Look Polished For Fall With The Retro Moon Manicure

Burlesque beauty Dita Von Teese has been ahead of the trend on this one, for quite a while now. Check out her sexy nails. She is queen of the moon manicure. The retro moon mani is big this fall 2009.

Think of it as a reverse French manicure. It's basically a two-tone paint job. Dita Von Teese is sporting scarlet nails and leaving a small white crescent at the nail bed. Very dramatic and clean. And this trend was actually quite popular back in the 1920s when glamorous movie stars began wearing this interesting manicure.

The moon manicure has been featured on some of the fall runways, and the Dior show really catapulted the look onto the mainstream fashion pulse.

The moon manicure can be quite bold in black and white, as pictured here, courtesy of Instyle.com. And their directions follow on how to create your own moon mani.

STEP 1 Apply one coat of opaque white (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Nail color in Whirlwind White) over the entire nail and wait for the polish to dry completely.

STEP 2 Using a semicircular French-manicure stencil sticker (Orly French Manicure Tip Guides), block off the bottom third of your nail.

STEP 3 Paint two coats of black ( Essie nail polish in Licorice) from the stencil to the tip of the nail. Once it dries, peel off the sticker and finish with a shine-enhancing top coat over the entire nail.


And here's yet another example of the retro moon manicure. Nails are painted dark red, and the bottom crescent is left naked and a clear top coat is later applied to the whole nail.

We happen to think this is a very sophisticated, lovely look for nails for fall 2009.