Space Nails!

(Source)

I saw a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous image on Tumblr the other day of a space/nebula themed manicure (which I no longer can find, boooo) and thought to myself "Hey! That's cool, let's try that!" and then I did.

Not wanting to dive completely headfirst into an area I'm not particularly good at (I can apply a base color and a glitter top coat, and that's usually as complicated as my nail designs get) I consulted the Google for instructions on how to go about getting space on my nails. I kind of chose the techniques that I liked a la carte and had at it.

So, here is the final result. Honestly, I think they look a lot cooler in person, I guess I'll have to futz with my camera more to find the right settings. Also as a side note, I have a very difficult time growing out my nails so they tend to have very little room to work with.

The basic technique of pretty much every tutorial I found was to apply a dark base in either black or dark blue, and then use the tiny corner of a makeup sponge with tweezers to dab on little clouds of color starting from lightest to darkest. To finish up, use a similar color to the base to blend the clouds and finish with a glitter topcoat. One of the cool things is that you can use whatever colors appeal to you most. A lot of other space nails use yellows and oranges, but I'm more inclined to cool colors so I stuck with those. 

The colors I used were: (OPI) Black Onyx, (China Glaze) White On White, (Hello Kitty Sephora) Minty, (China Glaze) Spontaneous, (Covergirl) Fuchsia Girl, (China Glaze) Sexy in the City and (Essie) Set in Stones. 

The entire process took about an hour and a half, so it was quite time consuming. Looking back, the things I would have done differently:

• Not gotten too excited about using the colors. It's hard not to get over zealous in the first stages of blotting on the clouds because it doesn't look the way you want it to yet, so next time I would be careful to be more subtle about the colors. 
• Used a more "3-D" glitter coat. "Set in Stones" is the color I used for the stars because the glitter comes in different sizes, but it's also a flat silver color which takes away some of the dimension. 
• Been more careful around the edges. I tend to just slather nailpolish on and then clean up my cuticles afterwards, and what I miss usually gets taken off as I wash my hands throughout the day. The absurd number of topcoats I put on made it a little more difficult for me to clean up around the edges, so next time I'll be less sloppy. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the results, even if I don't think my pictures were able to do it justice. If you have an hour or two to burn, I'd highly suggest giving space nails a try.