Experimenting with Half Moons

With only a few weeks before I start my new job, I feel like now is the time to experiment with nail art that I might not be able to get away with at work. Well, at least until I get to know people a little better.

I've been dying to try this half-moon manicure trend. Maybe I shouldn't call it a trend, since it's been around for so long that it has kind of gone mainstream. There's a lot of nail art that is so popular right now, and this is one of types that an average girl can do at home.

I think the most fun part about this manicure is picking out what colors you're going to use. Since I'm cheap, I like to use combinations of nail polish that I already have. I think this actually makes life easier, since I tend to get paralyzed by indecision when I have too many choices. Gold and silver are really nice neutrals that can work with most nail polish colors. I used this OPI gold color (Glitzerland) that I use primarily around the holidays and this gorgeous Ulta color peacock green color (Envy). (I have to say that I think the quality of this Ulta polish is quite a bit worse than other salon-quality nail polishes. It chips much more quickly than I would normally expect.

Basically, all you have to do is:

1. Start with a standard base coat.
2. Layer on the color you want at the base of your nails (the half-moon). You don't have to extend the polish all the way to the tips, but you can. You may want more than one layer of polish at the base depending on the opacity of your polish.
3. Wait until the polish dries completely. This could take as much as an hour or more to be safe.
4. Put on your hole reinforcement stickers. You can get these from your local Staples or other office supply store.
5. Layer on your top color that you want to extend to your tips. Layer it on thick on the first try, then immediately peel off the sticker.  Do this one nail at a time so you can peel the sticker off while the top layer of polish is still wet!
6. Use your trusty top coat. I recommend Seche Vite.

It's a little time consuming, but I definitely think it's something fun to try at home! If you want to make this look less edgy, you can try more muted colors. How about a pale pink half-moon with a gray or taupe like Chinchilly at the tips? You can also do a smaller gold moon with a more traditional color like red; or colors with less contrast (a berry + plum combo) to make a little less of a statement but still have a little fun with it.

Drying Paint

I've been obsessed with my nails lately. In an effort to recreate a look I saw on Pinterest...

...I experimented with trying to create an orangey coral and gold combination. What I created wasn't really close, but I still like the results.

It's a little sloppy, but I liked the dry brush technique look that I ended up having to use to blend the lines between the red and gold. I just painted on the red base layer and then brushed the gold on top like something of a french manicure style. The line was sloppy, so I then took the brush that had air dried for a few seconds and brushed down toward the base of the nail to give it a choppier finish.

Nailing It

With all the craziness that work has been throwing my way, I sometimes need a little escape for just a few seconds. I joined Pinterest in late December or early January, and at the time, most of my friends hadn't joined. Now, there are so many people to follow that I can barely keep up with the latest posts. Everyone I've talked to about it has said that it's addictive; "digital crack" was what one article called it. So anytime I need to put my brain at rest, I make a little trip to the world of pretty things.

One thing that I manage to make time for are manicures. I have loved the new nail art trend that seems to be popping up. I remember my first nail art when I was little; my mom let me get a little flower on my nails at the nail salon next to the Chinese food place we always ate at. It was really special, and I treasured the opportunity to make my short piano-playing nails look pretty. But now, since I am too cheap to pay for manicures, I haven't thought of it as an option for me. 

Enter Pinterest.

Daily Candy had a board titled "Nailed" with lots of cool ideas for nail art. Not all of it is stuff that I can execute on my own, but I found two specific ideas that I've tried in the past few weeks that were actually quite easy. I call the first version champagne nails. 

These turned out to be relatively easy. I already had a dark shiny gray polish from MAC and a gold polish from OPI. I even had a little sparkly gold topcoat, but it turned out that the glitter was too fine to really show up. With the help of a toothpick, I managed to make a reasonable facsimile. Here are the results of my own attempt. As mangled as I thought these were, I got a lot of compliments. From the office to the hair salon, girls everywhere were mooning over them.

By the way, I really like the blog of the woman whose site these nails were originally posted on. Check it out here.

The second set was even easier to execute. These have a sexy name that I can't take credit for: Galaxy nails.

Basically, you just need a mishmash of cool-toned colors. I used a range of blues, greens, purples, and a shimmery silver to try to recreate the look. 

Easy peasy! It's a little hard to see below, but I just applied a base coat of the Revlon navy color, and then swooped on layers of each of the other shades (in order that they are shown here), and used the silver to make a little Milky Way across each nail. Personally, I love the swirly look that I was able to achieve on mine, even versus what the original looked like. I made vertical, horizontal and diagonal strokes to make it look like some crazy aurora borealis moving across my nails. The best compliment that I could have been paid came today when I was at the register at a spa. The cashier said, "Oh my gosh, are those Galaxy nails? You did such a great job!"

One final lesson learned from this photo session is that it's really difficult to capture nails in artificial light at night. Best to leave those things to the beautiful light of day.


Addendum:

Another idea for nails from Pinterest led me to this little experiment. It's difficult to see in the picture, but it's a layer of Essie Chinchilly with some sparkles just at the tip of the nail. Subtle but sparkly!