Lunar nails, take two

Let me tell you a little story...when I was a sophomore in high school, I had a few flirtations with fashion. One of these times, I decided to paint my nails a dark-ish blue (something between cobalt and navy). I thought it was cute and fun and so much more interesting than the white French tips that where all the rage. So the next day at school one of my guy friends said something like, "Wow, blue nail polish...don't tell me you're going goth on me!" Okay, 1: how do you go from the color blue to goth? I mean, really? And 2: this totally shook my fragile teenage self-confidence and I'm pretty sure I didn't do any fun nails again for a few years.

The point of this (probably boring) story is that I absolutely love how fashion has evolved from, in the case of nail art, something that was really "in" being the only cool thing to do, to now doing whatever the hell you want and not being seen as weird.

So anyways, this little mani is kind of like a cross between a reverse-lunar mani (check it out here) and an Anna-style French mani (aka black tips instead of white). Enjoy!

1. pick your polish / gather your materials

COLORS Sinful Colors Rise and Shine, Petites Night   TOPCOAT Essie No Chips Ahead
ALSO nail polish remover, q-tips, large glass of diet Coke (optional)

>I realized this when I was about 3/4 of the way done that a remover pen would work a lot better/faster than q-tips, so if I do any more manis like this I'll definitely be picking one up beforehand.

2. paint the lower portion one color

No need to be exact, we'll tidy it up soon.

3. paint the upper portion a second color

I used two coats per color.

4. pour a bit of remover into the cap, and shape the polish on nails into a semi-circle shape

This can take awhile, so be patient! Or use a remover pen.

>If you accidentally take off a bit too much polish, use a toothpick dipped in the polish to get very precise color.

5. add topcoat, all done!

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.