Here’s an updated take on an old nail art technique known as galaxy nails. That’s basically beauty speak for “sponge a bunch of colourful polishes onto your nails in a nebulae-like fashion, top with tiny pinprick planets and GO!” But no actual “Guardians of the” in this post (wee confession regarding the movies: I no like) – just trying to guard these pretty galaxy nails from chips and general destruction. 🙂
On a Friday night 20 or so years ago, there was probably only one place you’d find me, on the dance floor of Zaphod Beeblebrox, the coolest bar in the universe. Located in the very un-cool city of Ottawa, Ontario, Zaphod’s was a small, oddly-shaped, black-lit sanctuary of Brit pop, industrial, electronica and alternative rock, with potent signature drinks (the glowing green Pangalactic Gargleblaster was a particular delicious favourite) and nightly showings of Aliens. Some of the best moments of my life happened in that bar – it broke my young(er) heart when it closed a couple of weeks ago after 26 years of killer Friday nights.
To thank Zaphods for all my best weekends, I thought I’d paint this glow-in-the-dark galaxy manicure that mimics the black-lit stars and galaxies that dotted the walls of my favourite Nightclub at the Edge of the Universe. Rest well, Zaphod’s – so long, and thanks for all the fish.
Just a smattering of bright stars against a soft sky lit by the last rays of the day. That’s poetic fancy talk for this is a manicure I did for day 19’s theme of galaxies in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. 🙂
Not the movie, although I’ll confess to finding it much more tolerable on recent viewings. It’s just one of those movies – very much like Men in Black – that has never really appealed to me. Anything that has to do with space stuff, actually, particularly the two Stars, Wars and Trek.
But enough about the holes in my pop culture sci fi knowledge, and on to the sci fi nails. Thankfully, one area I no longer seem to be struggling in quite so badly any more are my galaxy nail designs. Galaxy nails have never really been my thing, because I seem unable to pull off a delicate star design. But with a little assistance – okay, a lot of assistance – from my secret weapon for creating the perfect starry lacquered sky, CND Vinylux’s Dazzling Dance, this dusky mani turned out quite beautifully. Quest fulfilled!
And a small shout-out as well to the obstinate little water droplet clinging to my index finger, which lasted through 80 some-odd photos and completely dodged my attention until, well, now. Nicely done, water droplet!
Also, this manicure matches the leggings I’m currently wearing. I’ll leave you to decide if that was intentional or not. 😉
Coming at you this bright and beautiful morn with a manicure inspired by last night’s ice chip stars. After an abnormally temperate start to the winter (three weeks ago temperatures were in the plus double digits; one day I did some tidying up on my balcony in a t-shirt), the weather has reverted to normal. Unfortunately, normal is -25 degrees, and that’s just lousy.
But there’s something about these positively frosty days (and nights) that adds such a beautiful shimmer to the world. Last night as I was driving along a dark, country road-type stretch of tree-lined blacktop, I couldn’t help but marvel at just how quiet and peaceful and beautiful everything was – the delicately snow-dusted trees, the still, frosty air and the gorgeous ice chip stars. So as I tend to do when I’m inspired by anything, I decided to paint those stars on my nails.
I’m notorious crap at drawing stars, however, so those of last night’s variety – tiny, delicate pinpricks of shimmering light – were never going to happen by my hand. Thankfully, I’ve got a polish I like to refer to as “night sky in a bottle” (CND Vinylux in Dazzling Dance) and it saved the day, adding those tiny, icy pinpoints of light to this super subtle gradient (and the less subtle purple stars) for a beautiful, stars-at-twilight type of effect.
Or one unicorn, singular.
Galaxy nails were the order of the day for September 19th in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. I don’t do many galaxy manicures – it’s mostly just a lot of sponge painting and glitter, and I’ve got enough of that in my repertoire already. Also, I find space to be singularly uninspiring. I prefer the more watery “space” that’s up to 2,500 kilometers straight down.
All that to say I didn’t exactly give this manicure my all, which is of course why it turned out better than any galaxy mani I’ve ever attempted before. For these fluky nails, I brushed on two coats of a black creme polish before randomly sponging on three frosty lacquers in hot pink, baby pink and dark teal. The frosty polishes were a good choice, adding a hit of twinkling shimmer. They also layered really nicely over the black creme, blending together into a bruise-hued mass of cosmic clouds.
I then brushed on one coat of Enchanted Polish’s fittingly-named Instant Galaxy, a holographic topper speckled with iridescent blue glitter. After that dried, I brushed on a smattering of holographic stars with Liquid Sky Lacquer’s megawatt silver holo, Dream. Finally, I set a prancing silver unicorn charm from Daily Charme on my middle finger (not my usual accent nail choice, but this particular space unicorn is on the larger size, and I didn’t think my ring finger would accommodate his galloping girth.)
Here’s a small lesson in why you should never overthink things. I’ve had the idea for these Aurora Borealis nails simmering away on the back burner of my mind for an eternity now, because I rather incorrectly assumed that they were going to be super difficult. A galaxy manicure background AND what I thought was going to be some labour-intensive watercolour-type work? Count. Me. Out.
Then I actually took stock of the nail art tools and techniques I had at my disposal, and realized that I was needlessly fretting. That galaxy manicure background? As easy as swiping on a single coat of Enchanted Polish’s Instant Galaxy, a holographic glitter topper that makes every dark polish it touches look like the twinkling night sky. And as for the watercolour work I was contemplating for the hazy, diffuse look of the Northern Lights themselves, I decided my free-handed colour-blending was already pretty perfect – no need to involve excess brushes and acetone and what’s sure to be a lot of swearing if we don’t need to, right? So fret not, nail art enthusiasts (or at least fret less) – sometimes even the seemingly insurmountable obstacles turn out to be nothing but tiny little anthills of annoyance once you really get down to it. You’ve got the power!
Galaxy nails (a type of design that makes your nails twinkle like the cosmos) are a mainstay of the nail art world. Indeed, it was after only my third or fourth attempt at nail art, period, that I decided to just jump in the deep end and lay down some sponged-on space nails, technique (or lack thereof) be damned! But it turns out that galaxy manicures are actually pretty easy, and somewhat blunder-proof – after all, the cosmos is just a higgeldy piggeldy mess of colours, lights and sparkles to begin with (Finger Candy: Come for the nails, stay for the faulty science!)
One of the trickier parts of the galaxy look, though, is duplicating the tiny, ice cold pinpricks of light that dot the night sky. Glitter polishes can really pull their weight as starry sky stand-ins, but if you use too heavy a hand, you’ll muddle the look.
But a polish like this one, the aptly named Instant Galaxy, is the perfect backing for spaced-out nails – one light, even coat over a dark polish truly does produce a perfect instant galaxy. Here I’ve shown Instant Galaxy, a holographic topper speckled with tiny ice blue flakies and holo micro glitter, over a basic black creme in both the shade and the sun. In the shade, this polish produces a gorgeous, lightly speckled effect where the flakies glow from within like the first ice chip stars in the velvet night sky (cripes, now we’re getting into overly florid poetic recitations; looks like you’re all getting a full Finger Candy education today, my friends!) I also think this combination in the shade can look a bit like granite – it would be cool to try it over a darkened green or brown or blue. But the really nice surprise with Instant Galaxy is that in addition to being a gorgeous shimmer topper, it’s also a MEGA holo that will turn any polish it touches into an instant rainbow.
All the way around, Instant Galaxy is a pretty perfect specimen (and now we’ve circled back to the science again. But hey, don’t worry, gang, I’ll cut you some slack on tonight’s homework, just because I’m nice that way. Class dismissed!)
Out of focus holos are the best holos!
Today’s theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge is galaxies, and what better (Disneyfied) way to approach that theme than by honouring the grand dame of Disney roller coasters herself, Space Mountain? Space Mountain is a kickass ride, an indoor, in-the-dark roller coaster that’s been blasting Magic Kingdom guests into near-pitch-black orbit since 1975. On a visit with my parents when I was in university, my parents, admitted roller coaster wussies, and I all grabbed Fast Passes for Space Mountain (the “pass Go, collect $100” of Disney rides) and I rode it solo four times in a row, one walk-directly-on ride after another. Space Mountain acts tougher than it actually is (being in the dark amplifies all your other senses, which are telling you that you’re going about 60 miles an hour, although it’s probably closer to 20), but after four runs, I was feelin’ wobbly.
Here I tried to capture Space Mountain’s iconic silhouette, along with the celestially-sprinkled ceiling, blue gradient walls and neon blue guide rail framing of the waiting area. I’m particularly proud of the blue framing, which is thin and even and 99% the doing of my new detail brushes, which are so tiny and delightful! You could even say they’ve opened up a whole new out of this world of nail art design possibilities? Eh, eh?! (*groan*) Don’t worry, I didn’t laugh at that either. 😉
Galaxy nails were the name of the game for day 17 of the Oh Mon Dieu nail art challenge, but having done more than my fair share of celestially-inspired manicures over the past year, I thought I’d instead go back and attempt to recreate a galaxy-type design I did just a handful of days into my acetone-based adventures. The poetic idea – the first cold, white stars of the evening just appearing above a pastel sunset sky – was a good one, but my execution was, naturally, that of someone who just started dabbling in nail art the week prior. I’ve often thought I could have done better, and with this challenge I had the opportunity to do precisely that.
In that spirit, and clearly taking a major page from One Nail to Rule Them All and her series of then and now posts, I thought I’d compare the two manicures (using the exact same polishes, it should be noted) to see how far my technique has come in just one year.
You’ve already seen my most recent effort up above. Now let’s take a look at the manicure I did very nearly a year ago today:
YIKES, right? She’s rough. As well as heavy-handed, lumpy in some areas, balding in others, pooled all up in my cuticles and apparently photographed from the next balcony over. But as with most things – and nail art is no exception – there are lessons to be learned, the most important (and trite) being practice makes perfect. Yeah, I get how annoying that is. No one wants to be told that to be good or better at something, you have to work at it. We’re a world of quick fix seekers, and taking the time to hone a skill, even if it’s something as seemingly silly and prosaic as nail art, is a quality in increasingly short supply. But the rather unlovely truth is that to get from the nails in the second picture to the nails in the first, I just had to practice. Nothing more mysterious or complicated than simple trial and error, I’m afraid. Like, you can really see how I tried to create a smooth and seamless gradient, but instead wound up committing the error of a lump-riddled hodge podge. Just like you can see how I tried to capture my nails for photographic posterity, but erred by holding the camera approximately 50 detail-destroying feet away from its subject.
As embarrassing as it is to go back and catalogue the litany of boo-boos I made in the early days of my nail art obsession (and continue to make to this day, it absolutely should be noted), it’s a fantastic reminder of exactly how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learned in a relatively short amount of time, and that can’t ever be considered anything but a positive. Learning is livin’, y’all.
Finger Candy 