Friday, September 19, 2014

Purple Galaxy Nails, Inspired by the Pelican Nebula

Purple galaxy nail art by @chalkboardnails

Galaxy nails day for the 31 Day Challenge! I don't do galaxy nails nearly enough. They create such a stunning effect for so little effort. For this year's nail art, I was inspired by a photo of the Pelican Nebula that I found on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). I didn't end up using enough pink in for the look to match exactly, but that's okay. I love the depth in these.

Purple galaxy nail art by @chalkboardnails

Nail polishes and supplies used:
OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!? (black)
Zoya Sailor (navy)
LVX Orchid (orchid)
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (medium purple)
Nicole by OPI American As Apple Pie (red)
Nicole by OPI Yoga Then Yogurt (white)
China Glaze Lotus Begin (light purple)
Formula X Freaky Like Freud (holographic glitter)
Triangle makeup wedges
Edinburgh Realism #4 nail art brush

I started by painting my nails black. Then, I used a torn piece of the makeup sponge to apply a bit of navy on my nails -- admittedly, that part doesn't really show as well as I was hoping it did. Using new bits of sponge for each color, I sponged on streaks of red, then medium purple, medium orchid, and light purple.

I mixed a bit of white polish with acetone for a thinned out, watercolor effect, and used it to do a bit of freehanding inside of the light purple sponging (you can see it in the middle of the large purple nebula sections). A holographic glitter, used sparingly, gave the effect of distant stars, while white polish and a pinpoint dotting tool created some closer objects. The final step was to freehand a handful of stars with cross lensflare.

Purple galaxy nail art by @chalkboardnails

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16 comments

  1. These are stunning! They look so real to me.

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  2. Love the red and purple together - great galaxy nails!

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  3. Well YOUR galaxies look absolutely incredible! I tried twice and just didn't like either one... I suspect I won't be trying galaxies again till this time next year!

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  4. I love these galaxy nails almost as much as the lumpy space ones you did. haha

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  5. Haha thank you! My boyfriend mentioned that these ones reminded him of lumpy space, actually!

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  6. Wow, these are spectacular!!

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  7. Ohhhh...This seems a very active Galaxy ...Can notice lot of movement inside it... ;-)...Mindblowing...

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  8. The galaxy pattern has become really common in clothing and I haven't liked it much. Although, now it is officially safe to say it does work for nails! This is great ^^ Looking forward to more posts!

    Check out my post about carpe diem: http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/09/carpe-diem-dead-poets-society-15.html

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  9. This is really quite amazing! I'm always impressed by how talented you are.

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  10. these nails are absolutely insane

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  11. Out of all the Galaxy nail pictures I have seen, these are the prettiest!!~

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  12. Such an amazingly realistic galaxy you have there!! Wow!

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