Nail Art: Galaxy Nails

Today I want to share some nail art with you, Galaxy Nails! I've been fascinated by outer space since I was a kid, so naturally I just had to learn how to do this nail design. I've tried it once before, but it really didn't turn out very well. This time, however, I loved it!

There are lots of different color schemes you can do that all look pretty cool, but I went with a basic black/blue/purple palette. The general idea is to create a nebula effect on your nails by using sponges to apply the polish. This isn't the easiest type of nail art in the world, but it's not terribly hard either. It helps if you plan out your patterns before you start with the sponging, and then sponge the colors on in a way that adds dimension rather than just layering colors on top of one another. I'm not sure if this makes sense. But when you see the pictures I think you'll see what I mean. 

For this look I used:

Bait Me (silver/gray) - Sally Hansen/Triple Shine
Fast Track (beige w/gold glitter) - China Glaze
Cabana Boy (blue) - Julie G
Purple With A Purpose (purple) - OPI
Black Creme (black) - Wet'N'Wild/Wild Shine

HK Girl top coat - Glisten & Glow (not pictured)

Step 1: Prep! Before I got started painting I cut a regular wedge-style beauty sponge into little rectangular pieces and I planned out where on each nail my little nebulas would be. I think it looks cooler when they're not all exactly the same. I also got a small piece of aluminum foil to use for the paint itself. I put a few drops of polish onto the aluminum foil and I dipped by sponge into it from there.

Step 2: Apply your base color. Black is obviously ideal, or something else really dark. Wait for it to dry before you move on to the next step. I actually topped my coat of black polish with Seche Vite before moving on so I wouldn't have to wait very long. 

Step 3: Begin sponging on your colors. I did one color at a time on each nail, then moved on to the next color. The trick with the sponging is to just dab the polish across the nail in your desired pattern, and to not let all the shades directly overlap one another entirely. 

Step 4: Star accents. I didn't do that for this look, but I've seen lots of galaxy nails online where they add little stars with a white polish. I think I'll try that next time. 

Step 5: Top coat. And viola!

Sorry I didn't take pictures while I was actually doing this. I'm sure that would have been much more helpful than me just listing the steps, but I don't have very good lighting where I actually paint my nails yet. It's definitely on my radar though, because I'd love to start making little videos and step-by-step picture tutorials at some point. One day I'll get my act together! : )

XOXO