I've Been Nominated for a Liebster Award!

I am very happy to report to you all that I have been nominated for the Liebster award by the lovely Ana over at Magnifique Nails!

For those of you that don't know, the point of a Liebster award is to raise awareness and give recognition to new and upcoming blogs, and to win the award you must be nominated by one of your peers in the blogging community (in my case by Ana!). The way a Liebster award works is:

1. You must link back to the blogger who nominated you. 
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you. 
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination.
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.

 By following these rules we all help each other as new bloggers to gain recognition in our community, and to get to know the person behind the blog a little too!

So here goes! These are the questions from Ana and my answers:

What made you want to start blogging?

I've always been interested in nail art and as the years go by I've become more and more obsessed. I started doing mani's that I was proud enough to actually take pictures of, but eventually I realised that it was pointless taking pictures if I didn't share them with anyone, and so a blog seemed like a natural progression. I'm really happy I started my blog, I admit that it's much more time consuming than I would ever have imagined, but has turned out to be the most satisfying and rewarding hobby I have ever had and a great experience so far. I have really enjoyed being a part of the nail addicts community and getting to know other great artists out there as well as getting some great feed back on my own work. I'm kicking myself for not having started this blog much sooner actually!

Who/What inspired you to do nail art?

There wasn't really any one person or thing that set me off. I've always really loved nail polish since I was a kid, but probably the reason I'm so much more into it now is because I finally have the nails for it. I used to be a chronic nail biter and once I finally managed to kick the habit it still took many years and a lot of hard work to get my nails as good as they are now, and they are still not the best that they could be. But I've worked hard for what I've got and it seems silly not to make the most of my reward for kicking a shitty habit! I'm an artistic person anyway and I have always been into painting and drawing, crafts, DIY and a bunch of other stuff, so it just makes sense to decorate my now lovely nails!

Stuck on an island...What actor or actress would you bring with you?

So I'm assuming that in this case I couldn't bring my Husband and whoever I choose will also serve as my company on this lonely island, but it still doesn't really matter because all the actors I like the most die. No really they do, all the ones I love get cancer and die. It sucks. First there was Patrick Swayze my all time favourite who will be my eternal love. Cancer stole him from me. Or more recently Andy Whitfield, the delicious little Spartacus, cancer stole him from me too. I won't bore you with the rest of my list, but the sad truth is that there is no one left that I would take with me, in fact I may even have to stop liking actors as I seem to be cursing them :(

What is your favorite top coat?

There are many acclaimed fabulous top coats out there that I am yet to even try, but my rock steady 'I can always turn to you' top coat is Revlon quick dry. I like that it applies nice and thick and you get a nice solid layer of protection over your handy work. It's also the perfect consistency top coat for painting onto freezer bags to make decals.

What is your top tip for someone wanting to start a blog?

Be prepared for the amount of work involved - it's not as easy as we are led to believe! Just publicising your blog through links and social networks and the million different profiles we have to take care of is a huge daily chore already, and that's before you have even painted your nails! Nail art is a time consuming affair already, add to that the photography and post production editing, then writing the post, then the publicity... what starts out as a fun little hobby soon becomes a big daily responsibility and a large chunk of your life. Of course that depends on what you want out of your blog, but if you're looking for the successful blog with lots of readers and followers and everything else that comes with it, you will have to put the work in. You will need to be prepared and organised to make sure you always have enough material to post on your blog, and just that task alone is challenging enough! The best advice I can give you is try not to bite off more than you can chew, if it all gets too much you will get frustrated and give up on it, so set yourself reasonable goals that can work with your existing schedule.

Favorite polish ever?

Impossible! There is no such thing when there are so many amazing collections and trends coming out every 5 minutes, what was my favourite polish last year is now in the middle of the list somehwere, and my favourite polish right now will be a distant memory in a couple of months time! I guess I'm fickle like that! I can tell you that my next favourite will be arriving in the post within the next couple of weeks as I got in on the preorder for ILNP's Ultra Chromes, and if you've seen the swatches you know they are going to knock the socks of anything I have already!

What's your favorite to least favorite nail art trend?

My Favourite and least favourite nail art trends are actually the same one -  I have a serious love/hate relationship with water marbling! I absolutely LOVE water marble designs, and everytime I see them I think they are sofa king amazing! Water marbling hates me though, as much as I love it and am always blown away by the pics I see online, I have still never done a succesful water marble mani despite many, many, many attempts. And as much as it makes me squee to think of finally doing a water marble mani, I think of all the times that I have thrown a cup of water across the room accompanied by anguished screams because it has failed me yet again, and I wish water marbling never existed!

Where would you like to travel?

It's got to be said, as far as travel is concerned I have been more fortunate than most and the list of countries and cities I have lived in or travelled to is extensive. My mum's ex partner encouraged me to leave my country and 'see the world' when I was 20, and with the offer of a safety net - a guaranteed ticket for a flight home within 24 hours with just one phone call if I got into any trouble, I was off on my merry way! I started off in Barcelona and I haven't stopped moving around the world since then, now I'm nearly 30! Seasoned traveller I may be but there are still a few dream destinations on my list, Egypt is number one top of the list, closely followed by South Africa, and I recently discovered the Rainbow mountains of China, which I will see before I die!

Other than nail polish/beauty products, do you have any obsessions or collections?

High heel shoes, ridiculous amounts of high heel shoes. I cannot get enough of them and I would die without them. I have over 200 pairs of shoes and boots in a storage unit with the rest of my belongings waiting for me in Europe, I only brought a couple of pairs with me to Australia last year, and right now in my Aussie bedroom there are 40 more pairs. I swear this is not even an exaggeration!

What is your favorite all time food/drink?

It's difficult to choose really, I'm a real foody and love to eat, and a bit like the nail polish - my favourite foods are always changing. I have a ridiculous sweet tooth though, and the fat arse to match, so I probably shouldn't say cake, but it's cake... Baked goods of any kind actually, epecially if they have cinnamon.  NOM NOM NOM.

These are the blogs I nominate for the Liebster Award, and being a bit of an international jetsetter it seemed only fair to have a nice international mix of talented nail blog ladies from around the world!:

Australia 

Dorothy, Alice, Nails
Lazy Lacquerista

UK

 Life In lacquer
Bite No More
Little Tip Off
Never Ending Nail Polish

US

Getting Nailed Weekly
Get Nailed Here

India

Nail Jazzed Up

Bulgaria

Eli Singing Nails

France

Passions De Fourmis

And my 11 questions to those bloggers are:

What made you want to start blogging?

Who/What inspired you to do nail art?

 Stuck on an island...you can take one nail polish, one manicure tool, one nail treatment, and one kind of nail art decoration... which?

 Who are your favourite nail artists and why?

Which nail art technique do you have most difficulty with?

What other hobbies do you have after nail art?

Other than nail polish whats the one thing in your life that you can't live without? (thing not person!)

What is your dream job?

What would your dream house be like?

What would you advise for someone wanting to start a blog?

Thanks again to Ana over at Magnifique Nails for the nomination, I hope you have all enjoyed reading my answers as much as I have enjoyed answering her questions, and I look forward to hearing from the bloggers I have nominatied and seeing their answers to my questions too!