Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Aurora Borealis nail art (glow in the dark)


If this looks familiar to you, it's because it's a remake of my own Northern Lights design from 2 years ago! Since then I've had a lot of practice & switched cameras, and I thought it deserved a second take. Click to see more!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Pastel sugar crush nail art


Nails like candy? Yes please! They really do look scrumptious enough to eat! And they're totally easy to make too :) Click to see more!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

How to care for your nail art brushes


People always ask me how I clean my nail art brushes, or how I cut them to size. This video will explain it all, hopefully!



Music is "The Lounge" by BenSound
http://www.bensound.com/

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Little fuzzies nail art


Imagine having no arms & no legs and bouncing everywhere, but at least you'd have adorable little ears! That's pretty much how these little fuzzies work. Can you think of a funny name for their species? Click to see more!

Monday, May 16, 2016

Little black rat nail art


If you know about my pets, this design will make total sense to you. I have two pet rats, beautiful little cuddly boys, so I *tried* painting my Mercurius! Click to see more!

Friday, May 13, 2016

Happy Friday the 13th!


MUAHAHA Happy Friday the 13th!! I wish you lots of goosebumps on this day :-p Be nice to black cats though, and don't walk under any ladders! Click to see more!

Thursday, May 12, 2016

10 frequently asked questions

To celebrate my 4th blogiversary (WOW has it really been that long?), I have a little Q&A for you! These are all questions that get asked again and again so I figured you all might like to know the answers :-p


Who are you anyways? Tell me more about yourself!
Let me introduce myself for a second! I'm just a good ol' gal from the Netherlands, I have been on this planet for 26 years already. I have a degree in Graphic Design. I've always been a bit different and nowadays it's actually cool to be non-standard, I think. I like colorful stuff, I'm nuts about neons, glitters, Christmas lights and anything that's pretty and colorful. Yes, I'm the type to buy a pink coffee machine even though I don't drink coffee, just because it's pretty ;-) Hmm what else do you need to know about me... My shoe laces are pink, but my shoes are black. I like the fresh air but I don't like camping. And I will catch insects and mice to set them free outside instead of killing them. There's just no need!

I'm a rat mom! I have two fluffy boys living with me and I'm just crazy about them. I love their character, their cute little faces, the way they make me laugh and their absolute uniqueness. Every rat is different, has his own likes and dislikes. They're just like little dogs, I even let them roam free in my room every day! Right now, I have Mercurius and Montgomery in my little family <3

This was my boy Aramis by the way, wasn't he just the CUTEST? -->


What brushes & other tools do you use?
My very favorite brushes are the Roubloff 00 that I bought from Adnails Manucure (it's the same as Tartofraises uses) and the Basic One Gold detail brush from Christrio Scotland. You can find a description of all of the different brushes I use for different purposes, plus my thoughts about them, in this article about my nail art brushes.


How do you take pictures?
I'm using a Sony A5100 mirrorless DSLR. I wrote an article about nail photography tips a while back, when I was still using an older camera, that might be of use if you're interested in improving your pictures.

I do use Photoshop but not in the way that you would call it 'Photoshopping'. I use it to crop, rotate & watermark my pictures. Sometimes I make the picture lighter, my camera is great at taking pretty pictures but sometimes I'll have to take pictures while the daylight is already fading and it comes out a bit too dark & gloomy. If there's an ugly scratch on my finger from my fur babies, I will edit that out. I never change the color into something it's not, and I never edit my artwork to make it look better than it is in real life. I've spent a lot of time to find out how to make my nails look better, and how to make my photos look better. Just a few simple tricks can really spice up your game, and it doesn't even have to cost anything!

I record video with the same camera as I use for pictures, and I edit videos in Adobe Premiere Pro.


Did you go to school to learn nail art?
I never had classes to learn art, or nail art, although I did follow a little workshop about one stroke nail art once. I'm self taught, which means I learned by looking at pictures and trying to recreate them, by failing a LOT, and by practicing, practicing, practicing. I read a lot of blogs when I was just starting out and I picked up some tricks from that as well. Never be afraid to ask questions if there's something you want to know! It's not like we're a secret society of nail artists, unwilling to share our 'secrets'. I have no secrets, I'm open to sharing anything I know about nail art but some things, like freehand, are more of a process than a simple one-step solution, and can't be explained.

I started doing plain manis in August 2012 and I started a little bit of nail art a few months later. My nail art got kicked into high gear when I started using acrylic paint in November 2013 and really focusing on improving my skills any way possible.


How do you do such detailed designs on your non-dominant hand?
I don't! I have no intention of painting the same design a second time, that would be boring. Most people don't notice that my hands don't match and if they do, big deal. My hands, I'll wear what I like. Usually I'll spend 4 - 8 hours on a 4-finger design, and then another 1 - 2 hours repeating the design on my thumb while recording it for a video tutorial. It would be SO boring, not to mention a waste of time, to do it a third time, just to make my hands match!

Do you take nail art requests?
I love requests, because they inspire me! I can't promise to make it though, it's an artist thing. I need to 'see' the design before painting it, and the feeling about it has to be right in order for it to work. I do appreciate it when people actually ASK me, instead of 'do this' & 'make that'. It's a request, after all ;-)

Can I make an appointment with you to get my nails done? 
Sorry, no! I'm not a nail tech. I'm not licensed and to be honest doing other people's nails is SO HARD! I really enjoy just sitting on my couch & painting my own nails :)

How come your nails are so strong and healthy? Do they ever break?
Oh how I wish I had a simple solution for you all... For me, it's mostly genetics. My mom has amazing hands and nails and she never even takes care of them, they're just naturally healthy. I eat a lot of veggies, I don't use my nails as tools (to open cans for example), and I use remover without acetone because it doesn't dry out my skin so much. I wish I could be of more help to you!

Where did the name 'PiggieLuv' come from? It's kind of silly!
It's a silly story! I once got a little pig figurine from someone who has helped me out a lot in my life. She's always the voice of reason when I lose my path. So ofcourse the pig meant a lot to me, and I started making little comic books with the pig in the lead role. I called him Piggy Luv, because of the hearts on his back. Years later, I was looking for a new name for my blog (it was previously called Made By Me and then Fratselarius) and all of a sudden, it occurred to me that it might make a cute name! I altered it to be more unique on the internet and thus PiggieLuv was born!

Can I use your pictures or videos?
Ofcourse you can share my pictures and videos! Please note that I have my work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. What this means in normal-people-speak is that when you share my work (i.e. a picture or video), that you must always include a link to my website, or when you're on Facebook you can tag my Facebook page, when you're on Instagram you can tag my Instagram name, etc. It's simple really, whenever you share a pic that's not yours, just clearly state who made it and you're good ;-) You are also never allowed to alter my work in any way, that includes cropping out parts (for example my watermark), putting a filter over it, paste emoticons or other images on it, or blurring parts. Other than that: feel free! I love it when people share my work, especially when they add a few nice words *wink wink*


Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Poop emoji nail art


After all of those serious designs, I need me something fun! The poop emoji has always gotten on my nerves, might as well turn it around by making it into some fun nail art ;-) Click to see more!

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Celestial princess nail art


I painted.... a face! I don't attempt faces often and for good reason, I suck at them. But this one is actually kind of pretty! I like it when a nail art design challenges me like this :) Click to see more!

Happy 4th blogiversary!


Happy blogiversary to MEEE!! Can you believe I've been doing this for 4 years already? I have some fun things planned to celebrate this month, like a Q&A and special videos!