I chose to create the only original monument left standing from the Seven Wonders of the World: the Great Pyramids of Giza. I wanted my nails to have a wow factor so I created a huge elevated backdrop piece, which I wore on my knuckles, created entirely out of acrylic. I also wanted to highlight the different historical findings around the great pyramids. Materials such as limestone, dolomite, and granite were supposedly used to construct a tomb, and are in fact comparable to the exact materials we use to make electric wires. They also share the relationship with pressure and electro conductivity. This is where my giant pyramid piece comes in with glowing circuit boards to represent the electro magnetic conductivity that may have been generated by the pyramid.

I decided to focus my color scheme around the colors of the pyramids and the desert and the colors we all relate with Egypt like sand and gold. Since we weren’t able to use any extra embellishments I decided to make my own out of acrylic, pigment, and gel paint. I find this is a really convenient way to create embellishments that really coincide with the color schemes you are working with, whether it be on an extravagant competition piece or a set of salon nails.

Click here to watch a video diary for these nails. 

I’m not going to lie this was SUPER easy for me, because of course my absolute fave couple of all time is me and my husband – bet those that follow me already knew that though. Even writing this I am smiling from ear to ear with happiness. We are truly madly and deeply in love, so I wanted to create a dedicated locket full of love that is bursting at the seams with our very own love story. Represented within the locket you can see pictures of us and our family that represent significant times in our lives, and fire to represent the passion. 2010 is when we first met and this picture is one of the first of thousands of pictures and memories yet to follow. Fast forward to 2011 and we had moved in to our own 1 bedroom flat. In 2012 we welcomed our first baby boy into the world, Sonny Alexander Andrews, he was so perfect. In 2015 we got married on July 25th and welcomed to the world our beautiful princess Pixie Rose Andrews. In 2016 we bought our first house and we are now building an empire together. My Mr. Perfect makes me the happiest EVER and he is my absolute soul mate and best friend, my ride or die. So I thought it was only right to show our true love in this challenge. And just to throw in some extra cheese, it really is true, couples that SLAY together, STAY together. All of the pieces in my set are created using Tammy Taylor nail products. I hope your hearts are bursting with love just like mine.

Click here to watch a video diary for these nails. 

Let’s first start by asking the question: do you like you? What do you perceive yourself to be in a world that can be seemingly perfect. Do you perceive yourself as beautiful, strong, and brave. Or do you perceive yourself as insecure, anxious, and lonely. I wanted to create a set that shows the way we as individuals perceive ourselves to look, as we highlight our insecurities, lumps and bumps, and imperfections. I wanted to show that we in reality are imperfectly perfect. In reality I see you as beautiful. No matter what you look like, you are perfect. So let’s stop worrying and start living. I included the white hoops to represent the great lengths people go to to fit in; the amount of products we try, or surgeries and cosmetic procedures one will go through to look perfect. Don’t you want to be individual and unique? Or do you perceive beauty to be something that is so refined and flawless. Everyone is stunning no matter what their choices are, so let’s stop feeling ashamed or embarrassed about the way we look. I feel like society has a distorted perception of beauty and I wanted to portray that within a reveal set that shows the tables turning of how we as individuals perceive ourselves with our insecurities highlighted in color, and then the tip swiveling around to portray the reality that you are absolutely stunning NO MATTER WHAT. Believe in yourself because you’ve got this!

Click here to watch a video diary for these nails. 

For this challenge I really wanted to create an organic safari experience, almost as if you were looking through the jungle and trees to spot the animals. I kept the design busy so there was always another thing to spot or look for, almost as if you were on a safari yourself. I decided to use foil as the base for the heads because this gave me a base to work on. I sculpted and molded my animal’s heads around the foil and built them up that way. I then created the ears and features attaching them with the same colored acrylic so that I could make the pieces/designs look seamless and flow really well. The trick to doing this is to apply our acrylic quite wet and work to blend those beads extremely quick. I created a number of safari animals but also wanted to include some safari essentials such as the hat, binoculars and also an open top jeep for a spectacular safari ride. Most of my design is Mia Secret acrylic, but I used some acrylic paint to add slight details into my animal’s eyes and also to line the jeep and flamingo because these were just flat pieces so I wanted to make sure I added some definition. I really wanted my piece to have an organic feel about it so I hand-manipulated the leaves and the ears on my animals to make them appear more natural looking and less stiff. I absolutely love all types of nail application but I do have to admit that acrylic is my ultimate fave. I really loved this challenge.

Click here to watch a video diary for these nails. 

I decided to focus on the human mind and thoughts for this challenge, and the fact that our thoughts can sometimes blur our vision and fog our mind, stopping us from seeing clearly and seeing the bigger picture. In a world of “perfect beauty” and movie star lifestyles courtesy of YouTube and Instagram, we continuously doubt ourselves and begin to question who we are as individuals, sinking into deep thoughts that can spiral out of control if we aren’t careful. I wanted to create a piece that portrayed an odyssey of the mind, the stages of our thought process and to remind us that we are all beautiful, unique, and precious. Always try to see clearly through all of the fakeness that is thrown our way and your true PURE Beauty will prevail.

I decided to do a galaxy theme of stars in the base of the nail in the form of embedded glitters, flakes, and pigments. This galaxy was to represent our individuality, our uniqueness, like stars, no two people are the same. I faded that into a crystal clear glass tip to show the transition of having a clear mind and seeing clearly. Underneath I created an iceberg effect with encased silver holographic glitters to show that we can be plunged into deep thought and it’s not always about seeing clearly, there can be a lot more to it.

On the main feature nail in the center you can see layers of processes. Around the spike/iceberg there is a swirl, this is to represent our thoughts spiraling out of control. The small oval cabochon with an encapsulated star is to represent being in two minds as it’s a second layer to the nail. The large feature piece basking at the base of the nail is to represent chaos and also beauty all in one. Among a sea of stars and a galaxy of nebulas know that you are beautiful, you are valued, and you are unique. You can see clearly past anything as long as you take the time to focus and see what is true.

Click here to watch a video diary for Lorna’s nails.