I’m not quite sure what fascinates me about the burlesque era. I don’t mean the uber-revealing “new burlesque” peepshows of today, but the throwback burlesque era of the early 20th century. Perhaps because it was a more amusing, tasteful way for liberal women to express their sexuality and femininity (a harsh parallel to bare-all strip clubs of today) that embraced womanly curves, fishnets, dark goth lip color, and dark eggplant or black nails. (Does this remind us of something? It’s Fall 2008 style trends in a nutshell!)

One burlesque-inspired trend I ADORE is the “half-moon” manicure.

Basically, you paint all but the half-moon of your nails a red to deep plum shade. It’s okay if your natural half-moon isn’t very prominent; you can exaggerate it a bit with nail polish, by painting your entire nail with a white or nude shade before the darker color. I think I love this look because it’s so unconventional. Since my own natural nails aren’t very long, I’m super-tempted to head over to my manicurist for round-tipped acrylics and a professional half-moon paint job! But, if you’d like to try this at home, I’ve found a nifty guide online.

Would you wear this trend?

Photo credits: Return2Style.de, NYTimes.com