Half Moon

I've seen this manicure floating around pinterest for awhile and decided to try it out for myself this weekend. Unlike some of these nail blogs out there, my manicure did not come out perfect. It looks like exactly what it is - a homemade mani by a person who is not the least bit ambidextrous. I'm showing it here because I think most people are like me - relatively uncreative and completely inartistic. Not all fancy-pants manicures are created equal, and this is one of the easiest I've found.

You'll need:
1. Clean, dry nails
2. Two nail polish colors [I used bobbin for baubles and absolutely shore]
3. Hole Reinforcers
4. A DVR'd episode of your favorite show, possibly two, because there is a lot of waiting involved

I start with a base coat, CND brand is my personal favorite, and let dry. Apply whichever color you want to be on the bottom of your nails, closest to your skin. In this manicure I picked the lighter color, Absolutely Shore, to be on the bottom. I was originally worried about a light color being painted over a dark color but now that I've done it, I don't think it would have mattered. As long as you have time for multiple coats. As you can see in the pictures, I didn't even paint my whole nail this color. It's a waste of color, and time, to do so since most of the nail will be covered by your second color later. I opted for only one coat of this polish, but that was probably a mistake [patience is not a strength of mine]

                

 The key to this manicure is to allow this first color to completely dry before moving on to the next step. Enter material #4. Once it's completely dry, you apply the hole reinforcers. I cut mine in half as I found it sticks better to the nail without all that 'extra' material. Really make sure the reinforcers are stuck to your nails, especially around the cuticles. Otherwise, the darker polish can sneak underneath.

Paint the second color on. It's not a big deal if you get paint on the hole reinforcers, since they come off anyway, but be careful not to paint inside the hole! Enter material #4 again because this paint needs to be completely dry before removing the reinforcers. 

                 

Once it's dry, peel back and enjoy your manicure! Below is my finished product. I don't hate it but I have a few improvements to make next time. One I already recommended: Apply a second coat of the lighter polish on the bottom. And the second improvement for next time will be to make my half moon's smaller. As you can see, I left a little polish showing through when placing the hole reinforcer down. Next time, I won't leave any polish - with my shorter nails I think it will look better that way. I'll keep you updated!