31DC2017: Day 18 – Half Moons – Jupiter’s Galilean Moons

Hey, y’all! I had intended this post to go up yesterday, but I got busy doing other stuff and never got to editing pictures. For the half moon prompt, I went very literal and chose to represent Jupiter’s 4 Galilean moons: Callisto, Europa, Io, and Ganymede. These are the four moons that Galileo observed way back in the early 1600s. And since Jupiter is my favorite planet (I named one of my cats after it!), I knew these moons would be perfect!

31DC2017: Day 18 – Half Moons – Jupiter’s Galilean Moons

For the base, I used 2 coats of Chromatic Polish New Moon, a black creme that I made myself, and added a layer of top coat. I painted on the half moon shapes with Apple Barrel Snow White acrylic paint. When that was dry, I gently scratched off around the edges to refine the shape a bit. I also applied some liquid latex to cover the black parts.

31DC2017: Day 18 – Half Moons – Jupiter’s Galilean Moons

I used a pretty good handful of polishes for these, so I’ll go through each nail one at a time. There was a lot of going back in and layering colors to get it to look how I wanted.

For Callisto on my index finger, I used Zoya Charli as the base color. Then I sponged on Oriflame Daring Brown, OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts, Zoya Desiree, and Zoya Suvi. For the white spots, I watered down some of the acrylic paint and flicked it on using a medium sized brush.

For Europa on my middle finger, I started with a base of Zoya Lake. I sponged on China Glaze Pelican Gray, OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts, and China Glaze Desert Sun. I mixed a bit of French Quarter and Desert Sun to get the color in between that I needed. Then I added the lines using Desert Sun and my favorite fine detail brush.

31DC2017: Day 18 – Half Moons – Jupiter’s Galilean Moons

For Io on my ring finger, I started with a base of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss. Then I sponged on China Glaze OMG A UFO, China Glaze Desert Sun, China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin, and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. This one took the most repeated layering of colors to make it look right. Then I went back and added some more concentrated spots of OMG A UFO.

Finally, for Ganymede on my pinky, I started with a base of Nailtini Concrete Mixer. I used my detail brush with Zoya Dovima to outline the sharper edges, then sponged on OPI Number One Nemesis, China Glaze Pelican Gray, and Dovima. I used Concrete Mixer to clean up the sharper lines.

Jupiter’s Galilean Moons

I made this little collage of my inspiration photos, labelled with their names and which nail they’re on. In my humble opinion, I think I nailed it!

That’s all for today! Thanks for looking!