Liebster award :)

So I have been nominated by Nailallure for the Liebster award. To the best of my knowledge the Liebster award is not really an award, but a way for new bloggers to discover other new blogs/ bloggers, be discovered by fellow bloggers and help each other feel appreciated!

When you are nominated you are meant to:
   1. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
   2. Answer 11 questions given by the person who nominated you.
   3. Nominate 11 more bloggers with less than 200 followers
   4. And then write them 11 questions to answer.

So I guess it's like a friendly blogger chain letter.

So, here we go. First up my 11 random facts: 

1. I am engaged to my high school sweetheart- we met walking home from school the same way every day.

2. I have never broken a bone (Knock on wood!)

3. I want to move out of the city into the country

4. I always come last in running races

5. I've studied 2.5 years of a Chiropractic degree. I dropped out and am now doing a PhD in cancer research.

6. I'm a dog person  (but still love cats!)

7. I have a home-made tattoo of a smiley face on the back of my left hand. I recently tried to have it removed and now it's scared.

8. I was born left handed, but my Grandmother taught me to be right handed.

9. I have read the Harry Potter books many many times over. (I think the first few I have read more than 20 times)

10. I'm an only child, and on my Dads side of the family an only grandchild.... yup I was spoilt rotten growing up.

11. I drive a blue Mazda 3

 

And next my answers to the 11 questions posed by Nailallure :

 (By the way, Nailallure as I couldn't find your name on your blog anywhere I figured you would prefer I didn't use it. I really loved your blog so I'm following you on bloglovin' now)


1. What/who inspired you to blog?
I can't really remember what was the trigger that made me decide to start blogging. I started taking pictures of some of my nail art over a year before I started blogging, and didn't really know of anywhere but Pinterest and Nails Mag to share them. I wish I had discovered reddit laqueristas!!

I like taking pictures of my nail art because then I don't have to feel sad when I remove them or they chip.
I guess I was also inspired by all the other amazing nail art bloggers out there. In particular I used to (and still do) follow Pshiiit.com, Chit chat nails, So Nailicious and Manicurator (There's a lot more now that I follow, but back then I only knew of these!).

Once I actually started the blog I found it motivated me to try a lot of different techniques I hadn't tried before, and that's why I keep doing it.


2. What is your favourite brand, finish and colour of polish?
I'm a bit boring - My favorite polish brand and the majority of my collection is OPI. I haven't really tried that many brands- mainly because I'm in Australia and it can be tough to get a hold of a lot of different brands at reasonable prices. I have got my first picture polish waiting at the post office for me currently though =D

My favorite finish is creme with a shiny seche vite top coat. (Boring again!)

And colour- anything turquoise!

3. What is your favourite type of nail art and how long have you been doing it?
I guess I'd have to say stamping. I find it to be the quickest easiest way to get a really professional look. I started stamping in September 2011 :) For those who don't count stamping as nail art, my answer would be handpainted designs. I'm trying to do more of this when I can make time. 

4. What is your hand care routine and what are your 3 favourite hand care items?
I have some Dr Lewinns hand and nail creme on my desk at work which gets used a lot. I also use my Burts bees lemon cuticle creme a fair bit. Before most manicures I put some CND cuticle away over my cuticles and push them back a little bit. I guess I don't really have much of a routine!


5. Do you have other hobbies other than painting your nails?
Wine tasting! Me and my partner head down south to Margaret River once or twice a month to taste and buy wine. He says I should call it wine appreciation so I sound less like an alcoholic haha. My favourite wineries are Brown Hill and Pierro, and favorite types of wine are Chardonnay and a toss up between Cab Sav and Shiraz (depending on the wine I guess).

6. What is your favourite polish and favourite beauty product?
My favourite polish is OPI Fly- a beautiful bright perfect turquoise.

It's really hard to pick a favourite beauty product! I think the urban decay eye shadow primer potion is pretty awesome for making my eye shadows last longer and not crease. I'm trying to think what I couldn't live without..... my brush? I love my brush! It's an 'Expert Classic Porcupine Brush (Large) by Nin9ty Nin9' .... and nail polish of course.

7. How do you take photos for your blog?
I have a Nikon Coolpix bottom of the range camera. I used to take pictures in the window, but come Winter that was no good because I get home too late.

I then made a lightbox out of a cardboard box and white tissue paper. I couldn't get my hand and fingers to look nice on the weird angle that I had to be in to get a picture in the lightbox. Soooo in the end I covered up my desk lamp with the same white tissue paper and I take a picture on my desk with that, using the leftover tissue paper as a background :)

I put the light on a tissue box to raise it up the the right height, and rest my camera on a box of seche restore so I'm less shaky and click away!

8. What is the biggest challenges you've faced with your blog?
As you can see from my answer above, the picture taking was a bit of a challenge but I'm happy with them now. Also, all the code writing to add links and pictures has been hard, but also kind of fun to learn. I think I will soon have to categorize my index page, so that's going to be hard. By chance does anyone know how to make a non-post page in blogger that doesn't have its own tab?

9. What technique that you have not yet tried yet would you like to master?Hmmmmm I want to learn how to paint realistic flowers. I have kind of tried it though (and not posted the results yet) , but not with acrylics. I think I need to try acrylic paint.

10. What's your go-to mani when you're pushed for time?
Stamping!!

11. What mani are you most proud of, and why?
Hmm off the top of my head probably the Egyptian hieroglyph one I did recently. I felt like it was a unique design, and I was really happy with how it turned out.

And now to nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers :)

I decided to also choose all nail art blogs :)
Many of these blogs I had not previously visited, and I'm so glad I was nominated to participate in this 'award' because otherwise I never would have found them.

In no particular order.....

1. http://nailaday.blogspot.com   I think I came across this blog on Pinterest. Really eyecatching designs.

2. http://thelacqueredstash.blogspot.com.au  - One of my precious 9 followers <3 And a fellow reddit laquerista!

3. alittleblogbyayaka.blogspot.co.uk -I came across Ayakas blog on bloglovin'. I haven't had much time to look through, but the few posts I read were really helpful, and her nails are beautiful.

4. http://nailsmiles.com/ - I noticed Emma's lovely nails on reddit lacqueristas :)

5. polishedprescription.com Hi Kelsey- Nice nails, and your blog name and by-line made me laugh :)

6. http://malepolish.es/ - Gotta have some gender diversity here. This is a relatively new blog with lots of nail polish ideas for men (but also woman!). I like it- written short and to the point!

7. http://fancyside.blogspot.com  Another fellow r/laquerista *waves*

8. http://colorfulharmony.blogspot.com : Another of my precious few followers. Beautiful nails and I can't believe you manage to write your blog in 2 languages!

9.http://punchnails.blogspot.com - Super talented with only 8 followers currently! Check her out :) Oh and shes a fellow Aussie!

10. http://partialtopolish.blogspot.ca/ Only just found this blog in my hunt for <200 follower nail art blogs - and wow I'm glad I did! Great stuff and I love your nail shape! I'm trying out a slightly more rounded look at the moment!

11. http://www.peacockpie.com/ Ooo another amazing nail art blog I've not visited before!

My questions to you, along with listing 11 random facts about yourself, are:

(and I stole a few from the questions I was asked)

1.   What/who inspired you to blog?

2.   Keeping with the 11 theme of this award, what are your 11 favorite polishes?

3.   What is your favourite type of nail art and how long have you been doing it?

4.  Do you ever experiment with different nail shapes/lengths? Which is your favourite?

5.   Do you have other hobbies other than painting your nails?

6.   What non nail related beauty product could you not live without?

7.   How many photo's on average do you take of each mani?

8.   What is the biggest challenges you've faced with your blog?

9.   What technique that you have not yet tried yet would you like to master?

10. What's your go-to mani when you're pushed for time?

11. What mani are you most proud of, and why?


I hope you will be able to make the time to give this award/chain blog post a go. I'm really happy I did and found all of your blogs. Now I just need to make more time to read them more thoroughly! Post a comment on this page when you are done so I can read your answers :)

Have fun

Chanfie
xx