Galaxy Nails Are the Prettiest Instagram Trend of the Year

(Image credit: Instagram/Design by Betsy Farrell)

published 17 August 2016

It doesn't take a Neil deGrasse Tyson fan to appreciate the abundance of the universe, especially when it's looking like the Milky Way-inspired nail art that's taking Instagram by celestial storm. Though galaxy nail tutorials have been circulating for a little while, the nail trend has snowballed in the past year on social media, allowing we Earthlings to revel in the vastness of the galaxy on our own terms hands. And now with the advent of Trekkie season (Star Trek: Beyond hit theaters in late July), space gazers have a whole new reason to get behind the stars-and-swirls trend.

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To complete the look, nail artists select a base coat, a range of light to dark blue nail shades, white polish, and glitter polish. Starting with a dark shade of blue layered over a base coat, the rest of the work is pure art as they use pieces of sponge to add splotches of color in a galaxy-like swirl.

The final touches are little white stars applied with a dotting tool, plus or minus glitter and experimentation with color, as seen below. The result is a mini starscape that gleams when you wiggle your fingers, the best kind of YOLO nail art when everything else feels too run-of-the-mill.