Alexis Wolfer is a well-known beauty and lifestyle expert and the founder of The Beauty Bean, an online magazine that promotes Real Beauty. She is also the creator of the international and viral Makeup Free Mondays movement and can be found tweeting about all things real and realistic beauty at @AlexisWolfer.
 
If it’s Spa Weekend with your nieces and your typical at-home manicure is feeling a bit dull, mix it up with a lunula half-moon manicure.
 
It’s straight off the runway (Mara Hoffman’s Fall/Winter 2013 runway show at NY Fashion Week, to be precise) but transitions seamlessly from models’ manicures to nieces’ nails.
 
Here’s how to DIY this night-sky inspired manicure at home, which I have to say, feels extremely fitting for a niece-packed sleepover. (If they’re anything like mine, anyway, it won’t be the only version of the night sky you see on those sleepless nights!)

Instructions
 
1. On short, slightly rounded nails (to prevent scratches and stay on trend!), coat nails with a base coat before applying two coats of Color Show Nail Lacquer in Onyx Rush to create a black base.
 
2. Create a slight moon shape at the tip of the nail, using Impeccable Greys.
 
3. Once dry, top the grey moon with Petal to the Metal.

4. Finish with top coat. And violà—you’ll be sure your nieces think of you every time they look down at their perfectly painted pinkies.

Photo: Courtesy of Alexis Wolfer
Published: March 11, 2013