Manis with Mum

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. My mum came to visit from my hometown in Tennessee. It's an 8-9 hour drive, no fun!
When she arrived I still had friends over doing nails. I did a short nail french on Shannon and I didn't get a picture. Jessie chose Zoya Gemma :D, and I did a little gemmed flower on one nail. Don't ask me why Gemma looks matte in this pic...she's not. It was with my phone so you know. Isn't that cute though? I had some blue round rhinestones and some cool green rectangular ones. We were looking at them thinking how great they would look with Gemma and decided we could do a flower. I ♥ it!!

This whole weekend I was sporting a fun green Orly glitter than I got on discount at Sally's. I didn't realize at the time that the reason it was discounted was because it was a Christmas polish :P.

Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is a pretty green glitter. It has a hint of teal, which is what interested me in the first place. Unfortunately that doesn't really show on the nail and it turns out a nearly perfect Christmas green. The application and level of glitter were great. It's packed with glitter, but it must be small enough that it doesn't make the surface rough. I started using Orly SecNDry, a quick dry top coat, and it's been doing pretty well. I'm looking for an alternative to Seche Vite since I get such bad shrinkage with that one. So far I'm liking the Orly better, but the wear isn't great. This picture is maybe after 3 days...I know...I was busy with my mum visiting lol. I'm pretty sure that's tip wear and not shrinkage. This also might just be the Orly base color. I haven't used Orly much so maybe it doesn't have good staying power?

So when it came to my mother's nails, out of the more than 100 colors I have from many different brands, she chose Zoya Tiffany and Deidra.

Here is Tiffany on her toes with a Konad stamp using a Milani white. It stamps so easily because it's so thin, but it isn't brilliantly opaque white like it should be. I also didn't wait very long before I top coated it so the design smeared a wee bit. She was the most difficult client ever lol. She would NOT let me do her cuticles and would hardly let me file. She kept moving too...I'm like mom I'm getting it all over your skin. I tried cleaning it up by wiping while it was still freshly wet with my cuticle tool and she would not have it! "Mom do you want polish all over your skin?!?" "Yes, I do, I like it." Lol she just wanted me to leave it alone. So excuse the imperfections!

She was a bit less fussy about her fingernails, but still no cuticle fixing was allowed! Zoya Deidra looks great on her and I knew she'd love it. This is with no clean up, so this means I'm getting better! Yay, I can color in the lines!! This was two coats, and a couple nails could have used three. I was coaching her for the pictures. "Like this mum like this!" Isn't it cute? :D