Mastering The Half Moon Manicure

Hello hello!

Today’s post is for those of you who enjoy nail art. 🙂 I love nail art and have developed a really steady hand for it, so I do everything myself and love to get creative and have fun with it! I love the look of a half moon manicure- especially on longer, rounded nails. It’s so elegant, and gives an elongated look to the nails. It’s also pretty easy to achieve, so I wanted to walk you guys through it!

Your *~magic~* tool:

Hole reinforcer stickers– don’t know if that’s their official name, but it’s what I call them. You can use clear ones to see more clearly how much of the nail you are covering, or white ones if you feel more confident.

Secret awesome tip: For extra long lasting nails for any manicure- use the greatest top coat of all time- Sally Hansen gel shine 3D topcoat. I found this product super randomly at Target and it turned out to be the best, longest lasting topcoat and it removes normally with nail polish remover (despite that it has “gel” in the name). I don’t love gel polish, I think it’s damaging to nails in the long run. But this top coat really is just a long lasting clear that keeps nails PERFECT for at least 7/8 days, it’s amazing.

For a basic half moon manicure:

1. Stick the hole reinforcers onto each nail of one hand to cover about the bottom quarter of the nail bed.   Make sure that it is lined up straight and not skewed, as it
   will be more evidently off center once you add the polish. I like to cut each sticker in half so it’s just a little semi circle to stick on.

 

2. When you have the stickers lined up just where you want them, push them down with a nail of your other hand, pressing down firmly to eliminate the possibility of getting polish beneath the sticker line. I’m a weirdo about detailed stuff like this and get super mad if the color bleeds beneath the sticker 🙁

 

3. Next paint on your color of choice on the rest of the nail above the sticker. I think this manicure looks best with darker colors like ox blood or deep purples and reds. Nudes and pinks will create a softer version- still beautiful.

 

4. Let the first hand dry almost completely and then carefully peel off the stickers. If there are some places where a little bleeding of the color has occurred, you can just use your nail or a toothpick to fix it since the color is a tiny bit wet still.  As with any nail polish adventure, a Q-tip dipped in nail polish remover can save the day.

 

 

5. Repeat on the other    hand.

 

 

 

6. When both hands are mostly dry you can apply the top coat and voila!

 

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For color contrast half moon manicure:

Now, for my second manicure of deep purple/black and nude, I had a little more difficulty. I found that when you want to have a color in the half moon, unless you let the polish dry for like a day prior, the sticker will leave a residue on the nail or smudge the color and most likely ruin that area a bit once you peel it off. This annoys me. So I had to freehand this one in order to get it done in one sitting that didn’t last 5 hours.

If you have a thin brush (they are sold at beauty supply stores in the nail for just this type of reason!) you can do it much easier than I did.

 

1. Free-hand or outline your half moon with a brush and then fill it in with your color of choice on each hand.

 

2. Then fill in the rest of the nail with your lighter color for this pretty contrast effect.

 

3. Cover with top coat and enjoy!

Once you try out the half moon manicure, there is an unlimited number of color combinations and designs you can add like these:

I hope I offered you a bit of nail inspiration today. Let me know what you think!

Ciao ciao for now,

Amanda xx