Time to Shine: The Top 2 and the Bottom 2

Challenge 8, sponsored by Swarovski, asked the Top 5 to create crystal nail art fit for a Swarovski 2021 trend report.
In alphabetical order, the Top 2 are:

Ally: The judges loved your gothic concept, complete with dark ombre nails and moving parts. Your shape work is always on-point! We think maybe longer nails or a smaller clock would’ve been ideal as a lot of the work is hidden behind the embellishments. Kudos to you for showing us your styled shot on video, we enjoyed seeing you capture that!

Stella: Another week, another engineered success! Your design allows the crystals to be the star of the show. Your styled shot could be an ad, it’s so good! One word of critique: watch the lower arches of the enhancement for consistency among all five nails. Well done!

The following artist can breathe again. She is in the middle of this week’s pack and is safe. Congratulations to:

Kadee: The judges agree that your crystal placement was precise! This week you pushed your design to create something moveable and different, which we also applaud you for. Again, watch your pacing in the video so the judges can process what you’re saying without hitting pause often. Your styled look is a bit too busy, with the reflective background taking away from the crystals. We worship your goddess though. Great job!

Unfortunately, there always has to be a bottom group. The bottom 2, in alphabetical order, are:

Giselle: Your vibrant design brought much needed brightness into our lives this week. The judges want to make sure you know that your videos show so much improvement, and we hope you are as proud of that as we are! We like your posing and your editorial background, but the index finger gets lost, so just be mindful of that. While the final design is beautiful, the judges don’t feel you used 50% crystals for the overall look.

Kelsey: The judges’ advice to you this week is simple and unanimous: your design elements were beautifully executed, you just need to refine them. We all agree your hand painting is absolutely exquisite, but more crystals would have helped this set meet the challenge guidelines. Scale your ambition back to make room for things like crystal placement and cleaner styling to knock this out of the park.