From outer space to ancient Egypt, this year’s Mural Contest entries took us to faraway places. The judges loved winner Lexi Majack’s mural depicting Star Wars rebels Han, Luke, and Leia.

Meet the Winner

Nail tech Lexi Majack (@fire_eyes_beauty) has been a Star Wars fan since childhood, and the excitement of the new installment inspired her to create a mural that pays homage to the original movies. She started by choosing a layout. “I moved the tips around over and over again until I found positioning that would look interesting without cutting out any important elements like faces,” she explains. “Looking at the picture as a whole was intimidating, so I broke it down into sections, finishing each character before I moved to the next.” She created the entire piece using gel-polish and a tiny brush, first mapping out the positions of the characters in gray, then adding layers of base colors, shadows, and highlights. “If I didn’t like the way something looked, I would fix it in the next layer,” says Majack. Although as a perfectionist, Majack had difficulty declaring the piece finished, she liked the challenge of creating a design across multiple nail tips. “I enjoyed the chance to make something more dynamic than I can typically do on an average nail,” she says. “I might have to start making more full hand designs now!”