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.

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.

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.

How To Centre Your Pages in Blogger

Hi everyone,

So, in my complete blog over haul a little while ago, I did a lot of HTML stuff and coding and all sorts because I had a very particular idea about what I wanted my blog to look like. So it meant a lot of customisations and frustration for me.

But, I now feel kind of knowledgeable about some stuff and I thought I'd share my new found knowledge with you! Bear in mind that I'm still not super HTML and CSS savvy, so while you are of course free to ask me any questions that you may have, I may not be able to answer all of them.

Today's tutorial is going to be super easy, but is something that makes a huge difference, in my opinion. As you may have noticed, my blog design has travelled a lot more to the centre since I updated it and today I'm going to show you to centre your page list in Blogger. On that note, my blog is built with Blogger and I have approximately zero knowledge on how to do this stuff on Wordpress or any other blogging platform so please don't ask me on stuff like that. :)

First off you are going to need to save a copy of your current template so that if everything goes belly-up and you think you have wrecked your blog beyond repair, then you can easily restore it to it's previous state (none of which should happen because this is really easy). You can do this by going into Template and clicking on the Back/Up Restore button and selecting Download Full Template.