Step by Step: Pink & Black Half Moon Manicure

I always wanted to try half moon manicure but I never made it perfect to show you the final result. I thought that I could make it free hand just like ruffians I tried before but I'm not that good at it at all. xD

I made almost perfect half moons with reinforcement rings, I just wish my nails were longer for this look. Next time I'll try to make half moons smaller. :) You can use reinforcement rings, you can try to freehand it or use a small nail art brush... As you wish. :)

I used a lovely purple holographic Catherine Arley with number 677, which I got in a swap recently from lovely Nina from Women's Temptations and classic black creme. :) I'll show you swatches of the holographic one next time, first I wanted to share my first half moon try and a quick tutorial. :P

All pictures below were taken under daylight bulb and black background. 

Catherine Arley - #677 / 2 coats

Wet n Wild - Black Créme / 1 coat

Beauty Secrets TC Fast Finish Polish Dryer

I decided to make a step by step tutorial with smaller half moons as I did them on the pictures above. :)

All you need is a base and top color, reinforcment rings and top coat. I used these polishes:

Catherine Arley - #677

Reinforcement rings

Wet n Wild - Black Créme

Beauty Secrets TC Fast Finish Polish Dryer

Step 1: Start with a base color you want. It can be bright or dark, anything you like. I suggest that you try to do a half moon manicure on a day or more old manicure, because you don't have to wait base color to dry. That's how you can also hide a tip wear or any chips that happen in days and get new manicure with an upgrade.
Step 2: Place reinforcement ring where you want your half moon to be when the base color is 100% dry. If you want smaller half moons, place it more towards cuticle and reverse. I always use just half of the ring, because I can have 1 ring for 2 nails. Just make sure you rub the ring a little hard, to make sure that ring is completely down.
Step 3: Add a layer of top color all over your nail and a little over reinforcement ring to make a half moon line. 
Step 4: Remove the reinforcement ring right after you apply your second color when it's still wet. You can make some tiny correction with the brush after you remove it if the line isn't perfect but if you're satisfied with the half moon, finish the whole manicure with a layer of top coat and you're done.

I'm not the first one who made this manicure like this but I still wanted to do a tutorial if you didn't know about it. :) What do you think about Half Moon manicures? What's your favorite color combination? How do you make your half moons look perfect? :)

I just broke my daylight bulb and I almost throw down my lap top. Thankfully my lappie is in one piece but I need to get another daylight bulb soon. :) I'm also seeing the anesthesiologist in the morning so he can tell me when I'm having a tiny surgery on my wrist to remove ganglyon cyst. I have a big lump on my wrist now and it started hurting me when I'm using my right hand so I had to do something. Wish me luck! But a great news is that I won a giveaway at Cristina's blog Pee Before Polish (awesome name 8) and it's so true!).Thank you Cristina for making my week! :h

Thank you for reading and stopping by! I hope I'll be back to blogging soon. :)

Xoxo,
Ivana :k

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