Half Moon Manicure: Instructions & Inspiring Nail Ideas

The half-moon manicure is a look that’s popping up everywhere from celebrity-packed runways and red carpets to regular, everyday locales like schools and offices. Simply put, a half-moon manicure is a nail art design that features two contrasting shades of polish, one at the base and one at the tips, almost like a reversed French manicure. Easy to dress up or down, this versatile type of manicure can come across as bold and daring, or simple and subdued, depending on the polish shades you decide to integrate into its design.

While the look seems easy to pull off, it does require some precision and patience. Here are some foolproof instructions for a DIY half-moon manicure that you can try on your own:

1. One of the biggest mistakes that DIY manicure novices make is to think about filing and shaping their nails after they have already applied color. No matter what type of manicure you’re giving yourself, it’s important to cut, file, shape, and clean nailsbefore you even think about touching any colors.
2. Entirely coat each nail with the color you wish to have on the lower half/base of your manicure. Allow the polish to fully dry before moving on to the next step.
3. Remember those little white paper reinforcements that you used to stock up on at the beginning of every school year? You probably thought you would never buy them again now that you no longer tote around three-ring binders filled with loose-leaf paper, but think again. Not only did they do a great job of mending your ripped papers back when you were in middle school, but these little circles also work well as templates/guides when outfitting your nails with a half-moon manicure. Securely fasten a paper reinforcement to each nail’s base so that it creates a half-moon that takes up about 25-40% of the nail, depending on your preference.
4. Paint the upper section of the nail with another shade, removing each reinforcement after you do so. Don’t worry about waiting for the polish to dry before removal.
5. Once your second color has dried, apply a clear topcoat to seal the design.

Helpful Tip: If you plan on leaving one section of your half-moon manicure bare/unpolished, the process will differ slightly. Apply the paper reinforcements to the base of each unpolished nail, painting the top section with the color of your choice. Remove each reinforcement, and once the color has dried, seal with a clear topcoat.

Now that you’ve mastered the process, check out these lovely inspiration photos for fun variations on a basic half-moon manicure. There’s something here for everyone, whether you’re looking for a bold “show stopper” or a look that’s a little more ordinary:

Forget a hunky date or extravagant jewels! A classy half-moon manicure in nude and white is the perfect red carpet accessory for an A-list actress like Rachel McAdams, but it’s also simple enough to work in your everyday life.

WARNING: This next design may lead to excessive sugar consumption! Visually inspired by pastel macaroon cookies, this sweet multi-color design is the perfect choice for those who love the look of a half-moon manicure but may have a difficult time selecting just one or two shades.

Demi Lovato’s fans may worship her for her undeniable singing and acting talents, but her rock star manicures have also garnered her plenty of followers on Instagram. Ms. Lovato herself posted this snapshot on her Instagram account before recently performing on LIVE with Kelly and Michael! While the black and white design oozes with edginess, it also looks polished and put-together.

There’s simply nothing more glamorous than glitter. There’s no greater proof of that idea than this matte-finish, metallic half moon manicure, which packs more shimmer than we believed to be physically possible.

If you’re looking for just a hint of glitter in your half-moon manicure, slick your nails with a bold coral gel polish and use a guide/template to control your sprinkling of loose gold glitter at the base of each nail.

Whether you’re a master hunter or a military wife/girlfriend, there’s no need to let the boys have all the fun with camouflage prints! You’ll need to coat the top half of your nails with a mint-hued polish and layer on a variety of greens with a dotting tool to pull off this marbled look. For the base of the nail, use a neon orange polish.

Hardcore rocker chick meets Barbie girl, this half-moon manicure is ideal for those punk princesses who want to show off contrasting sides to their personalities with their nail art.

This manicure is made for those who want all eyes on them. Easier to execute than it may look, this creative design is simply a black and white half-moon manicure with an eyeball drawn onto the base of each nail with a fine brush.

Why stick to two solid shades when you can use your nails as the perfect canvas to outlet your creativity? This design consists of a pink and white half-moon manicure, with a gorgeous black tulip painted onto each nail’s base with a thin brush.

This half-moon manicure pops with bold colors and playful polka dots, providing physical proof that your nail design can be childish and chic at the same time.

Achieve a Perfect Pedicure at Home: Steps & Designs

It’s no secret that most of us live for a luxurious day at the spa. There’s nothing better than sitting back and relaxing with a mimosa in hand as a nail technician cleanses and exfoliates your feet before slicking your toes with this season’s hottest new shades and designs.

With that said, getting the star treatment can be expensive and time-consuming. Even if you can afford a weekly pedicure at a local salon, chances are that you often find it difficult to squeeze quality time for your toes into your busy schedule.

Whether you plan on treating yourself in the comfort of your home on every occasion, or you just plan on doing it on your own every now and then, it’s important to know how to properly give yourself a pedicure. Before you break out the polishes and exfoliators, read through these tips to ensure that you’re giving yourself the best at-home pedicure experience possible:

1. The first step to a DIY pedicure is to remove any polish that may already be on your toes with nail polish remover.
2. Next, soothe and relax tired feet by soaking them in warm water; make sure the water is not scalding hot, or your feet will become red and you will feel anything but tranquil. Depending on how stressed and damaged your feet may be and how much time you have on your hands, your soak should last between ten minutes and an hour. The longer you have to soak, the better your results will be and the more relaxed your entire body will feel.

Helpful Tip: While warm water on its own will do the trick, you also may want to add your favorite soaks or essential oils to your bath for a more relaxing, spa-like experience. While a few drops of lavender oil can calm your senses, peppermint oil is also an excellent choice for tired feet because it refreshes and cools them!

3. After soaking, it’s time to exfoliate! While you can always use a manufactured/store-bought foot exfoliator, you can save quite a bit of cash by using natural ingredients that you probably already have on hand, such as sea salt or cane sugar. Simply use your hands to massage each foot with your exfoliator of choice, focusing on rough, calloused areas.
4. Using a pumice stone or pedicure egg, buff the rough areas of each foot, focusing on heels.
5. Pat feet dry and massage them with a moisturizer. Again, while you can buy moisturizers, you could also massage your feet with an all-natural substance, such as olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable oil, or shea butter.
6. Now that your feet are clean and softened up, it’s time to focus on your nails, which should be cut and filed to a length that’s just shy of your toe’s edge. Buff nails using a nail buffer.
7. Next, apply a clear, strengthening basecoat to your nails and allow it to fully dry. If you aren’t a fan of color, your pedicure is finished at this point.
8. Apply a nail polish shade of your choice. You may want to apply up to three coats, depending on how dark you want the color to be. Just make sure that you allow each coat to fully dry before painting the next one, or you’ll end up with a goopy, gloppy mess!
9. Once your color is dry, apply a clear topcoat to seal the look. If you choose to take a step further and paint designs on top of the color, make sure you do this beforeapplying the clear topcoat.

While most women tend to stick to solid shades when it comes to pedicures, the options for your toes are just as limitless as those for your fingertips! Before you decide to slick on the boring old polish that you have been using for years, check out these ten inspirational photos for pedicure ideas that are undeniably gorgeous but also easy to apply:

A French manicure is the epitome of chic, so why not also use this traditional design on your toes? Simply paint each toe in a nude or pale pink shade. Then use nail guides or tape to separate the tip from the rest of the nail, and paint the tips white before applying a clear topcoat.

Actress Lucy Hale of Pretty Little Liars may have recently shared this pretty floral design on her Instagram account, but you don’t have to be a celebrity to pull it off at home! Just paint dainty flowers atop powder-blue polish using a fine-tipped nailbrush before sealing with a clear topcoat.

While this uniquely “cracked color” pedicure may seem incredibly difficult to pull off, it’s much easier to design than you may imagine! Simply paint your nails with a solid black polish and allow them to dry. Then add a coat of a specially formulated white crackle polish, such as China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Lightning Bolt, and enjoy the magic show.

This particular pedicure pays homage to the one and only Mickey Mouse, but a similar design could be executed using any cartoon character to which you feel particularly devoted. Take a one-shade pedicure to new heights by creating your own template out of sticky paper and using it to create a crisp, clear design on your big toe.

Drawing intricate designs onto fingernails is a tough task, but it can seem almost impossible to do on tiny toenails. This neon green striped design is perfect for toes because the lines are intentionally uneven, making them much easier to draw than straight, perfectly linear patterns.

Polka dots are another easy design to add atop a solid coat of polish. A random scattering of white polka dots pops against a vibrant blue base.

Go buggy for ladybugs with this fun pedicure design! After painting your nails a deep shade of red and allowing them to fully dry, use a fine-pointed nail brush to apply black polish in a line down the center of each big toenail. Add polka dots and a half moon tip. Don’t forget the peepers, which can be dotted on in white polish using a toothpick!

Just because you’re the type of girl to always stick with the simplicity of a little black dress and chic pumps doesn’t mean you have to get stuck in a rut. Add a little bit of variety to your next pedicure by sticking to solids but choosing a contrasting shade for just one toe to pop against the rest of your pedicure.

Attaching crystals or tiny stones atop a shimmery pink base infuses your pedicure with glam power.

This pedicure is the perfect choice for you if you love for your nail art to be bold and beautiful! Break out all of your polishes and paint your toenails in a variety of bright hues (the more random, the better!). Then use a chunky glitter topcoat only at the base of each nail to achieve this shimmery look.

How To Successfully Remove Acrylic Nails—What You Need To Know

No one can lie: acrylic nails look amazing. They are sexy, glamorous, and really make you look put together. A lot of women love wearing them, and a lot of men love seeing them. They can be kept long or short, and the design on top can be simple or more intricate. Acrylic nails can be adapted to anyone’s preference.

Sometimes, though, you might have the desire to give your natural nails a break, or the build up starts looking too thick, or you just want to try a different kind of fake nail. Whatever the reason, you now need to know how to safely remove your acrylic nails. This can be difficult because the acrylics are glued fast to your natural nail bed. If not done correctly, removing them can be extremely painful and dangerous to the health of your real nails.

Here we will take a look at the various methods to take off acrylic nails, mainly by filing them down, using dental floss, or soaking them in acetone.

File Them Away

What you’ll need: nail clippers, a nail file, a fine grade and course buffer, a cuticle stick, cuticle scissors, some moisturizer

Here’s the process-

1. Clip. Start off by clipping the tips of your acrylic nails off. Trim them as short as you can. This may prove difficult if the nail is thick and if that is the case, then use the file to file them down (either to make them thinner to clip, or to file them short).
2. File. Now the real filing begins. Using the course (sided) buffer, start filing down the acrylic on each nail. You should stop when there is a very thin layer of acrylic left. Try to file as much as you can away. They should look almost acrylic free by the time you are done. Don’t remove all of the acrylic if you don’t want to damage your natural nail (which you shouldn’t want to!). You can leave your nails like this and what until they grow out to official have to traces of acrylic, but if you rather be rid of it all, take a look at the next step.
3. Remove the rest. Using the cuticle stick, slowly pry up the edge of the acrylic nail that is left. Then take the cuticle scissors and cut away what has been previously lifted. Continue lifting and cutting until it’s all gone. Don’t pry off too much at a time, otherwise you will damage your natural nail.
4. Buff. Buff away the very last traces and it will smooth out your nails in the process. Shape them accordingly, then apply some lotion or other type of moisturizer.

Dental Floss to the Rescue

What you’ll need: a partner, dental floss, a cuticle stick, a nail file, a fine grade buffer, some moisturizer

Here’s the process-

1. Pry the edges. Using the cuticle stick, start by gently lifting up the bottom edges of the acrylic nail.
2. Floss. Have your partner face you. He or she should then slip the string of dental floss under the lifted edge of the nail, holding each end of the floss in each hand.
3. Saw. Tell your partner to move the floss back and forth under the acrylic nail in a sawing motion. It will slowly come loose as the floss works upwards. Continue until the acrylic nail is all the way off. If your partner does this too quickly, it might pull your natural nail with the fake.
4. Buff. Once all the acrylics of the nails are off, buff and shape your nails to how you want them. They will probably be a little damaged. For the last step, put some moisturizer on.

Soak In Acetone

What you’ll need: nail clippers, a nail file, acetone (nail polish remover), a glass bowl, petroleum jelly, foil, cotton balls, a fine grade buffer, some moisturizer

Here’s the process-

1. Clip. Start off by clipping the tips of your acrylic nails off. Trim them as short as you can. This may prove difficult if the nail is thick and if that is the case, then use the file to file them down (either to make them thinner to clip, or to file them short).
2. File. File a decent amount of the acrylic nails off. Use vertical strokes.
3. Prep. Pour the acetone in the glass bowl, filing it up halfway. Keep in mind that acetone is extremely flammable. Then cut 10 foil strips to wrap around your fingertips later. After that, put the petroleum jelly all around each nail (on the skin, not on the nail itself). This is crucial. Acetone is very damaging and irritating to skin, and the jelly will protect it.
4. Apply the acetone. Place one cotton ball per nail into the bowl of acetone so that the cotton ball is completely saturated. Put the cotton ball directly on the nail. Wrap a strip of foil tightly and securely around the fingertip, holding the cotton ball in place. Once all your fingers are wrapped, let them sit for 30 minutes. Another option is to simply stick your fingers in the bowl of acetone for 30 minutes. Do this only if you don’t have sensitive skin.
5. Scrape off the rest. When you remover the foil and cotton balls, you should notice that the acrylic is soft, and therefore will come off very easily. Scrape the rest off with a nail buffer. If it hardens again, use a cotton ball with acetone on it to soften it again.
6. Finish. Shape your nails to your liking with nail clippers, a file, and your buffer. File in one direction only to avoid damaging the now sensitive natural nails.

Acrylic nails are glued fast to your natural nail and it is nearly impossible to remove all of the acrylic without taking the top layers of some of your natural nails off. Your nails will be thin and sensitive, but with time they will go back to their original state. Take special care of them in the meantime!

Latest Nail art Tips to try this summer

If you are someone who is artistic and enjoys fiddling around with nail polish then this article will delight you. You get to use your artistic mind and that too using your own nail as the canvas. The best part is that you get to experiment and flaunt a new look whenever you feel like it.

Ombre nail art is a way of painting your nails so that have a shaded look with two colors on them. It is possible that you would have come across pictures of such art on nails. Here is what your require to achieve an effect like this on your nails this summer for that great look:

1. Nail paint of two different colors that you want for your nails
2. A top coat (has to be clear)
3. Some sponge
4. Nail paint remover and cotton bits

The basic and simple version of Ombre is the one using two colors; you are better of picking one in lighter shade and another in a darker shade. First thing you need to do before starting on this is to ensure that your nails are absolutely clear of polish and very clean. One of the tips to ensure that your nail paint dries quickly is to immerse your hands in really cold water for about ½ to 1 minute and then removing them.

First thing to do to get started on this is to apply the lighter color on to your nails, apply two coats if you feel it is required. Let this coat of polish dry fully. Now comes the next part – take out some of the darker shade of polish to a flat surface or on to a piece of sponge. Then gently dip the sponge into the color and apply to the tip of your nails. Do each nail in turn.. Let the nail paint dry completely and then cover the art on your nail with a clear top coat of polish.

You need to try different permutations and combinations with regard to colors to arrive at the one that works with each of your outfits and moods.

Ombre nail art using several colored nail paints: You can go with more than two colors for doing ombre art on your nails. The technique is basically the same; you just need to be a bit more creative. Start with two coasts of nail polish (lighter hue) and let it dry. You can then carefully make an impression of one color with the sponge on your nail. Carefully repeat the motion for all the nails. Then do the same thing with another color. If you are going in one direction for one color then do that same motion for all nails. You can go a little crazy and add accessories on the same nail on each hand, like a tiny flower, star or bow.

Another way of doing ombre art on your nails is that once you have applied a double layer of base nail paint then you can mix the rest of the nail paint colors on a surface. Then use a sponge to make a particular pattern that can be applied to each of the nails. Always remember to finish with the clear top coat. This way the nail art will remain intact for a longer time.

One more way this type of nail art can be worked by using different shades of the same color nail paint. This can really cool and different and will have people wondering how you have achieved the effect. In case you do not happen to have the same color of nail polish in different shades then you can add white color nail paint to progressively get a lighter shade. Once you have done it you will find yourself eager to experiment with different shades and colors.

Childhood Memories—17 Cartoon Nail Art Designs and How To

Just because you’re all grown up, doesn’t mean you can’t be a kid at heart. Everyone who is younger wants to be older and everyone who is older wants to be younger. We do whatever we can to try and make our desires come true. We’ll try anything, from anti-wrinkle creams to dying our hair every type we see a grey hair growing in.

Even if you are not at the grey hair point, you probably still recall your childhood fondly, especially the movies, shows, toys, etc., that were involved in it. It was a time when you had no cares in the world, well except for who your next best friend would be. Why not keep the spirit alive, even if it’s just for a short time? Bring back all those memories and good times, not to mention that it’s also a good conversation starter, by putting your favorite cartoon character (or characters) on your nails.

Steps and Ideas

First, and most importantly, you have to decide who you are going to paint on your nails. This could be anyone! Disney princesses, Barbie, Care Bears, Powerpuff girls, super heroes, Winnie the Pooh, the Flinstones, Looney Tunes, and the Lorax, are all great ideas, but there are so many more. Whoever you can recall, it’s all possible.

Once you’ve got that figured out, now you have to mentally assess your nail painting skills. If you feel comfortable with your artistic skills over a small area, then you’re good to go! If you want to do it yourself but aren’t as confident then pick a easy design that you think you could mange. Either way you will need some key items, especially a nail art pen for thin lines, and the such.

The other way, and way easier way, if you are still set on trying it out by hand it to use stamps. They are easy to use and you can by a kit. It usually consists of a circular palette with various perfectly designed cartoon characters around the edges. The character outlines and details are actually grooves. Apply some of the paint on the one you want, scrape it off so that it’s only the grooves that are filled, press a stamper down on the design, then fill in the stamp on the stamper you just created with the colors of the character!

As you can see, it’s a relatively simple process, though it is a bit time consuming. No one ever said looking good was easy! Or, of course, you could opt for the nail salon to get them done by professionals, but it’s best to call ahead to make sure they have the materials needed.

Instead of just having the same full character on each nail on a background of a base color, there are some more creative options worth trying out:

• If you are planning on putting just the face of the cartoon, then think about putting it on the tip of the nail. Face it away from you so that when you stick out your hand the person viewing them has the correct perspective. You could also put the face of the character only halfway on the tip so that just the eyes are showing. Depending on the character, it may add more personality.
• Of course, if there are multiple characters in the show or movie you want to portray, you have the option of putting a different character on each nail.
• If you are sticking with on character, it may get a little repetitive having the same design on each nail. To spice it up, think of more basic designs and common colors to use on other nails. For example, if doing Winnie the Pooh, you could have his face on one nail, a bee on another one or two, black and yellow stripes on another, a honey jar, and so on.
• You could also keep the same character but change the facial expression. Have the cartoon be happy, surprised, angry, etc.
• If you are choosing more elegant characters, such as Disney princesses, combine them with a classic and elegant look: the French manicure. You could even have the French tips each a different color matching the character, and then the character would go above.
• Really make your cartoon characters shine! Add glitter in the right places, or even rhinestones to accentuate your chosen design.

The Sky Is The Limit!

As mentioned earlier, basically any character or characters you can think of can be painted on your nails. It’s really up to who and what you remember. Cartoons are a great way of connecting with your inner child. Up to this point, I have mainly insinuated that adults would be the wearers of these designs, but in no way is that the limitation. Your children or nieces would absolutely love if you had a nail date and they could get to choose to put their current favorite characters on their nails. It may be hard to get them to stay still because they’ll be so excited!

No matter who the designs are going on, the end result is bound to look fabulous and definitely unique.