Welcome to Nailandia: Who Won and Who’s Packing Up Their Brushes

Congratulations to Emily Nash who has been named the winner for the Nailandia Challenge. The judges loved taking this magical trip with you and thought you demonstrated wonderful imagination and skill.  Everyone wants to travel to your creative world!

Head judge Jan Arnold said, “You slayed the challenge! You went into a magical place in your imagination and lived it for real and then took us there with you! I felt almost emotional going through this land with you because it is everything you said it is!! But you took it even further than I did, by naming the areas…I die over ‘black file panthers’, ‘glitter falls’, ‘nail lamp helicopter’ and I NEED the Jan Express-mobile! Thanks for listening to our advice on slowing the video down to teach impactful techniques…it really worked. Oh…two things: the supers in video are too large…reduce size and beef up the type face for easier reading. Tik Tok video is a smidge too extravagant for TT…maybe a shorter quick tip better for this format. Thanks for this magical journey Emily!”

Judge and Game Master Winnie Huang said, “Way to challenge yourself on creating 3D objects using Brisa and Plexigel! The monstera and the Black file panther nails are my favorite. SO creative! This is a world I’d want to live in! To push even further, I would

absolutely LOVE to see a little bit more refinement in some of the elements, ie the facial features of the panther, the Jan painting. Thank you for taking the judge’s comments on slowing down the video. Perhaps playing some crucial clips in real time would help! If you’re filming with your phone, try filming in 60 fps as I see some banding issues in a few of your clips?”

Judge and Producer Beth Livesay said, “Black file panther and lamp helicopter are very cute and innovative ideas! I love your own nails – the smiley face makes ME smile.

Nice use of Brisa and Plexi where L&P typically would have been favored. Watching you make Jan was so wonderful. I like that you slowed it down so we could get the feel of all that detail. The word centering tip is a good one! Your lettering is amazing! I enjoyed the waterfall creation, but more tips via VO or captions would have made it that much better. Overall, what a wondrous place you’ve created! Lots of imagination and skill went into this set!”

 Season 7 Champion Giselle Cabellero said, “Emily your concept and execution is spot on, defined mystical and magical, I love the way you created your 3D elements, lots of cool tips and tricks. I loved your helicopter lamp and considering it even had an opening like an actual lamp, I only wish we could have seen how you created that because we totally missed it. I’m curious as to why you didn’t make your bottles look like actual CND bottles? Your lettering and leaves especially are gorgeous, I’m a sucker for monstera plants and these are so well made especially against the leafy background! So refined as well as your 3D elements. I’d say as far as the TikTok  video goes, perhaps a quicker technique or more simplified video would have been a better approach? Tik tok is all about short trending videos and your technique got a bit too repetitive for this format but amazing insight into your creation nonetheless.”

Guest Judge Carly Snyr said, “Love the “tour of Nailandia” at the beginning of the video. Love the idea of a black file panther. The cross hatching greens for your grass is a thoughtful simple way of making something that looks more complex.  The use of your file to make the details in your leaves was kind of GENIUS! Appreciate the tip of how to shade the panther according to how light would hit it. Love the self confidence in announcing how cute of a hand you made, and it was cute!”

Read more about Emily’s winning entry here.

The nail artist who will be packing their paintbrushes this week is LaTara.

But this won’t be the last you hear from LaTara, as she will be going up against another finalist, Asia, who was the winner of this week’s CND’s Last Chance Design Lab. Good luck!