NOTD and Tutorial: A Starry Night

I don't know about you but I am loving the cold weather! I get to wear my jacket inside and outside the house. Hihihi. Anyway, a few months ago, I attempted to create a galaxy-themed design on my nails but failed. Failed because the result didn't look galaxy-ish enough for me. It turned out less dark and bluer than I hoped. Now that I think about it, I should've used a black nail polish too. Still very happy with the outcome, though :)

This may look familiar to some of you because I've already shown this blue-purple gradient nail art to you a few months ago in my nail water decals tutorial. This time, though, I'm gonna show you how I did the gradient itself.

Nails of the day with Caronia nail polishes in Sapphire and Trance and Sassy Colors Rainbow Glitter.

The technique I used is not something new at all. Can you guess what it is? ;] Come on, you've seen me do it hundreds of times already! Haha. Yes, I used my fave gradient nails technique - sponging. Click *here* for a more detailed sponge gradient nail art tutorial.

Read on to know how to do this blue-purple gradient! :)

Of course you're going to need nail polishes. I used a frosted blue and a frosted purple from Caronia. Use whatever you have, and make them work. Get your base and top coats ready, too :)

You're also going to need the following.

For the gradient, you'll need a sponge (any kind will do; I used a regular makeup sponge), Q-tips, cotton pads and nail polish remover (for cleaning up). The stars on my design were actually water decals. If you're going to use water decals too, you'll need your star decals, of course, a few drops of water, a small bowl, an orange stick, scissors and tweezers. If you don't have water decals, you can just use simple nail stickers or those glitter polishes that have stars in them, or you can just draw the stars yourself. If you can. I couldn't so I just used decals ;]

Let's start! I put together a simple photo tutorial for you. 

1. Apply base coat to keep your nails from getting stained. My favorite is The Face Shop's base coat. It's really effective.

2. Put a bit of blue polish on the sponge then sponge the color on your nails. Build up the color to your liking.

3. Sponge the purple color on the upper third of the nails, and fade it into the blue color. I used a purple color that has small silver glitters in it.

4. Apply glitter polish all over the nails for a twinkling effect. I used multi-colored glitters in a clear base.

5. Apply the star water decals. Click *here* for a tutorial on applying water decals. Again, you can draw the stars on with gold nail polish if you don't have nail stickers, or you can use those glitter polishes with stars in them. I cheated here and used decals. Hihi.

6. Apply top coat to protect your design and help it stay longer on your nails.

7. Clean up the edges of your nails using cotton buds soaked in nail polish remover.

And that's it! You're done :) You'll find sponging time-consuming and a bit difficult at first, but trust me... you'll get the hang of it after a couple more tries! By the way, you can use the same technique with other colors too. Everything's your call here :)

I love the twinkle effect brought by the multicolored glitters! The glitters made everything come together and made the design look more outerspace-y. I love <3


I hope you like my starry gradient nails and find this tutorial helpful! I'm now thinking of my next gradient theme. Any suggestions? :)