The half-moon manicure was a manicure technique developed during the 1930-1940’s period, owing its name to the half-moon of the nail which was either painted white, or was left bare. The reason why this manicure got known was mainly practical: Painted nails used to be a luxury back then. Women didn’t have the time to paint their nails every time one of them chipped, so they had to find a way to make them look nice for a longer period of time. Most of the times they painted their nail tips white, too, however the techinique that survived was the one with the bare half-moons.