval is a quiet shape and a deep tip is loud. One to three millimetres, thinner on short nails. For the liner white and the brush, the white gel polish and liner brushes categories have the thin-line options; a French stamper from the guides and stamps page handles a squoval well, because the stamped curve is gentle.

Colours and finishes that suit it

Squoval is a natural shape and it takes the natural Frenches best: classic white over sheer pink, the nude-on-nude low-contrast version, a milky base with a soft white line. It carries colour too — a pale pink or pastel tip on a short squoval is an office-safe coloured French — but the graphic colours, black and cobalt, want the sharper edge of a true square.

Finishes: a glossy top coat is the default. Matte on a squoval softens an already soft shape into something quite plain, so if you want matte, keep the tip glossy for contrast. Chrome over a white squoval tip is the one finish that adds drama without changing the shape's character.

Press-ons, and the file trick

Stock squoval French press-ons barely exist; almost every set is square, almond, oval or coffin. KISS's Core line makes one — a white squoval French in a petite size range — and it is the single squoval set in this site's press-on category. If your nail beds are average or wide, it will not fit.

The workaround is the same three strokes. Buy a short square French set, apply it, then file each corner soft. Thirty seconds per hand, and the set is a squoval that catches on nothing — which is also the fix for any square press-on set that keeps snagging. The pre-painted tip line on a square set is straight across; softening the corners under it leaves a bar that ends a hair before the corner, which reads as a deliberate squoval French from arm's length.

At the salon

Most technicians know the word. "Squoval, medium, French, thin tip" is a complete order; "square with the corners rounded off" is the fallback. If you want the smile line to follow the corners, say "follow the shape". The salon wording guide has the rest; the cost guide has what a squoval French runs — it is priced as a square, since it is one.

Squoval is also the shape most often recommended for nail health, because it removes the sharp corners that split and the deep side-wall filing that weakens an oval; the American Academy of Dermatology's nail care basics say the same in plainer words. For the technique on your own nails, how to do French tips at home and French tips on short nails cover it. Everything starts from the french tip nails homepage.