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Sara Shakeel: The Crystal Queen
Prishant K Jutlla
May 17, 2021
How did Sara Shakeel go from a dentist trainee to one of the most sought after Instagram artists?
Known to her 1 million followers as the Queen of Crystals, this Pakistani artist has forged her mark on Instagram by crystallising the world around her. From egg shells and toilet papers to the skeletons and cityscapes, there is nothing that Sara Shakeel cannot cover in a dream like wonder of sparkle and shine.
Four years ago Sara Shakeel was a dental student who failed 16 times over two years. Feeling deflated, she turned to her Samsung Note 3 and began to create collages and artwork, and uploaded them to Instagram.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan Magazine, Shakeel described the process of creating the images as therapeutic and fulfilling, so much so she began to create at least 10 images everyday.
She would get between 20-25 likes per image and Sara kept experimenting and creating. In 2016 came her first viral image. A set of Mac Lipsticks coated in crystals set her career to unimaginable heights. Overnight Shakeel’s Instagram went from 3,000 followers to 17,000, with messages from Elle and Cosmopolitan magazine believing the lipsticks to be real, and asking to buy them.
Sara Shakeel has said in an interview with Cosmopolitan in 2020 that Sarah Jessica Parker was the first celebrity to comment on her work
“She liked, like, 15 of my images and her comment was like, ‘I hope everyone gets to see your images, and I hope that someday you’re a huge artist.’ That was the biggest interaction for me at that time, and I was like, wow, she was so genuine in her comment, and from there onwards, I never had to look back.”
In 2018 Sara Shakeel created a second Instagram account – Glitter Stretch Marks – which now has 33.1K followers. Throughout her art, Sara Shakeel promotes body positivity and beauty in all kinds of ways. This second account highlights specifically those pieces that showcase bodies in all shapes and sizes as beautiful and of course, crystalised.
Throughout lockdown, Shakeel’s work has caught the attention of a large audience, with her crystallization of NHS workers, and a snap of a woman washing her hands under a tape of sparkling water. Of course during the pandemic, both images found their way all over the internet, promoting support for key workers, and, in a beautiful crystalising way, encouraging safety.
Since her art reached new peaks, Sara Shakeel has worked with many huge brands and celebrities, including: Lancôme, BMW, Grazia, Swarovski, Amazon Prime, Emirates Airline and more. Her crystalising artwork not only literally shines off the page, but shows that beauty can be found anywhere. By finding her passion and sticking true with it, Sara Shakeel has been able to create an aesthetic all to herself. She shows that for certainty, all the glitters are not gold.
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