My nails go lunar

I don't have that many different colors of nail polish, mostly because I'm cheap and every time I think about buying a $2 bottle of polish I get my panties in a bunch, so I end up passing on it. But the other day at the store I gave in a got a new color. I really liked it but I didn't want to do just an all-over regular paint job, I wanted a little more oomph. Luckily, the solution came to me while I was reading a magazine; they had a "statement nails" article. So I decided to try out the fairly well-known half-moon mani. Here's how it went, in excruciatingly boring detail (with pictures!):


1. pick your polish

POLISH Sinful Colors Rise and Shine     TOPCOAT Essie No Chips Ahead

  2. scavenge around your house/apartment for some of those page hole protectors (we all have them)

page hole protectors, Grandpa's desk drawer (no joke)

3. cut out five, cut them in half, peel off, and stick onto bottom of nails

I tried to get them all about 1/3 of the way up from my cuticle, or whatever. Just eyeball it, this ain't no bridge we're building

4. paint top portion of nail

I used two coats; this polish dried pretty dang fast = happy Anna

5. after polish is mostly dry, slowly peel off protectors; finish with a topcoat

like a boss

Some side notes:

>I don't use a basecoat because I'm a rebel! and I don't own any... and I'm kind of impatient when it comes to letting nail polish dry (seriously, who isn't?), so it's a bloody miracle I even use a topcoat.
>It doesn't look horrible, but I didn't get the edges of the protectors stuck down to my nails very well, so the corners are a little funky.

I've never done this style on my nail before, and it took a day to get used to the weird half-painted look, but I'm really starting to dig it! Definitely I'll be repeating this mani again.