Now in its eight season, NAILS Magazine’s Next Top Nail Artist (NTNA) is the premiere competition within the professional nail industry. This year, NAILS is delighted to be partnering with CND to bring this challenge to life.

Contestants who enter NTNA undergo a rigorous screening process where every brush stroke is scrutinized. After carefully evaluating hundreds of intricate hand-painted looks, sculpted acrylics, brushed on gels, and an array of mixed-media, only 14 contestants remain standing.

They will be competing against each other through a series of design challenges, the first being this week's A to Z Challenge. 

They were challenged to create a 10 tip nail mural with these instructions: 

CND stands for Creative Nail Design. In order to get to know our Season 8 contestants better, we challenge you to tell us your personal journey using the letters C, N, and D across a 10 nail tip mural. For this mural, we want to see hand painted art and lettering, so we ask that contestants use CND Shellac and Vinylux ONLY. Tips can be any size and length. Any wording in your mural must start with the letters C, N, and D (you must use all three) and you cannot use the words “creative,” “nail” or “design.”