Category: Moon Manicure

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Easy Navy & Neon Half Moons 

I’m sure I’m not the only one whose first nail art involved those paper hole re-enforcements. This design is very reminiscent of those early nail art designs when all I had at my nail art disposal was those little sticky circles & a $1.99 dotting tool by Essence. & even though it’s a relatively simple design, I think it looks so classy & chic! 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Cutex Brittle Nail Fix
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • China Glaze Purple Panic
  • China Glaze Sleeping Under the Stars
  • Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Lo
  • Paper Hole re-enforcements (I buy mine from the Dollar Store)
  • Small dotting tool (like this one from Essence!)  

If you’re looking for an easy, simple nail art design this would be a great option! The hardest part is waiting for your base colour to dry (& thanks to quick dry top coat, even that comes pretty easy.) I really like this colour combination–you have Purple Panic with all its neon beauty topped with Sleeping Under the Stars which has that very pretty pink shimmer that compliments the neon pink really well. This is a great in-between mani. & a little more sparkle by adding those gold dots. 


What do you think of this mani? What is your favourite old school nail art technique? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

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Pink Negative Space Chevron Moons

So have you noticed the abundance of pink lately? Haha I guess when I stay away from blue I wear all the pink. I decided to pull out a few of those Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d shades for some nail art. & what better nail art than some chevron moons! 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formulas Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Flexible Sealcoat
  • Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Summer Bisou
  • Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d J’adore
  • Snail Vinyls Single Chevron vinyls 

These nails are perfect for the balmy Summer weather we’ve been having! These shades from the Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Summer 2017 collection couldn’t be more perfect for sunny days. Now if only I was wearing them on the beach, with some kind of fruity drink, instead of to go stock up on groceries. Haha. If you haven’t checked them out yet, remember that you can find these fun shades at your local Shoppers Drug Mart! 

What do you think of my Chevron moons? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Fairy Dust-ed Half Moons 


Happy First Day of May! I hope the weather wher you are is more beautiful than the cloudy grey skies covering Halifax. 

I recently refreshed my bottle of China Glaze Fairy Dust & I’m obsessed all over again. I’ve been adding it to all my manicures because the sparkle is just so pretty. I realized I hadn’t done any half moons in quite a while so it felt like a good time for some. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • OPI Two Timing The Zones 
  • OPI Lost My Bikini in Monoloki
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust
  • Paper Hole Reinforcements

So pink & purple is definitely my favourite half moon colour combination. I’ve done it a lot, but it just pairs so well together. 💜💗 & adding the holo glitter of Fairy Dust just improves it even more. 

 Feel a gradient coming on featuring these colours, with Fairy Dust of course. All gradients just need Fairy Dust, it’s pretty much a requirement. 


What’s is your favourite glitter top coat? Obviously my #1 is Fairy Dust but if I had to pick another I would say the Quo By ORLY Matte Glitter Topper or Essie Shine of the Times. If there is one thing almost as beautiful as holo glitters, it’s definitely flakies. 

Let me know your top picks in the comments below! 

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Blue (Chevron) Moons

It’s been way, way too long since I did chevron moons. My stash of nail vinyls is seriously dwindling so I’ve been hoarding them for special occasions until I ordered new ones (which we did this weekend so I hope they arrive quickly!) But it had just been way too long without chevrons in my life, &  I just couldn’t wait any longer to break them out. 

I’m really trying to make an effort to wear polishes I don’t wear, or don’t wear nearly enough–whether it be an unusual colour for me, or just a polish which hasn’t been pulled out in a while. With close to 1000 bottles of nail polish (I need to do a recount soon), obviously that makes for a lot of ignored polishes! I went through the other night trying to sort through favourite polishes to figure out my favourites for Spring for a future post, & it made me realize there are way too many I that don’t get enough of my love. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Essie Mint Candy Apple (the blue version)
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in Black
  • Kiss Products Chevron Nail Art Guides
  • Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat


An update on testing put this new top coat I bought from Cutex: it’s pretty awesome for nail art. It dries quick… like 20 minutes & you can add nail vinyls without pulling up your base colour. As much as I love Essie Gel Setter, it takes close to an hour of dry time for me to be able to apply nail vinyls without ruining my base colour. That’s a pretty big difference. Not to mention I have a 6 week old & sometimes I’ve painted my nails only to have him need to eat within 5-10 minutes. With this top coat, I’ve had no issues with messing up my colour when having to pick him up & feed him. I still need to do an official review post, but I had to share. I’m really, really impressed! In far I’m going to go stock up on more bottles while it’s on sale at Shoppers for when I start running out. 

I love, love, love the brightness of this mani! Plus the Blues just feel fun for Spring. I definitely seem to pull out my blues more often in the Summer months. Also, even though I’ve owned it for over a year, this is only the second time I’ve actually worn Essie Mint Candy Apple. I am definitely going to have to change that! It is such a gorgeous colour. 

What do you think of this mani? Are you feeling the blues (in a good way)? Let me know in the comments below. 💙

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Holo Half Moons

I’ve been a very bad blogger. You’d think being on leave I’d have all the time for keeping up with this blog, but it turns out preparing for a new baby is very time consuming! We’ve got two weeks to go now, and everything together, so I’m going to try and get on some blogging while I can! After baby comes—hopefully I’ll still be able to keep up after things slow down some. 

And now onto some nails! (Because that’s why we’re all here after all.) 

It’s been a little while since I wore my beloved half moons, and I thought hey! Why not some holo half moons–because obviously holo makes everything better. As I’ve written before, I love half moon manicures because they’re so easy and so versatile–just so many colour combinations, and so easy to do. I used actual nail tip guides from Kiss for this particular design, but it’s just as easy to use paper hole reinforcers to accomplish the same look. (I usually buy mine from the Dollar Store and they last forever!) 


Polishes used for this mani are: 

  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Retro Pink
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Ocean Rush 
  • Kiss Products nail guides 
  • Essie Gel Setter top coat. 

So what do you think of this design? What is your favourite nail art design you always go back to? For me it’s obviously a toss up between regular half moons and chevron moons! Both are so easy and always look fancy on the nail!