NAIL ART: Velvety Minimalist Galaxy Gel Nails

by - March 03, 2023


So... as I typed the word Minimalist into the title bar for this post, I really did acknowledge that this is hardly what most people would call a minimalist manicure, but I do think that as far as galaxy mani's go that would be how I would describe this one so I'm going with it. Now, I will be the first to tell you that hand painted nail art is very much not my forte, but I'm trying to get a little practice in now that I've been playing a lot more with gel nail art, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Hopefully I do get a little smoother with it sometime soon though....

Keep reading for more!


This whole design was actually inspired by the Aimeili Chrome Powder that I used for the blue swoop in this design. They were kind enough to send me over the pack of 6 to try out and immediately I wanted to do something with the blue because it's one I'd never personally seen before and I found the idea of it really exciting. Because this idea stemmed from the blue chrome, the color story was really built around that and the admitted fact that I'm currently a little obsessed with the Sea Blue Cat Magnetic gel polishes from Born Pretty. Initially, I was actually going to go in a more complicated direction, but in the end I decided to just keep it simple. 

I started by applying two coats of my cat magnetic polish, using the magnet at the edges of my nails to get that cat eye pull to the pigments and curing for 60 seconds between each coat. I then followed with a matte top coat, which I also cured for 60 seconds, and then I removed the tacky layer with some alcohol so that I could effectively use the chrome powder. 


Applying the chrome powder is actually pretty easy in three steps. First, I use a not wipe top coat and a fine liner brush to apply the swoopy line for the chrome powder and cured that in the lamp. Next, using a silicone tool, I picked up a very small amount of the chrome powder and buffed that into that line of top coat. It's important to buff it in and get it shiny at this point so that you really get that chrome effect. Finally, I applied another layer of no wipe top coat over the line of chrome powder and cured that as well. 

Once I had finished that step, I went in with a very, very pale gel liner polish and first applied a a swoopy line directly beside the chrome one and then applied the larger stars and scatters of dots with an assist from a dual ended dotting tool. 

Once the stars and dots were cured for 60 seconds in my LED lamp, I used a wipe to remove the tacky layer and voila - done!


All Products Used
Beetles Nail Art Liner Gel Polish - Cloud Dancer
Aimeili No Wipe Gel Top Coat*
Beetles Matte Gel Top Coat
Aimeili Chrome Powder - the blue shade*

* = PR Sample, ** = PR Sample/Affiliate


As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm still working on my hand painting skills and though they have been much improved by using gel polish and having a little more freedom I am very aware of the wobbles in this design. Still, I think that's evidence of how beginner friendly a design like this really can be if you do it using gel polish. And in person, not only is that chrome much more impactful than I could capture in photos, but this also looks pretty good overall, I must say.

I have to say, I'm having so much fun playing with gel polish, so I really hope my readers are enjoying these posts as well. I know I've always focused on traditional polish formulas, but delving into gel definitely opens some techniques and designs that probably wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

Thanks for reading!


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