Polishes Used
Barry M White
Sally Hansen Pacific Blue
Sally Hansen Pinch of Punch
Nicole by OPI LeaPink for Joy
Rimmel Barmy Blue
Video Tutorial Here
You may remember a mani from last month that contained a few acccent nails with glitter placement resembling the Rainbow Fish. Well, I loved the accent so much that the next day I went to town on the rest and did a full hand of rainbow fish nails! I took some pictures I never posted on the blog which I came across as I was deleting some old files and thought you might like to see. I think all together, this mani probably took close to 2 hours but SO worth it.
Polishes Used
piCture pOlish Swagger
Nicole by OPI Be Awesome
Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat
One day, in 2010, after a few months spent reading every post on every nail blog I could find, I made the decision to start my own and I was up and running within a few days. I can still remember when I pressed publish on my first blog post. It was incredibly exciting but scary at the same time and now that I look back at what seemed like just another normal day, I wish I’d spent a bit more time taking it all in.
I’ve been at it for quite a while now and if I could go back and start afresh, knowing what I know now, there are definitely a few things I would do differently. That’s not to say I haven’t loved every minute spent learning how to be a better blogger. Heck, I’m still learning. Every damn day. Almost everything I know about blogging is the result of making little mistakes or exploring new ways to do things. As a blogger, my inquisitive and adventurous nature has served me well in this evolving industry where there’s always something new to learn!
I’m writing this as a nail blogger for nail bloggers but many of the tips can be applied to any kind of blog. Hopefully I can impart some of the knowledge I’ve picked up over the last four years so you’ll be more clued in than I was as a rookie blogger!
Name
First thing’s first. What are you going to call your blog? Make sure it’s a name that you’ll be happy with for many years to come. Think about it for a few days before taking the plunge to make sure it sticks. If at any point you decide you want to change it, of course there’s nothing to stop you but this can be confusing to your readers and creates a lot of extra work for you.
Try to choose something original and not too similar to anything else already out there. You might want to go for a play on words, a good pun or something simple and self-explanatory. Consider making the name relevant to your niche. For example, if you’re blogging with a focus on nail polish, consider using the words ‘nail’, ‘polish, ‘lacquer’, ‘paint’ etc. in your name.
Steer clear of brand names and other trademarks as that can result in legal troubles down the road. A quick Google search should turn up any websites that might already be using the name. I’d also advise searching GoDaddy to see if the URL matching the name you want is available to purchase. As an extra precaution, you can even search Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to see if anyone is using the name.
Platform
Once you’re set on your blog’s name, you need to decide where it’s going to live. There are a lot of blogging platforms out there but by far the most popular are Blogger and WordPress. The Nailasaurus has always been on Blogger and I’m really happy with it but I’ve used WordPress for other projects so I know a bit about both platforms.
Blogger is a Google service which is completely free to use. You can customise the look and functionality of your blog with templates and basic knowledge of HTML (thank you MySpace circa 2005!). Blogger integrates nicely with most other Google Services and I’ve always found it very easy to use.
There are two options for WordPress users – wordpress.com and wordpress.org.
WordPress.com is free to use but you’re very limited in terms of customisation. I wouldn’t recommend wordpress.com unless you’re just testing the waters before you decide whether to upgrade to wordpress.org.
With a wordpress.org, or ‘Self-Hosted WordPress‘ blog, you can customise anything and everything but you will have to pay a hosting service to host your blog and are likely to be more costs involved too. There’s a lot more going on in the back-end of WordPress so you need to be quite technically minded if you’re planning to customise and maintain your own WordPress blog. To get an idea of how to set up your own self-hosted WordPress blog, watch this video.
The Blogger vs WordPress debate is worthy of a 10,000 word essay so I’ll leave it at that for now. Just make sure you do some research and decide which blogging service suits you best before creating your blog.
Domain
If you’re serious about blogging, get your own domain/URL as soon as possible. I waited for two years to get mine and I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner when I found out how cheap and easy it was. It adds an instant professional finish to your blog and doesn’t cost much at all. I pay less than £10/year for mine.
If you decide to use wordpress.org, you’ll need your own domain but with some other platforms it’s optional. I always buy domains through GoDaddy and it’s easy enough to get them set up. There’s nearly always official documentation to guide you through the steps…
Look and Feel
Looks count when it comes to blogging. A lot of it comes down to personal taste but I think it’s vital that your blog is easy to read, easy to navigate and looks nice.
Whichever platform you decide to use, there will be a (limited) selection of templates to choose from which you may be able to customise to an extent. If you want something a little more fancy, you will probably have to purchase a template. Whether you want to invest in your blog straight off the bat or wait a little while for things to pick up, there are loads of placed to find really good looking templates that are more modern and trendy than the ones you’ll get from your platform. Some of my favourite places to browse for templates are Designer Blogs, Blog Milk, Pipdig and Envye. You can also find lots of great templates on Etsy.
Decorative fonts can look great when used sparingly on a blog but it’s always easier to read online content when it’s in a clean font that we’re all used to reading. Make sure the body of your blog posts displays in something like Arial, Helvetica or Georgia. It’s good to have a different font for your blog header and post titles to add emphasis.
If you have a lot of different pages on your blog (Contact, FAQ etc.), make it easy for your readers to find their way around by adding a navigation bar near the top of the page. That’s the first place people will look when they want to find information about you and your blog.
Photography
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to spend thousands on photographic equipment to make your nail blog a success. A decent ‘point and shoot’ camera is just as good as a DSLR for shooting nail pics and nowadays, many people even upgrade their phone camera using lens attachments to get good quality pictures.
I use a very standard desk lamp as lighting for my nail pictures and have done for a very long time now. If you live somewhere it’s sunny all year round, take advantage and use natural light whenever you can. I live in Britain where the weather is unpredictable and it gets dark at 5pm for half of the year so I use my lamp to keep my pictures consistent.
I know OTT Lite is popular with many nail bloggers because the bulbs give really colour accurate photos. If you do have a DSLR, you could try out a ring light that attaches to the lens. This is what I use to film my YouTube videos and it’s brilliant!
You’ll probably find that most of your pictures need some kind of editing whether it’s cropping, brightening or anything in between. You don’t need to be a Photoshop pro or buy expensive editing programs. PicMonkey is a popular free online photo editing service that lets you do all the basics and you can unlock more features for a low monthly fee.
Finally, it’s always good practice to keep all the images on your blog the same width, especially if you use a lot of pictures in your blog posts. It makes the content flow and is much easier on the eyes when scrolling through a long page. You can either save all your images at the same width before uploading, or resize the size they display (smaller only) using HTML.
Social Media
If you want to be a great blogger, social media comes with the territory. Not only is it a great way to network, make friends and interact with your audience, it’s one of the best ways to get your content out there in front of as many eyes as possible.
It can be tough to start from 0 but work hard and build your following organically. In know it’s difficult but try not to put too much value in the numbers while you’re still finding your feet as a blogger. Whether it’s 10 people or 100 – if your audience interacts with you regularly on your social media profiles, that’s how you know you’re doing it right!
Down the line, if and when you start working with brands, they will look at your social media presence as an indication of your online influence so get to work on it straight away. Be genuine and avoid asking people to follow you – it’s a real turnoff and quite annoying for the other person.
As well as sharing links to the content you post on your blog, make sure you offer extra value to your followers. Found a nail polish to add to your wishlist? Tell us about it! Got an amazing new haircut? Yeah, we wanna see that! Think about the kind of posts you enjoy seeing from your favourite bloggers and take inspiration from them.
When you’re getting set up, try to secure the same @name / URL on every platform if possible. This makes is easier for your readers to find you and it ties everything together nicely.
Essential social media for nail bloggers: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Page | Pinterest | Google+
Also consider: Tumblr (mine is here for example)
Also consider: Tumblr (mine is here for example)
SEO
Don’t let the techy term scare you off. SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ which means making your content search engine friendly so that Google and other search engines will index your content under the right ‘keywords’. Basically, Google has to figure out what content is most relevant to the things people are searching for so you need to help out if you want your content to appear in search results. When I started blogging, I was completely clueless when it came to SEO. I didn’t even know it was a thing. If I did, I think I could’ve gotten my blog off to a bit of a better start. SEO is a very complex study so feel free to look in to it further. In the mean time, there are little things you can do to improve your search ranking.
Start by making sure you’re using post titles that describe what’s actually going on in the post, like ‘Gradient Nail Art with Sally Hansen Pacific Blue’ or ‘Cult Nails Wicked Fast Review’ and so on. You don’t have to do this for every post, but if it’s one you think people will be looking for, it’s best to get a jump on things. Also try to make sure the URL of the post matches the title (i.e. www.myblog.com/url-with-relevant-keywords). Most platforms will let you customise the URL of each post: in Blogger, this option is to the right of where you write your post and in WordPress, it’s just under where you input the post title.
Next, you need to make sure all of your images have text descriptions attached to them as many people will head straight to Google Images when they’re looking for nail pictures and swatches.
See: Creating an image with a text description in HTML
As long as you’re regularly putting out good quality content and following the basics, you’ll be okay!
Love What You Do
Above all, make sure you blog because you enjoy it. There will be some aspects of blogging that you don’t like as much as others but it’s a surprisingly immersive experience and it can truly change your life. You’ll make new friends, learn new skills and maybe one day, even build a career from your blog.
If you got this far, thank you so much for reading my essay. I ended up going in to a little more detail than I had planned but I didn’t want to skimp on the specifics.
Please keep in mind that this isn’t intended to be a definitive guide to nail blogging. Hopefully, this is a good starting point for anyone who’s new to blogging or thinking of starting a nail blog. Everyone has a different way of doing things and if there are any experienced bloggers reading with tips to share from your own time blogging, please feel free to contribute in the comments.
More useful resources:
Will Paint Nails For Food: Beginner Blogger’s Bootcamp
SEO for Idiots: The 10 Basics of Blogging Search Engine Optimization
So I’m just scrolling through Instagram one day when I’m tagged by @dilemmanails in a photo of the most perfect nail embellishments I could ever hope to see – tiny little T-Rexes! Luckily for me, the embellishments are from She Sells Seashells, a UK based nail art store and one of my favourite places to buy nail decor online. I snapped some up for myself (along with a few other items!) and set about waiting for the postman to pop the package through my door.
When they arrived early this week, I couldn’t wait to try the embellishments out. I love that they’re really tiny so they don’t take up too much space on my little nails. It’ll be fun to try out some other ways of wearing them!
PROTIP: If you have curved nail beds, bend metal decals like these gently around a pen or the handle of nail art brush to match the curve of your nails. That way you won’t get bits sticking out and catching on things, the embellishement will sit flush to your nail.
What I used
Barry M Vanilla
Barry M Espresso
Revlon Sequins
Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat
Polish Me Silly is an indie brand that’s been on my radar for a really long time but I’d never actually tried any of their polishes until recently. You may know them for their innovative use of neon glitter in their polishes and that’s exactly what I’m going to share with you today.
I have swatches of two of their Thermal Color Changing polishes – Get Breezy and Sizzling Sunset – to share today. Each polish is packed with neon glitter and the colour of the base transforms dependent on whether the polish is warm or cold!
If you have long nails that extend past the tip of your finger, you will get a ready made gradient effect where the polish is cooler on the tips and warm where it sits on your nail bed. On my short nails the polishes mostly stay in the ‘warm’ phase apart from at the very tips so I had to dunk them in ice water to get them to change colour. It’s a pretty cool party trick!
In the bottle, Get Breezy is a lovely sky blue colour with lots of bright glitter pieces from purple, to orange to green and more. For this swatch I used 3 coats with top coat.
The colour change from warm to cool on this polish is really subtle. It’s an almost white, icy blue when it’s warm but when cool, it gets a bit darker and turns to an aqua blue. A few pictures down, you can see the two right next to each other to really compare them and see how subtle the change is.
Cold on the left. Warm on the right.
The colour change in Sizzling Sunset is way more noticeable than in Get Breezy! It contains hexes and circle glitter of yellow and gold with some fuschia hexes thrown in. This swatch is 3 coats with top coat.
It goes from a bright, sunny yellow when warm to creamy orange when cool. When I dipped my nails in cold water, the change was instantaneous and very obvious! We know that yellows are notoriously difficult polishes to work with but this one is as smooth as butter and is a really flattering tone to boot. When you see the gradient effect of half warm / half cool on this polish, you can see how it got its name.
I was really impressed with these thermal polishes. They change instantly when exposed to a change in temperature and are incredibly easy to apply. It’s really hard to pick a favourite from the two. The colour change in Sizzling Sunset is so incredible but I have a weakness for Blue and Get Breezy has the more interesting mix of glitter. If I really have to pick just one, it’s gonna be Get Breezy!
Where to buy Polish Me Silly
Polish Me Silly nail polish is available from Polish Me Silly on Etsy with worldwide shipping available.
Thermal Polishes RRP, $6.50.
Let me introduce you to the new look Nailasaurus! I’ve been itching to get a new design on this blog for a while now and after a few weeks spent looking around, I finally settled on a new template. Things aren’t too different so you shouldn’t have trouble finding anything, but I might continue fine tuning it until I’m really happy with the way it looks and the way it’s used. It looks amazing on mobile devices too so don’t forget to check it out on -the-go when you get a chance.
The biggest change you’ll notice is the way you comment on my posts. I’ve installed the Disqus system which you’ve probably seen around on other blogs. I think it’s much better than the old Blogger system for drumming up good conversation and it looks a lot prettier! You can sign in using your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Disqus account and it’s really easy to track your conversations and replies.
The nail art I created today is one of my favouite manis for a while. The pastel purple textured saran wrap is really dainty but the crosses give it a bit of an edge.
I started by painting all my nails white and top coating with HK Girl. I marked off the crosses using striping tape and applied the texture over the top using the ‘textured saran wrap’ method (video at the end of this post).
What I Used
Barry M Matt White
2true Shade 15
NYC Lavender Blossom
Sally Hansen Lady Lavender
Sally Hansen Pinch of Punch
She Sells Seashells Gold Shell Embellishements
Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat
What would you call a design like this? Where the lines meet up at the corners, but continue on in a different direction? I just feel like there must be a name for it! I’ve been through a few possibilities like ‘Alternate Chevrons’, ‘Crosshatch’ and ‘Weird Zig Zag Things’ but I just don’t think any of them are right. It’s been distracting me for a while now – a real mind bender!
To achieve the disconnected look, I used scotch tape to tape off half of my nail and applied rows of striping tape at an upward slant. Next, I painted over the tape with Barry M Malibu then removed all the tape as quickly as possible. I added one thin coat of HK Girl to dry the polish and then repeated on the other half of my nail.
What I Used
Barry M Coconut
Barry M Malibu
Nicole by OPI Lay it on the Lime
Glisten & Glow HK Girl
‘Lost in Space’ Midi Ring from Astrid & Miyu
