Bejeweled Galaxy Nail Art

IT HAS ARRIVED! Galaxy day of the 31 Day Challenge! I love this day because I never do galaxies, even though I should, and they're so easy to do, and they always turn out lovely, and the sparkles are overwhelming, and yeah. Galaxies are the best.

As with all my galaxy manicures, I started with a base of black polish.

Then, I tore off tiny pieces of a makeup sponge, and used it to create layers of the following shades:
LVX Cameo
LVX Viola
Girly Bits Hoop There It Is
Color Club Peace Love and Polish

Next I added the bitty stars! I always use China Glaze Fairy Dust for my stars. The key is to swipe it on randomly, instead of covering the entire nail!

The final step was to add the individual stars. I used a pinpoint dotting tool and Polish My Life's Saint, then added some lensflares on a couple of the stars.

I totally love how these came out and honestly they took me maybe 30 minutes to do. A win all around!



Check out my galaxy nails from years before:

• Maroon and yellow galaxy nails
• Hyperspace jump nail art
• The Pleiades Star Cluster galaxy nails
• The Pelican Nebula galaxy nails

Nude and Mauve Ombre with Lacy Glitter

I recently received a package of some current Color Club shades. As I pulled the bottles out of the box, fate took control and lined up four of the shades from lightest to darkest. They looked gorgeous in an ombre together, and I had to oblige the universe's wishes.

Of course, I was still missing a fifth shade, and while I was searching for the perfect polish, I figured it couldn't hurt to add some glitter, either.

So, the four fated Color Clubs that I was destined to use are:
Color Club Blank Canvas (white)
Color Club Barely There (light tan)
Color Club Get a Mauve On It (mauve)
Color Club Midnight Mulberry (plum)

Then, I grabbed A England Elaine for the thumb, and added a layer of Sally Hansen Eyelet from the Luxe Lace line on all the nails. The glitter density was good, but I ended up with a lot of bubbles on the nails. Not sure what happened there.

I haven't done an ombre in a while, but I totally should wear them more often. They're really gorgeous and chic, especially in shades of nudes/neutrals like this. Big thanks to the universe and to Color Club for setting me up to hit one out of the ombre park (IMO)!

TUTORIAL: Easy Sideswipe Nail Art with Negative Space

Who's up for a super quick and easy nail art tutorial? This look is a variation on the distressed nail art tutorial that you may have seen around these parts before. I changed the direction, added a bit of negative space, and made it matte. Easy, easy, easy. Perfect for the gal on the go. Hit the jump to check out the tutorial and see this technique in action.




For this look, I used:
Color Club - Je Ne Sais Quoi
Essie - Too Taboo
Julie G - Cabana Boy
Glisten and Glow - HK Girl Topcoat
Essie - Matte About You Topcoat
Kolinsky 777 French/round brush
Pure acetone

If you don't have a round brush, give it a go with whatever clean up brush you have handy! Of course, if you'd rather, you can always go for the classic hole-punch-reinforcement-as-half-moon-stencil method, too.

Mix things up by grabbing different color combinations, skipping the matte topcoat, or using a nail vinyl as your negative space stencil. The possibilities! Share your versions with me on Instagram by tagging @chalkboardnails and hashtagging #hellochalkboardnails.

Style Polka Dot Floral Print

This 70's style, fall-appropriate floral is my polka dot nail art for the 31 Day Challenge. It looks fairly complex at first glance, but it's simple when you start to break it down! I just combined dots together in different sizes and colors to create a simple floral pattern. It feels very vintage, don't you think?

Nail polishes used:
DIOSA Dime Piece (light grey)
Jessica Cosmetics NY State of Mind (dark grey)
Jessica Cosmetics Meet at the Plaza (olive green)
Color Club Je Ne Sais Quoi (mustard yellow)
LVX Roux (coral)
American Apparel Berry (burgundy)

This nail art was really very simple, it just took a bit to put all of the unique dot floral pieces together! I used four different dotting tool sizes: my large flat rhinestone picker, a large dotter, a small dotter, and a pinpoint dotter.

I was just about ready to mattify this, but I've been using matte topcoat on so many things lately. I decided to let it rock the glossy look.

Check out more of my polka dot nail art:

• Ladybugs
• Polka dot pyramids
• Punchy dot mix