Nail Art: Dry Brush LGBT Awareness Mani

Today's post features another awareness mani that I did using the dry brush technique.

I've been wanting to try dry brushing for a while now and I also wanted to do another awareness mani, this time for LGBT equality. As you'll see, I emphasized the "T" in LGBT because I believe that, unfortunately, transgender people remain significantly more marginalized than the rest of the LGBT community.

While we celebrate marriage equality in the United States (which is definitely worth celebrating!), I don't want to forget that there are many more battles yet to be won.

I don't want to forget that there are members of our society who fear going to the restroom in public because there's a good chance they could be verbally or physically assaulted. I don't want to forget the fact that 41% of tans individuals will attempt suicide in their lifetimes.  I don't want to forget that many medical providers are refusing care to trans people and won't treat them in accordance with the gender they identify with, if they even treat them at all.

Those are just a few of the injustices that the transgender community faces and this mani was done to raise awareness and promote equality for every person in the LGBT community.

I used B Squared Lacquer's That Base as my base color. That Base is a one coat white if you're careful and heavy handed with the polish. I used only one coat for this mani and had a few minor patchy areas but I figured they wouldn't be noticeable with art on top.

The colors of the Transgender Pride Flag are light blue, light pink and white, which is what I used for the bulk of my mani. The blue is Jess Lacquer Cyantifically Proven and the pink is Suzi Shops and Island Hops from the OPI Hawaii collection. I created the rainbow-colored accent nail using polishes from the original Shinespark 80s neons collection.

This technique is really easy to execute. All I did was wipe almost all of the polish off the brush and then brush strokes across my nails. You can see the brush strokes better the macros.

And the accent nail:

One last parting comment: I don't want anyone to think that I've implied that the LGB community has won acceptance and equality in this country and that they don't face discrimination and hardships. I absolutely recognize the long road ahead before intolerant Americans are silenced and all members of the LGBT community can live openly, safely and freely.

-twp