For all my international readers, 9 August (today!) is Singapore's National Day. In honour of my country's 47th birthday, I decided to do National Day nail art with our local icons. I painted my nails freehand and only used nail polish (not acrylic paint) in this manicure. It was quite time consuming as nail polish dries fast, but I tried my best to work quickly and accurately. Read on for more pictures and some background on these icons!
On my thumb, we have Singapore's National Flag. I freehanded the design, and "cheated" at the stars as they're just little splotches of white that look like stars from afar. Apologies that you can't really see it clearly in my pictures. Here's a picture for reference:
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From the left, we have the merlion, Singapore's classic half-lion, half-fish icon, which looks like this:
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I outlined the merlion in pencil on my nail, which had ManGlaze Mayonnaise as the nail art base. ManGlaze Mayonnaise is a matte white that dries fast, so it's good for nail art as 1) you can outline images with pencil before going over with nail polish/acrylic paint 2) it dries fast. I used A-england Camelot for the outlines of the merlion (and the outlines of all the other designs) and Sally Hansen Marine Scene for the spout of water shooting out of its mouth.The outline of the merlion was much clearer before I applied top coat, as the outlines were smudged after that. I was rather disappointed at first, but some of my fellow polish friends said they liked the "charcoal" effect that happened with the smudging, so that was a great relief.
On my middle finger is the Vanda Miss Joaquim, a hybrid orchid that is also Singapore's national flower:
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To create this design, I first freehanded a diagonal red block with The Face Shop RD301, a poppy red one-coater creme. Next, I painted on the outlines, then filled them in with a number of different polishes. I don't feel that I did it justice, but it was really difficult to paint because of the different shades of purple that seemed to blend together so seamlessly.
My ring finger has a smattering of fireworks with a diagonal red and white colour block design as the base. The glitter didn't stand out as much as I'd have liked it to, but it looks decently shiny for fireworks.
And lastly, spot the Changi Control Tower on my pinkie! I painted the design over a base of ManGlaze Mayonnaise and dabbed on Sally Hansen Marine Scene around the control tower for the sky.
Here's a parting shot of my nails in all their National Day glory.
That's all I have for you today! My 21st birthday just passed on Tuesday, and I'll be doing a post on it soon mostly to thank all my loved ones for making it such a special birthday. 'Til then!
