Hi lovelies,

So, while I don't have another instalment of my Avengers Assemble series, I do have a superhero themed nail art design for you today. To be specific, it's inspired by one of the original female superheros - Wonder Woman.

And unfortunately, I can't claim this brilliant design as my own idea. I actually recreated this design by Wendy from this shop on Etsy.

Glitter Gradient Mermaid Nails

Hi lovelies,

I'm sorry I haven't been around recently, but as I mentioned briefly in my last post, I've just started uni and these past couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur of organisation, finding my way around, buying books and getting lost on campus. Also, my workload is way more than I was expecting so I don't know how well I'm going to be able to manage uni, my job and running this blog. But never fear, there is no way I'm going to be leaving this blog. Although, I think I may have to revisit my New Years resolution about publishing at least 8 posts a month because obviously, I didn't manage that last month!

But, enough blathering on my part! On to today's nails!

I have obviously been on a massive mermaid appreciation phase lately, as both my my last mani's here have been mermaid themed ones! But what can I say? My mermaid style has exponentially increased since I dyed my hair blue and my new blue and iridescent purple lipsticks have arrived and I'm loving it all.

Although, the only problem is that while I got lots of great pictures of my gorgeous gradient base, I only got one usable picture of my finished look, which kind of sucks. But, never mind, I loved this look way too much to let that deter me from posting this design!

Teal Mermaid Nails

Hi everyone,

So, you'll be glad to know that I'm back to slightly erratic posts again after a brief stint at actual consistent posting. However, I'm quite proud that at least while things have been a little erratic, at least there have been no extended, unexplained absences.

I've just been feeling a bit stressed out and anxious recently due to the fact that I'm starting uni next week and I've been really tired all this week so all has compounded to me not really having much motivation. Although, it hasn't yet got to the the 'hiding out in my room doing nothing but reading Avengers fanfiction' stage so I'm by my standards, I'm managing all right.

Basically it was only because I really loved this design that I ever managed to photograph it and get it up.

If you're following me on instagram, you'll know I recently suffered a really bad nail break and had to chop off my baby claws, which was a sad time all around and explains the suddenly shorter and rounder nails.

As much as I loved my longer nails, I do feel (after an acceptable grieving period, of course), that it probably was time for me to have a change and cut them shorter again. They are feeling a lot healthier and I was able to cut off all the stained and peeling bits so they look super duper healthy. Yay!

How to Take Better Nail (and other stuff) Photos

Hi lovelies!

As part of my foray into the world of blogging tips and tutorials, I thought I'd put together a little post on how to get the best photographs that you can!

I can't stress how important good photography is to a blog. I also know that probably sounds a little hypocritical coming from me, whose photography is rather erratic at the best of times! But, it is really important if I had the chance to magically make some aspect of my blogging perfect, it would definitely be to be able to produce consistently great photographs. That's why I've been focusing a lot on my photography and it's set-up recently. And, I thought I would talk you through some solid tips to help you get your photography better than it's ever been! While I designed this post with nails sort of in mind, they really apply to most blogging photography.

Originally I was going to arrange these in order of importance, but then realised non are more important than any other and you need the combination of all of these (and more!) in order to produce good photos. However, in saying that, there is a couple of super important points that I want to mention before I delve into the nitty grittys.

First off is that you need to take your camera off the auto setting. You will not get any decent photos with your camera on auto (it's depicted by a little A, or Auto). Put the camera on program auto at the very least. Program means that the camera automatically sets the aperture and shutter speed but allows you to change things like the white balance, macro and ISO settings, all of which are important and I will talk about later.

The second thing that I want to touch on is that you don't need a big fancy DSLR camera to take good pictures. I have used a Canon 60D in the past, and while I liked it and it's useful in some instances, my heart lies still with my favourite baby, my Olympus XZ-1. This is a little more than a standard point and shoot but less intense as a proper DSLR. It also takes excellent glow in the dark pictures and it's less bulky when I'm trying to manoeuvre it around my rather small photography set-up.

Still my favourite baby...

Valentine's Day Heart Tips

Hi lovelies,

Here is my other Valentine's Day look for this year, and I'm disappointed it didn't come out as well as I'd hoped it would. I love the idea of using your nail shape as part of your design and so I was thrilled that my new pointy shape was going to lend itself so well to hearts.

However, it turns out that painting little hearts is a lot harder than it looks... I had to redo so many nails and I was so close to throwing in the towel completely many times. But, I persevered and by the time I got to the last couple of nails, I was beginning to like them again, warts and all.

Valentine's Day Leopard Nail Art

Hello there my lovelies,

Here's my first Valentine's Day look for this year. Considering I'd never a Valentine's look before (I know! Shock horror!) I thought this one came together quite well.

These nails all came about after seeing this picture on instagram and I fell in love with the pink and red leopard print. It (thankfully) gave me the inspiration I was lacking for my Valentine's Day mani.

However, I did my right hand first, as per usual, and added the pink dots, but then wasn't sure whether I liked them or not, so I left them off when I did my other hand. Even now, and I've been wearing them for close to two days, I still don't know which hand I like better. So I thought I'd post both and ask you for your opinion. What do you think? Which hand do you think is better?

A Nuggle's Guide to Nail Art Terms | Part 2

Hello there!

Today I'm back with my second and final part to my Nuggle's Guide to Nail Art Terms. If you missed the first, or wish to re-read it, your can find it here.

Otherwise, I'm back with my sister Tess and her boyfriend Juwan to quiz them about various nail related terms. When we left them last time, Tess was on a score of 7, out of a possible 15 and Juwan scored 5, so let's see who comes out on top!

HG
J: Hungry Jacks? Hungry Goblin? Definitely hungry goblin.
T: High definition? Oh wait that's a D.....
Well it's definitely not Hungry Goblin... HG is actually an abbreviation for Holy Grail, which is a product/s that is the best ever, in your opinion, something you swear by and would recommend to others (see my HG nail products here, if you're interested).

Holo
J: Something see through. Like a see through nail polish.
T: The ones that the ILNP brand do. The ones that change colour? Or are really sparkly?
Yup, these polishes are super-sparkly. Holo (or holographic for long) polishes have pigments in the them that means when you hold them in the light, you can see a rainbow of different colours. And yes, ILNP do amazing holos.

Jelly
J: Squishy. Jelly polish.
T: Gel nail polish. Do you call that jelly for short?
While calling gel polish jelly actually kind of does make sense, a jelly is a type of polish that is rather sheer and when built up of a couple of coats, has a transparent quality and squishyness about it that is reminiscent of jelly, so well done to Juwan for that one.

Lemming
J: White nail polish, like a lamington. And with yellow in it too.
T: Sounds like a fish.
No and no. A lemming is a polish that you really, really want, and can often be hard to find. And no, I have no clue why it's called a lemming.

Birefringence and Masquerade by ILNP (also, sorry for the dodgy white balance...)

Multichrome
J: Multiple colours of chrome.
T: More than two colours in one polish, otherwise it would be a duochrome. Ha I'm such a technical genius. (looked incredibly pleased at her knowledge)
To be honest, I don't know how widely used this term is. For me, a multichrome is different to a duochrome in that a duochrome has predominantly two colours, whereas a multichrome has a much fuller colour spectrum, like the two above. So yes, exactly what Tess said.

Negative Space Half Moon Mani

Hi lovelies,

These nails are ones I did a couple of weeks ago, when I was still working out the kinks in my new photography set-up and so the photos are a little off. But, I did really like this design, so I'm still going to post it. It's also my first attempt at a negative space nail art design and I thought it was important to record that. On a side note, check out this branching out in new techniques - first my half moon mani and now negative space and half moons together!

I also couldn't decide whether I liked it better glossy or matte, so I thought I'd post both. What do you think? I think having it matte makes the lines and the overall design look crisper and neater, but there is a reason why glossy nail polish is so well-loved..

What I Liked About January

Hi everyone,

We are now one month into 2015, and that means it's time for another Monthly Favourites!

Code Avengers
I know that I mentioned this as part of my New Years resolutions, but I think it's good enough that it warrants another mention. It's that useful. The lessons are so well set out, everything is explained in easy to understand language, it never moves at a too fast pace and I've been learning so much! And it's superhero themed....

Fashion that Changed the World
This book, by Jennifer Croll, is a delightful look at the 'social, economic and cultural factors that have pushed fashion...over the last hundred years' and looks at a variety of influences on fashion, like wars, sport, media and gender politics. While that sounds a lot like heavy reading, it's really not, and it's an excellent coffee time book. The lack of plot (as it is non-fiction) means it's very easy to pick up and put down as I need to.

A Nuggle's Guide to Nail Art Terms | Part 1

Hi lovelies,

So, I was talking to one of my non-polish-obsessed friends the other day and it was about halfway through the conversation (aka my polish-themed monologue) that I realised she staring at me with a rather bemused and confused expression and then informed me that she really had no clue what half of my word meant. Upon reflection, I realised I maybe had put a few too many jargon-y and nail-specific terms into our (my) discussion.

And since this is not solely a nail art blog, I came to thinking that maybe some of you, my dear readers, also do not know some of the terms I throw around on this blog. So, here is my dictionary/guide of nail terms for nuggles.

For your (and my) amusement, and as a comparison, I've asked a complete nuggle and a polish liker, but not enthusiast, to give their opinions on what each terms means. I know that the common practice in this instance is to use you boyfriend for the nuggle, but since I don't have one I've had to borrow my sister's boyfriend instead. And, as a bit of fun, I've included my sister Tess as well and have decided to have a little competition, even though I think Tess is at a distinct advantage, seeing as she does live with me and she also paints her nails fairly regularly but oh well.

So, without further ado, let me extend a welcome to Tess and Juwan and let's get cracking!

Base Coat (what it is and does)
J: Primary layer.
T: Clear varnish before colour. It's helps protect the nail and makes the varnish last longer.
Both got this pretty right. It's a clear coat of polish that is designed to protect the nail plate from staining and also to provide a sticky/tacky layer for the polish to adhere to in order to help it stay on longer.

Big 3 Free
J: ... Remover?
T: 3 big chemicals, I can't remember the names but they're pretty bad and if they're not in the polish then it's better.
Right on Tess! No, it's not remover, Juwan. If a polish is Big-3 Free it means it doesn't contain toluene, formaldehyde or dibutyl phthalate (DBP), which are some of the most nasty chemicals that can be found in nail polish. If your interested in reading more about the Big-3, Michelle from LabMuffin does a great series on them.

Bin Diving
J: .....
T: When your nail bends over? It dives over the edge??
I have to say, I did think this was fairly self-explaintory, but I guess not. Bin diving is when you go into a store and there is a massive box of nail polish and you have to dive and dig all the way through it to find the real gems (it's fun!)

Claws
J: Long pointy nails.
T: Long pointy nails, like stilettos and they're usually acrylic.
Perfect guys! Although alot of claws are acrylics, it's only because it takes a lot of dedication, perseverance and excellent genes to get your nails to that length.

Crackle
J: Bumpy texture?
T: When your polish starts to crack and chip off?
I'll be generous and give half points for Juwan for this one. Crackle refers to the finish of a polish and how it cracks when it dries, allowing you to see the colour underneath (it was also one of the two nail art trends I just can't manage to do - the other is water-marbling)

Cremes - Good to Grape by Sally Hansen and Mystique by Face of Australia

Creme
J: Texture. (I asked whether he was going to elaborate on that, but he declined)
T: Type of polish that's smooth and creamy
Nice work Tess - that's bang on the mark! Creme, like crackle, refers to the finish. Creme polish is your standard polish - it's got no shimmer, no glitter, no flakies, no nothing. It's just a smooth, even colour.

Australia Day Nail Art

H lovelies,

So, it's the 26th, and that means it is Australia Day down here! It also means that I'm away for the long weekend and so if you're reading this, it also means I actually figured out how to schedule posts! So, I thought that I'd better do some appropriately patriotic nails for you (and we'll ignore the fact that I actually did these three days in advance) and instead we'll concentrate on how obnoxiously Australian these are...

Actually, in all honesty, they are not as obnoxious as I first thought they were going to be. Although, they are quite bad. I think it's all the yellow. Yellow is just not my colour, in any shape, shade or form and there is a reason why I only own one yellow nail polish out of my collection of about 120. And I only own this one because I need it for nail art.

That yellow is also much brighter in real life and the green is also more rich. It's slightly less yellow than it appears in these pictures.

Coming up with a design for Australian nails that was not only obviously Australian but also straight forward, easy and quick and did not involve the flag was a lot harder than I expected. I did the flags last year, so I wanted to do something different this time (please excuse the super horrific set of acrylics I'm sporting in that post as I'd just started my nail course and they were the second or third set I'd done). 

For these, I used,

Bright Lights by BYS (yellow)

Snow Me White by Sinful Colors (white)

Black Out by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear (black)

Shade 17 by BC Company (green)

It was all topped off with a coat of Poshe's Super Fast Drying Top Coat.

To be honest, I don't actually celebrate Australia Day much. I normally go down to the beach with my family and have brunch, but that's the extent of my patriotism. I'm proud to be Australian, but not enough to take all the Aussie paraphernalia seriously (although I take part in some ironically, such as the nails) but I have fun anyway.

Hope all you Aussie's out there have a great day!

Beach Deck Chair Summer Nail Art

Hi everyone,

My nails today are definitely one of my favourites that I've done this year. In fact, I think they are my favourites. Which is kind of surprising considering they are a very simple design and involve a fairly pale pink, which I don't generally like very much at all. But, I do love them anyway. And something about them reminds me of summery deck chairs, hence the name. 

I have been all into the matte designs recently, especially mattifying neons and whites. I don't what it is about a matte white, but I really love it. It always looks so crisp and clean and sophisticated. I am also loving my nail shape at the moment. I've always nails that hover between squoval and oval and if you had asked me 3 months ago, I would have told you that I never would change from that shape. But.... I had been admiring the gorgeous nails of @paintedcandynails, @secretjewelgarden and @decorateddigits on instagram and decided to take the plunge and drastically alter the shape of my nails. And I love it! 

Pop Art Half Moon Nail Art

Hi everyone,

I've been on a massive matte design craze recently and this is the first of probably many matte designs that you'll see around here in the near future. I think this was my first attempt at doing a half moon mani, despite it being one of the most popular nail art designs in existence.

I think they turned out all right, although I definitely think I need to either work on my free-handed curves or invest in those little sticky hole things that most nail artists use (although using the sticky things seems far easier and less time-consuming, to be honest). I did love my choice of colours - I always think of pop art when I look at them, with the rich blue and the contrasting orange/pink.

I Will Eat My Veggies How I Want To Eat Them, So There

Hi everyone,

*Just a trigger warning before we begin, in this post I talk about when I was suffering badly from my eating disorder and the relationship I had with food during this time. So if that sound a little icky to you, you might be best to sit this one out.*

So, I know I am way behind the ball with this, but hear me out.

I had never tasted a Sumo Salad until a few weeks ago.

I know, I know - it's not exactly new but I don't eat out and on the run much and if I do, it's almost never a salad. Why would I get a salad when I could get a delicious burger and/or chips! Anybody that knows me will know of my love for hot chips and because of such, why would I pass up the opportunity to have chips for something like a salad! I can have salads at home.

Anyway, the point is that I have had one (and many others since) and I loved it.

Source

After having this lovely salad, I did think that honestly, I probably could make something like this at home - thereby saving me money and giving me the option to customise my salads as I wished (and have them more often). Which also sounded like great idea because while I like salads, I never know how to make them more substantial than the basics (lettuce, tomato, cucumber and stuff). So I jumped onto the internet to see what I could find.

To be honest - I was quite surprised at what I found. First off, there were no recipes for 'My Take On X Salad by Sumo Salad' (which definitely was surprisingly), but more to the point, I was surprised about what else I found. I came across so many blog posts on how bad Sumo Salad was and how everyone thinks they are eating healthy by choosing that option but really it's a terrible choice and everyone should be much more conscientious and discerning when it comes to food choices and never eat fast food of any kind.

Posts like that really annoy me. There was a time in which I would have been their biggest advocate but thankfully, those times are behind me and now they just make me really angry. First and foremost, I feel they come across very judgy and patronising to those who choose to eat these foods. I get the feeling that the authors of these articles believe that people only eat food like this because they don't know all the facts and how bad they really are. I don't like that. I don't they give the general public enough credit in food knowledge. No, the average person probably does not know the optimum grams of fat, carbohydrates, sugars and protein they should be eating everyday and no, they probably don't know how much of those are in an average Sumo Salad, or burger, or medium fries from MacDonalds. But also, who cares? It's just a salad. Or a burger. Or icecream.

Don't get me wrong, I do agree that we probably should be thinking a little about where our food is coming from and how long it's been sitting there, and making sure we are getting the proper nutrients, but again, it's just a salad. It's probably not something we have everyday and it's delicious.

I feel like that word right there is pretty important. Delicious. Tasty. Yummy. We eat this food because we want to. This is food that calls to us as we walk by it. This is food that we might buy on a whim, just because we're a bit peckish. This is food we might plan to buy for lunch, either by ourselves or with a friend. It's nice food. And it nourishes us. It gives us energy, happiness and joy.

Lightning Nail Art Tutorial

Hi lovelies,

As a sort of follow on to my Thor inspired nail art, I thought I would make another tutorial for the lightning nails I did in that design, especially since I've had such a great response to my dream-catcher tutorial.

Also, lightning nails look heaps cool and like galaxy nails, are deceptively easy. So here's my little pictorial for them, and I have to say, I think this is better than my last one. At least I managed to stay on track with this one and I didn't forget that I was meant to be taking photos once! I'm so very proud. I also got my lightbox re-set-up and got myself a good lamp and my photography is (dare I say it) looking to be on the way up!

For this tutorial, you are going to need:

Black polish (I used Black Out by Sally Hansen)

Greenish/blueish polish (I used Sweet Pea by Australis)

Fuchsia polish (I used an unnamed fuchsia by Urban Colours)

Light blue polish (I used Shade 12 by BC Company)

White polish (I used Snow Me White by Sinful Colors)

A top coat (I used Super Fast Drying Top Coat by Poshe)

Fine nail art brush

Sponge (I used a regular make-up sponge that I found in my local $2 shop)

My Holy Grail Nail Products

Hi everyone!

I was talking to one of my friends recently and they were asking me for advice and tips on nail care and nail art and stuff and I realised I hadn't ever put together a nail care post or written properly on my favourite products for my nails. So here's a list of my nail products that have my it to holy grail status for me, and why they have achieved this highly acclaimed status.

Lush Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter
This is a pretty legendary and well-known cuticle cream throughout the nail blogger world and it's pretty easy to see why. It's thick, nourishing and easy absorbed and moisturises better than any other I've tried. While I know many people, including all of my family, love it's sharp, lemony smell, I have to admit it took a while to grow on me. I hated it when I first bought it (I only bought it because I'd hearing non-stop about it's greatness for ages and thought I had better give it a go) but I've been using it for about a year and I do quite like the smell now. It does have a tendency to melt in the heat (so don't accidentally put it in your beach bag) and when it does melt, it acquires these grainy granules in it. Some people really dislike these, but I like them and the little bit of exfoliation they provide. Anyway, I live in Australia, so it's not like I can keep it under 30 degrees all the time!

It is a little pricey (in my cheap-sake opinion) at AUD$16.50 for a 50g pot, but it really lasts! I've been using mine daily for about a year now and it's not even half empty yet. Purchase it instore at Lush or online.

Geometric Chevron Holo Nail Art

Hello there!

As you can probably tell by the title for this post, I don't really know how to describe these nails... But I like them anyway.

In the shade

In the shade

I basically just wanted to use MEGA by ILNP. In the shade and inside it doesn't really look like much, but when you take it outside that it really comes to life. It does sparkle a little inside, but it's very subtle and not all that noticeable. But in the sunlight in really, truly glows.

Inspired By: Avengers Assemble - Thor

Hi lovelies,

So I've been making a good head start on my New Year's resolutions and done another member of the Avengers as part of my Avengers Assemble series. Today, we have Thor, Norse God of Thunder...

While I was pretty happy with them overall, and very happy with some elements, I do think it could have been done a lot better. I was really quite proud of my lightning bolts and I reckon I've improved since I last tried them. It was just a pity that the pink bled through into the white when I applied my top coat...

Because these aren't the most straightforward 'Inspired By' nails I've done, here's a little run down on what each nail is meant to be.

How to Add Custom Social Media Icons to Your Sidebar in Blogger

Hi lovelies,

So today I'm going to be showing you how to add custom social media icons to your blog's sidebar. While this HTML code will work fine with Wordpress and other blogging platforms, I've never used anything other than blogger, I don't know to add custom HTML to any other blogging platform.

Anyway, this was one of the first little bits of code I learnt and it's incredibly useful. Also, once you've got the hang of this, you can use the same bit of coding know-how to add other little bits and bobs to your blog sidebar.

Because this is a very repetitive bit of coding and very easy and very useful, I'm going to teach you how to do this yourself, rather than just give the code. (However, if you aren't at all interested in learning a bit of HTML coding, you can just scroll down to the bottom of this post and grab the code from there).

Otherwise, let's crack on!

First up, you need to get yourself a set of social media icons. I know that Rose from Every Little Polish has a couple of sets of free downloads here, here and here, or you could just google it or if you're feeling particularly arty, make your own set on a editing software like Photoshop or Gimp.

Once you've got those, you need to upload them to a online photo hosting service (I use Photobucket)

Next (for Blogger), you need to go into Layout and click Add A Gadget. In the box that pops up, you need to select HTML/Java Script.

Dreamcatcher Nail Art +Tutorial!

Hi everyone!

So I have some more new nails for you today and also, a tutorial! Well, technically, it's a pictorial. I have only just got my photography sort of where I want it so I think it will still be quite a while until I start filming tutorials (if I ever go down that route). I would like to, but I don't know what sort of time I'm going to have next year because I'm starting uni and I know filming and editing take quite a bit of time...

Anyway, back to the nails. These have been sitting around in my 'To post' folder since the middle of November, and I haven't had chance to post them until now. I'm pretty excited to post this, as I feel it's my first real nail art tutorial because all the little pictures are together in one image, as opposed to these galaxy ones and this tape manicure, both of which I did all the way back in 2013.

Also, putting this pictorial together actually took less time than I expected, which makes me more likely to do more of them and also makes me feel so accomplished! :)

So I've been seeing a lot of dream catcher nail art around recently and thought that I'd also try my hand at it. Surprisingly, it was much easier than I thought they were going to be, which is always a plus in my book!

However, if you are wondering why it seems like the pictorial seems to jump a couple of steps/changes focus in steps 1, 2 and 3 it's because I kept forgetting I was meant to be taking pictures of every step.... (I think I need more practice)

New Year's Resolutions + How To Actually Succeed At Them

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely New Year's Eve and an wonderful start to 2015!

Have you all been making New Year's resolutions? More importantly, are you going to be keeping your resolutions?? Not sure? Yeah, me neither. I am one of those people that makes a lot of great resolutions but never really sticks with them...

So this year I decided to do some research and see what science has to say about sticking to your New Year's resolution and I've complied a list of tips to help you stick to them.

Set manageable goals
Setting an unmanageable goal like 'I will complete a marathon in 3 months' when the last time you went running was 4 years ago will never get done. It just won't. It's great that you have such high hopes, but the sheer amount of work that would be involved in completing that would throw off nearly everyone. Although, saying that, if you have completed a goal like that, then kudos to you! I am in awe of your dedication! But for most of us, it's not going to work. Instead, try something like 'I would like to be able to complete a marathon and so to do this I will go running 3 times a week, for increasing amounts of time'. Or something like that. I don't run, so I actually have no clue how one would go about creating a running schedule.

Set measurable goals
This also fits in well with the previous tip. Having a vague goal like 'I will eat healthier' has no actual plan and so you are unlikely to stick with it. Also, the word 'healthy' is equally very ambiguous - what do you want to improve about your eating habits? Do you want to choose more organic and free range products? Do you want to reduce your meat consumption or increase your fruit and vegetable intake? Do you want to reduce your fat or sodium intake or increase your protein intake? Choose one on two things you can do to help reach your goal of 'eat healthier' and set a plan for it. So your new goal could be 'to have at least 3 meat free days a week and to choose free range meat whether possible'.