#NailIt4Rhinos Nail Art – Save the Rhino

Hey everyone! Bet you’re surprised to see me on a little ol’ Tuesday! 🙂 Hope you’re having a good week so far. Today I have an important cause to bring to your attention – it’s the #NailIt4Rhinos campaign by Save the Rhino, which will hopefully be all over your social channels today as it’s World Rhino Day (22nd September)!

Save the Rhino are a UK conservation charity who are dedicated to the protection of all 5 rhino species in the world. Rhino poaching as at an all time high with a devastating 95% reduction in live rhinos since the beginning of the 20th century. In the world today there are just 29,000 rhinos left living in the wild, each of which are highly threatened by the poaching trade. In South Africa alone, one rhino is killed every 8 hours, and if poaching continues at its current rate there will be no rhinos left in the wild in just 11 years time. Save the Rhino hope that the #NailIt4Rhinos campaign will help raise awareness of the threat of poaching, but also (on a happier note) to raise donations for the charity.

Oh also, I’ve reshaped my nails! 🙂 let me know what you think!

Why nails, you ask? Rhinos are hunted for their horns, which are falsely believed in some cultures to hold medicinal properties and for other cultures it is a highly valued status symbol. In fact, rhino horn is just made of keratin, which is the exact same protein material that make up human nails. But sadly, the high valuation of this material in criminal gangs puts not only the rhinos lives at risk, but also the lives of the rangers who’s job it is to protect them, and those of the local communities living in and around the rhinos’ natural habitat.

Save the Rhino teamed up with Barry M to help spread the word – there was a little nail art kit sent to bloggers but unfortunately mine never arrived so I’ve used my Barry M Nail Art Pens as a little tribute to them 🙂

My little rhino 🙂 don’t you think he’s cute!

I’ve put together a little step by step for how to create this nail art look – it’s super easy, I did it in less than 10 minutes which made it all the better!

Start with your colour of choice – I’m using Color Club Angel Kiss (Halo Hue). As I mentioned, I used the Barry M Nail Art Pens in Black and White, but you can use any pen (or brush) for this look.

Using the black nail art pen, draw the outline of the rhino’s head in the bottom left quarter of your nail. This should include an ear, a little horn and a big horn.
Draw the hashtag symbol. Just bcoz. Fill in the rhino’s head in black (I still used the pen for this), leaving the big horn section out with still just the outline.
Taking the white nail art pen, fill in the big horn, and draw a little oval for the rhino’s eye. When this is dry, draw a little dot inside the white oval using the black nail art pen.
On the other nails, draw the letters of your choice. I did intentionally put the N and the O on my little finger – to say ‘no’ to rhino poaching (it’s the little things! Definitely didn’t run out of room…!).

Finish with topcoat (if you like) and you’re done!

If you’d like to join in and show solidarity for the rhinos, upload your rhino nails and just use the #NailIt4Rhinos hashtag on all your social media accounts 🙂 be sure to check www.savetherhino.org to learn more and to see if your nail art has been featured on the website! Find their Facebook page here and their Twitter @savetherhino.

If you’re in the UK you can donate £3 to help save rhinos by texting NAIL15 £3 to 70070. Or you can make a donation online at www.savetherhino.org/donate. Be sure to tag 5 friends to challenge them too – don’t worry, there’s no obligation to donate and you don’t need anything specific to join in! 🙂

What does the money go to?

Save the Rhino conservation currently supports 17 long-term field programmes across Africa and Asia. The charity funds anti-poaching work; environmental education, rhino translocations, community conservation; veterinary treatment, captive breeding and campaigns that tackle the demand for rhino horn in consumer countries. They also facilitate the exchange of technical support and information between rhino conservation stakeholders and ensure that local communities in key rhino areas benefit from employment, capacity building, education and outreach.

Hope you enjoyed this post – it was fun to come up with some nail art and I even tried something new with the template step-by-step! If you’ve been reading for a long time you will probably have picked up that I care a lot about animal welfare, so this was a no-brainer for me when I was asked to join in – these beautiful creatures deserve all the help they can get and Save the Rhino genuinely seem to be a great charity. You can see my nails for last year’s campaign here!

If you decide to join in, please tag me on social media (@emma.greenwood on Instagram or @imaginationnclr on Twitter) or leave a link in the comments so I can see your lovely posts! 🙂