It's Made of Stars: A Galaxy Manicure

I want to tell you something about myself.  When I get excited about something, I become pretty soundly obsessed.  Right now, nail art has eclipsed everything short of sleeping and bathing in my world.  I do not claim to be an expert...or even very good.  But I enjoy studying designs and giving them a go.

For all you out there who can't rock a flawless mani, you are not alone!  My technique is improving, yet rough, every nail is a different shape and my cuticles look like I set a pack of beavers on them.   This is a blog for the nail underdog.  My biggest tip going forward is take your time!  Seriously, as soon as I stopped trying to pound out ten fingers in ten mins, my results improved.  /soapbox

Are we going to look at some nails??

This is my first attempt at a Galaxy manicure.  As the name suggests, the idea is to take you nails and create little nebula..nebulas...nebulae? This is a very easy look to play with even for a beginner.

These are the colors I used for this look.  I started with a base coat, I use an Orly Rubberized Manicure Keeper.  I followed this with Sally Hansen Blackout.  The bright colors I used were Sinful Colors Feeling Great and Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine.  The sparkling stars were created with China Glaze Fairy Dust.

I decided to use a quick dry coat over the initial black base since it was so thick and I have pretty much zero patience.  Once the base dries, use cut up bits of cosmetic sponge and holding them with tweezers dip them into the pink and yellow and then sponge it strategically across the nail.  I did all the yellow first, then went back over with pink when it dried.  After that, I used another piece of sponge and dabbed China Glaze Fairy Dust over the nail.  This works best when you concentrate it on the blackest area of the nail.  That's it!  Finish with a top coat, I use Seche Vite (this lives up to the hype, review coming)

Two tips, keep the layers of color thin....much thinner then I did would have looked better.  I had some bitchin' 80's galaxies.  In hindsight I might have gone back over the colors with some acetone just to mute the colors and blend them out some.  Second, don't cover too much of the nail, the black really enhances the galaxy look when you apply the glitter layer.

Pardon my top coat boogers

If you search galaxy nails you will find quite a few examples and some good tutorials.  The one I referenced heavily was Chalkboard Nails  Hers are hands down the best galaxy nails I've seen.  She has other wonderful tutorials that are well suited to those shaky handed nail no0bs (myself included).

Have you tried this look, what inspires your nail art?