I dunno if you've seen them but there are a gajillion beautiful variations of galaxy nails floating around on the interwebZ. And everyone that posts them goes, "Oh, they're so easy!" Well, I'm here to tell you that my experience was a little less smooth. (But still, coulda been worse I suppose.)
First of all, for all you impatient folks, let's get to the pic of what I ended up with.
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Oh yeah, you love the vertical pic action. |
Okay, here's my long and sordid tale about trying to make a realistic looking space mani.
The first attempt I made on this, I started out with a base of OPI Ink, which is a deep dark purple (lesson: use a black base if you want it to look realistic). Then I went CRAZY adding on colors. Rally Pretty Pink, Space Cadet, Sugar Plums... the list goes on. I ended up covering the black too much and it just looked like a regular old glitter mani. I pouted for a hot second and then took the whole thing off.
The second attempt (the successful attempt) I started with a base of China Glaze Liquid Leather. Then I sponged on a very faint coating of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, which turned out looking green after it had been applied. Remember, I use torn up bits of the triangle makeup sponges for my sponging. You don't wanna cover the whole nail with the spongings you are gonna do. Leave part of it black!
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Landscape view |
Then on top of the Happy Go Lucky, I sponged on some Sinful Colors Dream On. It was starting to take shape! I added some China Glaze Skyscraper and a TINY BIT of Zoya Tanzy. BOO, I had wrecked it again. I had gone over the first two colors too much and you couldn't see them well enough.
SO, I did another round of Happy Go Lucky and Dream On. Then I finished it off by adding in China Glaze Fairy Dust in the black spaces where I hadn't sponged anything. I found it looked better if you didn't put any Fairy Dust on top of the sponged areas. Let those shine through on their own.
Then I topped with two coats of SV! And there you have it. Galaxy nails!
Here's what my workspace looked like after everything was finished. The stamps all over the wax paper are an attempt to get the extra polish off of the sponge before I sponged on the nail.
See my little Grip and Tip in the back? The pink bottle clamp holder thingy? Before you ask about it, I got it on Amazon. It's super flimsy plastic and feels quite cheap. But you can finagle it and it works pretty well for tipping the bottle. Great for that last half of the bottle of SV! Just be aware of what you're getting yourself into - it does NOT feel well made! :)
Have you tried galaxy nails before? Was your experience smoother than mine?