Half Moon Manicure

A friend of mine booked me to do her Shellacs after work today and she bought these 2 very pretty Bluesky in CS60 and Mocha VIP which look very cute together. As I was doing her nails she had to remind me several times to take pictures for me to document it yet I failed to do so on occasions.

So this mani was a last minute improvisation because we weren't sure what design we wanted on the nails, but it turned out very lovely in the end. Inspired by the 30's era I went for the Half Moon Manicure with a couple of rhinestones here and there.

Step 1
Start with clean dry nails and apply your base coat and cure each hand in a UV lamp for 2 mins (30 seconds if it's an LED lamp), in today's case I'm using all Gel Polishes and so far my favorite base and top coat are Harmony's Gelish Soak Off. In the UK you can purchase on Amazon here for about £20 and in the US here for $22 including shipping.

Step 2
My friend wanted her thumb and ring finger in the nude pink tone with the rhinestones and the rest in the Mocha VIP. Again cure each hand for 2 mins under the UV lamp and proceed to apply a second coat if necessary (depends on the opacity of the polish).
Cure once more.

Step 3
It's time to do the half moon. Normally this is where you get some reinforcement stickers and put them at the top of your nail to create the perfect crescent shape but I like to keep things interesting and forget to bring handy things like that (perfect cover up LOL) so I had to free handed it. I put a generous drop on the opposite colour at the base of the nail bed and moved it around with my dotting tool until I created the shape I wanted and cured once more for a minute or so.

Step 4 
Glitz and Glam it up! This is where you add the rhinestones and top coat these babies :)

Tada! Sorry about the bad pics, I've been using my phone

Not sure if this was helpful at all LOL (baby steps). Let me know any feedback, email me, what would YOU my lovelies like to read about on this beauty blog?

I'm open for suggestions :)