Half Moons

For this post I'm going to be trying my hand at a half moon mani. A half moon mani is sort of like a reverse french mani in which you use a difference in colors/textures to create a half moon coming from the cuticle side of the nail. 

Orly Can't Be Tamed, Warpaint Beauty Mattify, & China Glaze Stone Cold

My original plan was to use these three polishes for this mani. However after doing my color swatches (which will be in an upcoming post) I realized these weren't the right colors for the technique I was going to use. Stone Cold is an amazingly gorgeous color which truly does look like stone & already has a matte-like texture so the Mattify wasn't necessary. Can't Be Tamed is a beautiful polish but it stands out best when painted on another color like black & that didn't work too well with the plan I had in mind. Since this is my first time trying a half moon mani I wanted to keep it simple & just use two colors but in the future I might revisit these colors. 

I still decided to use the Stone Cold because the matte texture worked perfect for the image I had for this mani. I also used Orly Sweet Peacock because I thought the beautiful metallic texture of the blue would contrast really nice with the matte looking Stone Cold. 

To do this mani the first color you paint is the color that will be your half moon. I used the Sweet Peacock for mine. 

Excuse the pre-clean up...

How gorgeous is that blue? I was totally blown away by how gorgeous this color was. I liked it so much I had to go outside & get a shot of it in the sun to share with you all. 

Once you finish your first coat you have to decide if you want to apply a topcoat over it. I decided to because I didn't want to add a topcoat over the Stone Cold, I was afraid the shine would ruin the matte look of this polish. I also like using topcoats if I know I'm doing any type of taping because I'm a bit paranoid about ruining the first coat with the taping. Ultimately it is up to you. 

I mentioned taping, but we aren't going to be using your standard tape here. Instead we are going to be using binder reenforces which you can find in most places that carry school supplies. I bought mine at Staples. 

I used these because they will achieve the round shape we want for this mani. You can also position these higher up the nail & use these to do round french manis as well. 

Place the reinforcers over the edge of the nail & make sure the edges are stuck down securely. If your reinforcer isn't stuck down completely the shape won't come out right. I found it to be a tad difficult to keep the edges down so I used a piece of tape to reinforce the reinforcer. 

Once you have the reinforce securely down paint the top coat over, stopping at the edge of the top of the reinforcer. If you go over a little that is fine but be careful not to paint in the hole of the reinforcer or the design will be ruined. If you're worried about painting too close, use the tape reinforcement method I mentioned above & make sure your tape is covering the hole. 

The Stone cold worked very nicely for this because it went on very smooth & clean as well as dried quickly. I prefer to remove my reinforcers as soon as the top coat is on rather than wait for it to dry. 

Finish on all the nails, clean up & you're done! 

Overall I was happy with how this came out. I only really messed up one nail on the right hand & I was able to fix it with very careful freehand stripes. Today at work a bit of the Stone Cold on the very tips chipped off but I somewhat expected that without a topcoat. I touched them up & wrapped my tips tonight so hopefully that will help. 

Coming up soon, my red, white, & blue mani for the 4th of July will be along later this week. I am also putting together a post on removing glitter (I recently had the unexpected opportunity to learn how to remove glitter polish from denim as well) & a couple techniques for organizing your polish stash.