Half moon day! I love half moons and every year during the challenge, I say that I'm going to wear them more often and then I never do. So here's my look for this year -- it started out in a different place than it ended up, which is some kind of mix of "electric carnival," "60s mod," and "old wallpaper." I dig it, but had one main issue, which we'll talk about below.
The base of this manicure is
LVX Midori, this gorgeous yellow-green shade that I adore. Like, ADORE it.
However.
Midori has this tendency to seep through and discolor any other shades that are used on top of it (even if there's a coat of topcoat between them). It's worse with light colors, but Midori even altered the deep cobalt blue that I used in my stripes. I didn't remember this when I reached for it, and by the time I realized, it was too late. In this case it was okay, because the color palette ended up looking kinda cool and retro, but this was not originally what I had in mind.
The process for these is pretty easy. I put down two coats of Midori plus a coat of quick dry topcoat. Once it was set, I used
half moon nail vinyls to block off the moon area, then painted freehand stripes with
JINsoon Cool Blue and
Deborah Lippmann Whip It. As you can see, Midori turned Cool Blue into "Cool Teal" and Whip It into coral. Oh well!
Next, I removed the vinyls, and added the arcing stripes in the open moon space. The final step, of course, is to finish with topcoat. Carnival chic!
Here are my half moon manis from the past four years of the challenge:
