Clavum es has moved!!!

Hi everyone!

I don't know if I have any casual reader of my blog but if I do...

Clavum es has a new domain name and a new look. Just click here to be redirected!

Hope to see you all there!

Melissa

Speckled Eggs Nail Art

Some more Easter nails for you today. These were inspired by speckled eggs but are a bit of a fail. For whatever reason the chevron stripes just didn't turn out right. Also I was pushing it for light when I took the pictures so picture quality is also quite low...but whatever! I must attempt to post all nail art attempts.

Easter Chickens

This design isn't exactly new. I've seen a lot of people with the cliche cracked egg and little chick poking out. However I think this design makes a lot more sense on my little round nails. After all most the eggs I've seen are roundish in shape and not square...duh!

Stamping in the forest

These nails are what happens when you want to paint your nails but then get lazy part way through. You can tell I got lazy half way through as I haven't bothered much with clean up and my stamping efforts are pretty lackluster.

Nice Nautical Nails

I finally did something freehand that look's exactly like I imagined it would (well on the left hand anyways). I mean, check out that anchor. It looks like it could be a decal. My happy face is so very happy right now! Does your face match mine? :D

Sunday Swatch Time - Bella Belle Nail Couture - Snow

It's a Sunday so it's time for a swatch! It's definitely been a while and I can't say I've started back up with something super exciting. Don't get me wrong the polish is nice but it's not glittery goodness like I normally show. Anyway, here is Bella belle Nail Couture - Snow.

Kawaii Science Nail Art

Kawaii, in Japan, literally means cute. If these nails aren't the very definition of adorable I don't know what is! Who knew adding cute faces to chemistry equipment could be so awesome? I didn't but now I know that it does, I'm carrying googly eyes with me to every chemistry class I attend.

I'm a gradient fan!

I brought new sponges the other day to do some more gradients but for whatever reason, I've lost the skill. Anyway, there are other methods of doing a gradient, I've just never tried them before. So because a sponge wasn't working for me, I pulled out my fan brush and came up with this!

Straight down the line foiled!

Aren't my titles just so witty and creative lately? I know you're all exclaiming "Hell yeah they really are!" Right now and I am thankful to you for that. Ok but seriously, let's talk about the nail art for a second and not my awesome wit. These nails seem very different than what I normally do but that's simply because I don't use blue colours very often. I think I should do more blues because they look awesome, if I do say so myself.

Let's cross sparkles off the list...

This nail art is what occurs when you screw up one design but are too lazy to completely redo what you were working on. For me, this was a massive fail and no where near as easy as I thought it was going to be, especially because I was using nail vinyls. But whatever, I've made myself to promise almost all the nail art I produce, and so here you go.

Tribal Glitter Placement

I found this tribal pattern and wanted to use it for nail art. Instead of just drawing lines I decided to attempt making a tribal print using glitter placement. In some ways it was a win, in other ways it was a fail. More on that after the jump thingy...

Isosceles Triangles!

This nail art is deceptively simple looking, but I actually spent most my day doing them. I blame the cold weather and my impatience for this, but in the end, they turned out awesome! I am loving these triangle studs and marked triangles. Triangles are definitely a new favourite thing for me, they kind of look like arrows pointing in the direction my nails need to grow haha.

Watercolour Zebra Print

I've actually found a use for short nails! Using stamping plate images that would no way cover nails that are any longer than itty bitty cute things. Today's stamped nails are an example of this. I've never used the plate, despite the fact that I like the patterns, because I don't want to double stamp. So suddenly small nails and I can finally get zebra print happening on my nails!

Watermarble Triangles (Sort of...)

I mentioned in a previous post that I accidentally cut my nails down a tad too far. Well today's nail art is proof that even small nails can get some loving. And I mean real loving because they got watermarbled, which isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world.

Sparkly Chevron

This design was not what I had intended. I wanted something cute and delicate to go with the nail shield on my ring finger, but nope, that didn't happen. Instead I kind of ended up with edgy party nails that I'm not sure are working for me. Sure, I like the chevron, but with the nail shield I think it's a tad over the top. But you can decide for yourself.

Stamped Daisies

If you want quick nail art in a fix, then stamping is the way to go. However stamping is not actually as easy as it looks, but for once, I kept it simple and came up with these stamped daisies! These were super simple and quick to do, it took me about 10 minutes per hand, so that's like a 4 minute mile for me :P

My cat has been foiled - Nail Art

I'm getting busier in my everyday life which is cutting into my nail art time. I can't dare to bare my nails but I can't spend ages each week painting them just to have them chip off a day or two later. This is where gel nail polish come in. This awesome invention means I can wear a mani for a few weeks with no chips (if I apply it correctly). All I have to do is not get bored with a design :P

Purple Swirly Galaxy

Today I have some nails I did for an instagram competition to show you. The theme was purple and I created a swirl drag marble design, then decided it looked slightly like a galaxy, so added stars. I kind of wish I had left it swirly though because I think I liked it better then but whatever, they're still cool.

Textured Glitter Gradient

Ok, so I actually brought these nail polishes with the intention of doing this nail art (and also because they looked like the most perfect colours ever). I have to say, oh my gosh! I am totally in love with this gradient! Absolutely no polish buying regrets! (But then again I'm likely to never have issues with buying polish haha).

Sunday Swatch Time - Picture Polish - Tiffany

It's swatch Sunday and finally we're ditching pink and red polishes for something different. On my nails today is Tiffany by Picture Polish, which is a pretty blue creme polish to match Tiffany and Co. packaging. I don't own anything Tiffany and Co. to compare, but I can guarantee this is the case.

Quatrefoil Nails

I was feeling the need for something girly today and wanted to do something for Valentine's day that didn't include hearts or love puns. After a few failed attempts, I finally managed a very delicate quatrefoil design that I was very happy with.

Knitted Inspiration Nail Art

Let's call this a collaboration between my Mum and I. My nail art here was inspired by some gloves my Mum knitted, using wool we dyed together. You can check out my Mum's knitting blog, Knitographical, because eventually she'll put up proper pictures of the gloves (and wool and everything). Until then, you can see sneak peaks of the gloves in my pictures and see how they inspired my nail art.

Delicate French Tips

In continuation of my stamping practice, I decided to pull out my white Celestial Cosmetics stamping polish and create a delicate design for Valentines Day. To do this I used a lace stamping pattern, added some freehand french tips and finally the freehand hearts and dots. In my opinion these are a very non obtrusive form of nail art and would be perfect as simple bridal nails. 

Mosaic Hearts

Ok, so it was my aim to keep up a theme of pink and red polishes until Feb 14th. Today's nail art fails that completely. However it does still keep in the theme of Valentine's Day with a funky heart, so I think it's forgivable. So introducing my Valentine's Day mosaic hearts.

Sunday Swatch Time - Prettypots Polish - Snowstorm Paramour

It's Sunday and you know what that means? It's time for another swatch! Today's swatch is the pretty in pink, Snowstorm Paramour by Pretty Pots Polish.

Love Birds

I'm the kind of person who skips the basics and goes straight to the harder things, well at least when it comes to stamping. I really haven't had much practice when it comes to stamped nails, but I really wanted to use my chevron stamp pattern and do gradient stamping, so this is the result! Oh plus added love birds because of this months theme.

Sideways Armoured Ruffian

In keeping with the theme, today's nails had to be pink but I wanted to give them a little edge. I did that literally by way of a sideways ruffian and studs because who said pink can't be edgy.

Sunday Swatch Time - Grace-full Nail Polish - Trudi

Ok, so here is a swatch for you because it's Sunday. Keeping in the theme of pink/red/lovey dovey colours, I chose to swatch Trudi by Grace-full Nail Polish.

Pink Textured Taped Mani

So in honour of the day of love coming up in a few weeks, all nail art until then will contain the following colours, pink, red, and more pink. This has been a public service announcement from Clavum es. 

Today's pinkness is a textured taped mani using some awesome Peita's Polishes (my first ever Aussie indie brand).

Fuzzy Hearts

Well February is fast approaching and the most exciting thing about February is that it only has 28 days, meaning it's over super quickly. This is excellent because the other thing February contains is Valentine's Day, and the sooner we can get that over with, the better in my mind. In my opinion Valentine's Day is over the top and tacky and if you want to tell someone you like them, just do it, and if they happen to like you back, make sure they know you love them everyday. 

I have some Valentine's Day nails right here. I was hoping that the fuzziness, and everything else about them, would make them over the top, just like the day itself, but instead they ended up cute. Well I guess love can also be cute and yet make you want to vomit if you're cynical, so there are right on the ball haha.

Pastel Gradient with Gold Leaf

I'm not going to even bother doing a big description for these nails. All I'm going to say is that I was vaguely inspired by ladycrappo on instagram but with my own twist...the twist being gold leaf because hell yeah gold leaf!

China Glaze Simple Stripe

In the past few days I have learned some very important lessons in what NOT to do when it comes to nail art. The main lesson being always, always, ALWAYS replace the lid on whatever your working with. So far, this week, I have managed to spill a litre bottle of acetone all over my desk and floor, get nail polish on my favourite pants and, on top of all that, drop an entire jar of nail studs all over the floor. I'm really in a brilliantly clumsy mood. I've also had numerous nail fails, but finally have something to show you, so here you go.

Electric Feel Swirl Marble

Well I already had Electric Feel on my nails after swatching it and after a day of wear, I needed some way to freshen it up. So I added some clear and dark green swirly watermarble and ta da!

Sunday Swatch Time - Enchanted Polish - Electric Feel

It's a Sunday and I have a swatch to post. Let's welcome the temporary return of Sunday swatch time. I won this Enchanted Polish in a giveaway by Femme Fatale Cosmetics. Good thing too because these polishes aren't cheap. Anyway here is Electric Feel by Enchanted Polish. 

10 day SensatioNail Gel Polish Review/Diary

I have been wanting to try out gel nails for a while. The reason being normal nail polish never lasts very long on me and it would be nice to go somewhere and not have to worry about my nail polish chipping after spending ages on the perfect design. After a bit of googling, I settled on getting the SensatioNail gel polish starter kit, because it had decent reviews and I had a Priceline gift voucher to use.

I read a lot of reviews before settling on the SensatioNail system and it seems only fair I provide my own review in turn. A while ago I went to Queensland for 8 days and instead of taking nail polish with me and redoing my nails like 20 times, I took a SensatioNail gel mani with me to see how it stood up to the rigors of holidaying.

So here is my (kind of long overdue) 10 day, SensatioNail polish review! Be warned, it is quite word heavy < Basically it’s actually a diary.

Summer Fruits

It's finally feeling a lot more like summer! Yesterday was 40 something degrees which, if I'm being honest, is actually probably too hot but yay sun. Anyway in celebration here is some summer fruit nail art just in time for the warm weather.