Monday, 4 February 2013

How To Do a Vintage Manicure

We've been colouring our nails since Ancient China. But did you know nail polish as we know it today is all thanks to the development of car paint? This came about during the 1920s.

The style of nail polish we most associate as vintage, is the bare moon manicure. This is were the lunula (white moon shaped spot below your cuticle) of the nail is left unpainted. While the rest is painted usually red.

Here's how to do it perfectly every time:

Start by shaping your nails, an oval shape was the most popular while pointed was a little more rare.


 
 

Grab some circle/spot stickers from any cheap shop. Place them ontop of your cuticle covering your lunula. You can place these as far down your nail as you like, the closer you put it to your cuticle the smaller the bare moon result.
 
 
Now you can choose your polish. This is my all time fave nail polish, BYS. It's cheap as chips, goes on smooth and last really well. I've chosen to wear 'Cherry Red'.
 
 
Apply 2 coats to your nail, and don't worry if you get some on the sticker. If you get some on your skin as we all do, don't worry you can use a cotton tip to remove it later. 
 

 

Remove the stickers and apply a clear top coat over your entire nail.
 

 
All finished! How pretty do they look now? You can use any colour polish you like to give this look a more modern twist. Why, you could even pain the entire nail one colour, then do this with another colour, leaving the first colour showing instead of being bare.