Tools like smudge are what's called "dirty" - they create colours outside of your control. Such tools are generally considered unacceptable in pixel art - that is, if you use them, you're probably still making fine art, but it's not pixel art, since you're no longer in control of the piece at the pixel level.

Pixel artists create smooth gradations through careful use of hand-picked colours instead of using tools like smudge and soft brushes.

I did use the smudge brush to blend my colours so it could be prettier to look at in the end, I don't know if that's a bad thing? I don't have a whole lot of knowledge with pixel art. These are for IMVU badges so I don't really know how things work on Pixel Joint either. But I do appreciate your feedback! I will keep in mind to upload them in bulk next time.

I'm learning. ♥

This has a very high colour count for such a small piece, how did you manage that? This is true for your earlier submissions, too. It doesn't look like you chose these 80+ colours purposefully, but rather let your program automatically create them for you, by perhaps using a soft brush tool.

I recommend uploading your badges all at once as a single submission, since they're all rather small. It'll probably go through the queue quicker (the mods throttle multiple submissions from the same artists, to make sure everyone gets a fair amount of time on the front page), and it'll encourage people to look at all of them.