It actually hurt to take off the Star Trek nails.  I would have worn those forever! But it’s good, I had to just do it, rip it off fast like a band-aid! 

I just picked two colors and went for it.  I wanted to do a “cut out” style, but I didn’t pick the best colors for it. Oh, well.  

I can’t decide whether these remind me more of Gryffindor or Iron Man… So, they’re my if-Iron-Man-was-in-Gryffindor nails. :P

And they’re matte because I felt like it was time for some matte nails.

whostarkidpotter
i was wondering, do you paint fake nails and then glue them on or do you paint on your natural nail? either way they are all amazing. great job!

Hello!  I paint on my natural but I always keep some fake nails on hand to practice on.  I like to be able to do a design and then wear it for a bit and I hate wearing fake nails around so I learned to paint on my natural nail.  :)

Glad you like them!  That just made my day! Hope you’re having a good day too!

Supplies: 

1 Ziploc bag

1 Cotton swab

1 Paint Brush or toothpick

Assorted nail colors 

 

I used:

Zoya, Raven

Zoya, Purity

Sephora by OPI, Queen of Everything

ELF, Dark Navy

Island Girl, Glitter (Oops, no name.)

Finger Paints, Well-Cultured Pearl

Nicole by OPI, Iceberg Lotus

ELF, Electric Fuchsia

Sally Hansen, Deep Purple

OPI, Lincoln Park After Dark

Seche Vite

 

            When choosing colors I tried to look for colors that would be buildable, not too opaque because it’s always easier to add than it is to take off!

 

DIY Nail Decals

I used the smallest paint brush I could find at Michael’s and cut off a few bristles at a time until it was thinned to my liking.  You could probably use a tooth pick and carefully draw also; I find the brush to be much easier though.

1. Take a Ziploc bag or other plastic bag and cut out two squares

2. Placing one on a dark background I mixed white and silver to make a light grey and black for later.  (I suggest waiting until you need the black to put out a drop; I just started like that so you can see the color I used all at once.)

3. Make two small circles, one for each hand.

4. Draw three lines, one connected to the circle and two on the sides.  The two on the sides should be slightly longer than the diameter of the circle.

5. Connect the outer lines to the center one with diagonal lines.  Now get a little black and draw a small “U” shape on the circle in black.

6. Placing the other square on a light background grab your silver and black polishes.

7. Draw the silver basis of the insignia.  If you want you can print it out in your desired size and place that under the plastic and trace it to get it exact.

8. Outline the shape and add the “star” in the middle.

9. Allow them to dry enough so that you can put a clear coat over it.  Set them aside to dry completely.

 

Galaxy Nail and Placing Decals

     There are numbers captioned under the pictures so that when you click through them you don’t have to count the pictures to the associated step.

1. Paint your nails a dark color, I chose navy, but in the long run to cut down on colors used, black would be great too.

2. Apply one layer of glitter and allow it to dry so that you can start sponging. 

3. Using the narrow end of a make-up wedge I painted white onto the edge of the sponge directly and dabbed off the excess on the Ziploc bag with the cut out. I started narrow with the opaque white so I could add the next layer wider.

4. Using a sheer white, and the other side of the narrow end of the sponge, starting right on top of the previous white and working out, I tried to soften the edge of the opaque white

5. Next I applied a shimmery turquoise polish randomly over the white using the wide end of the sponge and painting it on to one of the corners.  It was fairly sheer, but I could go over it to make it more opaque, I layered until I was satisfied with the colors intensity. 

6. Painting another corner of the sponge apply a fuchsia, again in different random areas.  This time in smaller sections.

7. Painting the lighter purple onto another corner I sponged on top and around the fuchsia polish. 

8. On the last corner I painted on the dark purple which was slightly sheer, but made sure to dab off the extra and tested it out on a sheet of paper to get used to it.  Sponge lightly on top of the fuchsia and light purple and on other spots more intensely to create a darker solid purple. 

9. This step is where I was just winging it, adding more color or adding more sheer white where I put too much dark purple.  This was my “Oops, I covered the pink too much”, “I should have made that darker”, “But this needs more white” step.  It’s doing whatever you think will look best.

10. Taking my small brush I used for the decals I added tiny dots and little cross stars.

11. Add another layer of glitter polish, it helps pull it all together and creates more stars.  I did two layers of mine, because there wasn’t a ton of glitter in the layer and I wanted it to stand out more. 

12. Carefully lifting the decals off of the plastic, I used tweezers but you could do it by hand so I didn’t list it as a supply needed, place the decals on your desired nails.  The Glitter polish should be tacky and the decal should lightly stick to that, but be aware that if it is too wet it will stick permanently.

13. Using a cotton swab, dipped in acetone nail polish remover, lightly and carefully dab the decal so that it “melts” onto the back ground

14. Seal that sucker in! After all that you want it to last!  So put on a top coat and wait for it to dry or use a quick dry top coat which is, as I like to say, quickly smudge-proof but not ding-proof. 

 

Should look something like the final picture, the tutorial and the final picture are a little different because they were done separately, but pretty dang close!

 

If you take anything from this let me know and if you have questions I would love to answer them!  I’m not sure if this is going to make sense so please let me know if you get confused! 

Anonymous
Could you post instruction on how you made the Star Trek themed nails? :) I saw it last night and it was amazing! And your nails are perfect!!! Thanks!

Whoops! I did see this and I am working on a picture tutorial right now! Can’t promise it’ll be any good…

Thank you so much!  That’s so sweet!  I say this every time, but I’m always so blown away when people send me such nice messages!  Really, you just can’t see me having a wild one girl party over here.  :D

So, yeah, check back because I’m going to try to have that picture tutorial up sometime tomorrow! 

What perfect timing for galaxy nails!  I’ve never done them before, and I’m going to go see “Star Trek” today with my friends so of course I need themed nails! :D

I ended up using like ten different nail polishes, although it doesn’t seem like it, to create these.  It was a big messy fun! 

Any of you going to see “Star Trek” soon? Or have you already seen it?

Hey there, to my new followers!  I’m  a bit of a happy ball of mess over here and I just wanted to say thank you for following me and as always thank you to the followers who have been following me and haven’t un-followed me yet!  That’s pretty cool of you.

I think you’re all pretty awesome.  

If you ever have any suggestions of anything, nail ideas, or ways to make my blog better, or if you just want to say, hi, it’s always appreciated! 

Hope you’re all having a great week!

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