// Give me the half moon manicure

Posted on | March 6, 2010 | 5 Comments

I truly am a low-maintenance girl — but I do love make-up and thus I’m occasionally exceeding the normal daily maintenance level just because I like to work with color. To be honest I’m not that much into nail art (too little impact with too much fuss — although I somehow like those tiny and often tacky nail decorations), but I do experiment sometimes with the classic manicure variations: french and half moon mani.

With half moons I prefer the traditional look where the bottom of the nail bed is left bare although my nails are not ideal for that. My own half moon is tiny and thus I get a funky double moon effect. But the double polish effect is very difficult to achieve in a way that the result looks tidy — but I have found a decent method for the bare moon.

Personally I dislike all sticker guide methods for half moons and french manicures, the guides always leak and make the edge untidy and undefined. I have been practising the freehand method and it works… …for my left hand when I can use my right hand for the job (yes, I’m right handed). The overall best routine in my opinion is the removal method, you can use a brush and nail polish remover to create the half moon shape — or perfect tip shape for french manis. Of course this method has some limitations: the color you want to shape is always the first one against the nail bed. In french manis I actually prefer that order — but to get the best half moon effect for my nails I would like to have a coat of white or nude polish underneath a dark contrast color.

For this kind of look pick a good pigmented polish, you need to achieve the desired opaqueness level with maximum of two coats — preferably with just one, a curved tip bush (width should be 1 cm or just a bit under, it helps if the brush is dense and soft), effective nail polish remover or acetone, and vaseline or some natural plant based butter. And naturally you can layer a clear topcoat or some neat effect polish (glitter, opal, sheer color/shimmer) on top of everything.

Cover your cuticles carefully with vaseline (this time I was not too careful with this — thus parts of my cuticles have a greenish tint). You can now apply a basecoat if you want to, I did not because I feel that this method works the better the less there is stuff on my nail when I start removing. Apply the main color, note that you don’t need to aim to a perfect cuticle line for this — actually it is better if you do leave the bottom middle of the nail bed unpainted — the color is definitely easier to remove when there is not too much of it. Let the polish dry.

Now pour some acetone or effective nail polish remover to a small cup and place a cotton pad or some tissue paper next to it. Dip the brush to the acetone, brush it gently to the cup edge so that it is not dripping and place it flat to the nail bed bottom and let the brush tip to create the shape. Let it be there just few seconds so that the polish dissolves. Now use gentle curved motions sideways to remove the polish from the half moon area. Tap the brush against the cotton pad or tissue paper when it needs cleaning. Repeat the routine for all nails. If the color is really pigmented you might need to clean the brush thoroughly after creating the basic shape and make another round just to clean the residues. Add a top coat, if you want to, let it dry. Wash your hands and use some lotion — the remover dries the cuticles.

The polish I used for this is NFU Oh 570 — a gorgeous teal jellylike color. Although I prefer almost all my polishes opaque, this one makes an exception, I really love the color after the first coat when it is still quite sheer and the green tint in it is accentuated (in the bottle this color looks just plain navy blue). Somehow this reminds me of some beautiful Chinese laquered items. The brush I used is GOSH synthetic eyeshadow brush — an excellent tool for this purpose. Note that in the image you can see only side of it — but actually the tip shape is perfect for making the curvy shapes of nail tips and half moons.

Posted on | March 6, 2010 | 5 Comments

About

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Contact: kamicha (a) gmail dot com

I'm especially interested in young designers creations, non-established labels and indie fashion. So if you have something interesting to show, feel free to contact!

You can find Finnish design from both specific and some outfit posts - but both are tagged.

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