Half Moon Manicure

I filmed my nail tech doing my signature half moon manicure for you. I’ve been wearing my nails this way since I was first styling myself in 40s era glam in the early 90s. My mother was a manicurist, so she was the first person I asked to do it for me, and I showed her images of Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda, and photos from vintage beauty magazines. Over the years, I’ve had several people do this for me, but it’s not always been easy to explain how, let alone WHY! And people used to point out to me that my nails needed a fill, because in the 90s, people didn‘t see this style being done at all.

I even remember the first times I ever saw it done in modern times. One was for a portrait of Madonna as Evita, and another was in the David Lynch film Mulholland Drive…. It was making me crazy watching that film in the theatre, because the actress character had her nails done with the moons left bare, and it was so distracting for me, and although I can’t recall the exact storyline, it was a little clue about the character, who was actually playing a 40s era character. Later in the mid 2000s, I also spotted it on Galliano’s models for Dior. I’ve rarely been seen in the past 28 years without my half moon manicure, and when I am, it’s never by choice!

There are many methods of doing this, in fact my mother used to do an entire coat of natural polish and she would always freehand the half moons. She was really good at it!

As you can see here, my gal Lynn has her own method, and she has been doing them for me for over 22 years in Hollywood. In this video, she is using regular polish, but more often these days she’s doing it with gel, which is great for longevity. It’s pretty much the same process, but it takes a little bit longer because we have to put my nails under the UV light between coats. I do like gel, I love how the shine lasts two weeks, and I don’t have to worry as much about touching up the tips as the red wears off.  I think I’m sure most of you already know that I have acrylics. I’ve had acrylics most of my life, because again, my mother did them for me, so I was always used to it, plus I personally hate the feeling of my natural nails.  I always liked having uniform lengths, and polish that can last through corset-unlacings. I admire natural nails on others… I just couldn’t do it myself!