In season 5’s fourth Last Chance Design Lab challenge sponsored by CND, Liza Waitzman and Sammi Newell will battle it out one-on-one to see who has a chance of staying in the competition. CND’s Jan Arnold will select her favorite look Friday and you’ll find out who will remain for at least one more week.
All Last Chance challenges are done on a single nail tip. Contestants are also asked to describe their looks. There are no other elements to this battle.
Since Sammi packed her paintbrushes after the Pastel City challenge, this week’s Last Chance challenge is loosely related.
Word on the Street: Jan Arnold loves art, so for this challenge we want to see a street art-inspired design based on one of Jan’s favorite art pieces. Contestants were asked to look at Jan’s Instagram to get inspiration.
Here are the looks they created:
Liza
As I scrolled through Jan’s page, I truly loved a lot of the artwork she was posting. However, I was immediately drawn to some lowriders from the Auto Museum on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. Being from South San Diego, we have A LOT of car clubs that cruise the streets of local communities. Lowriders, or “lo-lo’s,” are definitely influential to street art and they are crafted so beautifully and with so much pride, I knew this was the obvious subject for me. I built my lo-lo out of a combination of liquid and powder acrylic and hard gel, painting it using gel-polish and acrylic paints. I chose to use the iconic “Gypsy Rose” 1964 Chevy Impala as my inspiration because it is not only a part of lowriders history; it’s now also part of American history. I knew I wanted to attach my lo-lo to a flat tip that was tagged with some graffiti. Graffiti or “tagging” is often displayed with a name or symbol of who you are or what you “rep.” So I thought it was only appropriate to tag Jan and CND! I also took some designs from another low-rider, La Katrina, as inspiration to decorate my street art inspired nail.
Sammi
Whilst looking through Jan’s Instagram account, I came across an image called “Red Bull” by John Neito. It is a strong and beautiful image of a colorful man with braids against a single color background and it really jumped out at me because my life as a nail tech revolves around color. I began by sculpting shapes out of brick with liquid and powder and sketched out my rough design using pencil. Everyone knows me as Sammi Sparkles, so I tagged the word “Sparkles” as my heading to give it an urban/street art feel. I added my own graffiti tag from my childhood, “Heat,” and also some custom NTNA ones. I included the wonderful new CND logo as a reference to the ever-changing times and homage to the industry’s constant evolution. During this competition, I have learnt so much about myself. I feel like I have grown immensely as an artist and a professional, my very own evolution. I used only gel-polish and a fine line brush to paint the design and details. I coated the base of the nail in black and finished it with a matte top coat while the art pieces and bricks were finished in a high gloss to create dimension and texture. The reason I chose vivid colors was not only because this is a street art challenge, but also because I see myself as fun, bubbly, and outgoing.
Congratulations to Liza Waitzman for winning her fourth consecutive Last Chance Design Lab challenge! Liza went up against Sammi Newell to show us street art-inspired nail art based on one of Jan’s favorite pieces. CND’s Jan Arnold chose the winner.
Jan said, “My vote this week is for Liza! She really tapped into my passion for Lowriders, which, as a San Diego girl, she understands the art form! Love this nail, its creativity, and total understanding of the culture. Nice job!”
This means Liza will move on to compete against the next eliminated contestant. Find out tomorrow who that will be.