Liebster Award!

The very lovely Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has nominated me for a Liebster Award! I knew sending her polish shaped bribes would pay off eventually. ;) For those of you unsure what a Liebster Award is (that included me until earlier today) here's a quick rundown of the rules:

• The recipient must post 11 fun facts about themselves.
• The recipient must also answer 11 questions created by the award giver.
• The recipient must give the award to 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers and post 11 questions for them to answer.
• These 11 bloggers must be told they have been given the award.
• They will in turn pass the award on to 11 new bloggers of their choice (no tagging back the award giver).

So, without further ado, here are my 11 'Fun' Facts, you can decide for yourself if they are any fun or not: 

1. I live in Glasgow, Scotland.  The land of Haggis, Irn Bru and men in skirts.
2. I'm 32, that's not very fun but it is a fact, I still feel about 22.
3. I have a cat called James who is my most expensive investment ever after costing me £1500 at the beginning of the year when he decided to eat some string and had to have emergency stomach surgery, while I was out of the country on holiday.
4. Although my boyfriend and I have only been officially together for a couple of years we've been friends for almost 16.
5. My parents live in Spain which gives me the opportunity to have more holidays than someone on my budget should really be allowed and access to lots of European nail varnish brands, which is a nice added bonus.
6. I have just re-learned / managed to touch my toes again for the first time in over 15 years thanks to weekly Pilates and Yoga classes.
7. I used to be a very keen rock climber and I'd like to get back into it one day
8. My favourite drink is a G&T with lots of ice and a slice of lime.
9. As well as my huge collection of make up and nail varnish I also have around 150 pairs of shoes.  I seriously worry that one day I'll end up on an episode of Hoarders, I am not good at clearing things out.
10. I spend far too much time online, I would be utterly lost without the Internet.
11. I have an embarrassing addiction to TV shows like TOWIE, Geordie Shore and Made in Chelsea.

Here are my answers to Claire's questions:

1) What made you start a blog?
I don't know really, I think initially it started as a sort of online diary for myself to keep track of what I'd been doing and how my skills had progressed.  Then I decided that since I was reading so many other nail and beauty blogs and it seemed like such a big community that maybe I should try and join in properly, so, I started giving the blog address out on nail groups and forums that I'm a part of.  I still haven't shared the link with 99% of my real life friends though.

2) What is your favourite brand of nail polish?
Kiko!  I love their polish and the brand in general holds lots of really happy memories for me.  My parents live in Spain and I discovered Kiko a few years ago while visiting them.  I loved the layout of the shop, all the colours and the great prices so it became a little ritual for my parents and I to go to Kiko every time I visited them, so not only do I love the range and quality of their products they always remind me of good times with my parents too.

3) What is your favourite polish colour?
Too hard!  I don't have a favourite, I could probably narrow it done to a top 100 given enough time though.

4) How many polishes do you have in your collection?
I have 337 on my spreadsheet which I use to try and keep track of them and probably another 30 or so waiting to go onto the spreadsheet, so around 370 at the moment, I think.  I try not to think about it too much though.

5) How do you store your polishes?
In my Helmer!

6) When/where do you mostly do your manis?
I do my nails in the evening while watching rubbish TV, that way I can justify the time spent watching crap programmes and painting by saying I am multi-tasking.

7) What is your favourite type of nail art?
Stamping, definitely, I love stamping.

8) What polish is on your wish list?
Loads!  A whole pile of US only polishes, both cheap drugstore ones and more expensive ones; some Indie polishes; lots more stamping plates; loads of things really.  I try not to have a set list as I tend to obsess over it, track them down by any means possible and pay massively over the odds to own them.

9) What is the next manicure on your "to do" list?
I have loads of new stamping plates I want to try, I also want to do more gradient manis, use up some of the stickers I have and try some water decals, so quite a few things.  I'd also like to work my way through all the polishes I haven't used yet.

10) What is your nail care "must have"?
Lush Lemon Flutter Cuticle Butter.

11) What nail trend do you wish you could master?
Most of them, I have very shaky hands and really struggle to do any fine detail work - part of why I love stamping so much - so really anything involving a steady hand and the ability to make my right hand not look like a small child painted it!


Here are my 11 choices (I think they all have under 200 followers but I couldn't always see where to check, so sorry if I'm wrong!):

http://veelicious-ness.blogspot.co.uk/

http://beachingnails.blogspot.co.uk/

http://tinyblogger8.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.apolishaddict.com/

http://nailtart.com/

http://nailipedia.blogspot.co.uk/

http://geordienails.blogspot.co.uk/

http://pandoras-nails.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.prettykittyclaws.blogspot.co.uk/

http://penguinsleftgreenpolish.blogspot.co.uk/

http://glittertips22.blogspot.co.uk/


And finally, here are my 11 questions:

1. How do you store your polish?
2. How many bottles do you think you have?
3. What's your favourite finish in a polish?  Glitter, foil, cream, something else?
4. What's your favourite type of nail art to do?
5. What's your biggest lemming?  The one polish you are desperate to own?
6. Where and when do you usually paint your nails?
7. What do your friends and family think of your hobby?
8. What's the best tip you've ever received / read?
9. What's your best manicure ever?
10. And your worst?
11. Why did you start writing a blog?

I look forward to reading everyone's answers!