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Hello from 'The Tease Maid'. I am woman...hear me POUR! Read on for my general make-up musings and my plan to make the world a better place with nothing but cuppas, cupcakes and cosmetics. There's a weekly 'Tuesday Tip' and a 'Vintage Vault', and of course information on where you can find my next "Cake It On" event... Hope to see you at one soon xox

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Tuesday Tip #8 - Vintage Nails

The EASY way to get that Half-Moon Manicure
This look is now instantly recognisable as being the one favoured by Dita Von Teese. True to her 1940's style, she has always sported her perfect red talons with the half-moon at the cuticle free from polish. But not many people know that this look actually originated in the 1920s.

The 'manicure' itself was invented by a make-up artist at MGM Studios and it wasn't only the half moon that was left clear of colour - the tip of the nail was too.


This look had 2 functions: 
1) It made the nail polish last a lot longer (we all know the first place your polish chips is the tip, then it looks weird as it grows up and away from the cuticle) and -  
2) It had the added benefit of being a tricky and delicate paint-job that had obviously been done by some-one else (i.e. a manicurist) so it was in that way a good indicator of social status.
By the 1940's, the trend was to cover the tips too, although there was a brief resurgence of unpainted tips which can probably be attributed to the war and sparsity of nail polish.
There are many tutorials that tell you how to get this look by using those nail-tip stickers you buy for French Manicures but I have an even better way to do it.
Those manicure stickers aren't sticky enough and the curve is a bit too wide - instead use hole-punch reinforcement stickers from stationery shops and cut them in half. They're cheaper, they're stickier so they don't allow polish to leak beneath them, and the curve is smaller and tighter. Perfect.

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