For this week’s Last Chance Design Lab challenge sponsored by CND, Kristen Hartley and Jodie Rahaley are battling 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.

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.

For this Challenge, Kristen and Jodie were given these instructions:

CND Last Chance #4: Harajuku Punk

A shattered chandelier is never pretty, but broken glass can be used to create beautiful artwork, such as a mosaic. For this challenge, we want to see a colorful mosaic nail design on a single nail tip, using Shellac and Vinylux ONLY (hand painted nail art only). 

Kristen:

For this Last Chance Lab, we were asked to paint a colorful mosaic nail design on a single nail tip, using Shellac and Vinylux ONLY (hand painted nail art only).
I chose to paint an “Ode to CND Mosaic.”
These CND products have brought us all together and started this competition.
Shellac is my main focal point because it was the first product I used that really got me into nail art. It is really versatile, creating a lovely solid color but also being a great product to create all sorts of art.
I chose to paint a hand, holding the Shellac. According to Aristotle, the hand is the “tool of tools.” I am very blessed to have the hands that I do. They bring my visions to life in the art that I create. I also painted the nails with “wildfire” shellac, because that was the colour I wore on my wedding day! Shellac will always have a special place in my heart!
I added a bottle of Vinylux which is a super long lasting, quick drying nail polish. I have gravitated away from regular polish, but when I do use it, Vinylux is my go- to polish.
Brisa gel is the first gel product I ever used in a salon setting. It is the product that started my career and helped it blossom into what it is now.
Plexi gel is a new product that I am learning to use and love. It is strong and crystal clear which is important for lots of nail designs!
I have only recently starting using liquid and powder and it has quickly become a staple in my salon. The retention powder is very easy to use, and very strong which keep my clients happy!
Last but not least, the future forms are my new favourite forms. They are flexible but hold their shape well. It also is easily customizable but has a great built in shape that is very universal which makes customization quick and painless.
CND does a lot of art in threes. To represent this, I chose to have three shades of colour in each of my product circles. Tiny shards of broken glass, put back together to form one, beautiful and cohesive reflection of light.
Anything can be turned into art. Something can seem broken, and with some imagination and a little creativity, the broken pieces can be turned into something beautiful once again! I hope you like my mosaic as much as I do and that I can earn another chance to show you what I can create next week!

Jodie:

For the last chance design lab this week, Our challenge was to create colorful mosaic nail art. All hand painted using only Shellac and Vinylux. Mosaic art is created using broken pieces or tiny objects such as glass, tile, or stone to form a picture or object. Usually these pieces can be square, round or randomly shaped.

My inspiration for this nail was all of the beautiful sunsets I’ve witnessed in my life. My favorite place to be is at the beach or somewhere overlooking the water. The colors of those sunsets are truly breathtaking.

I started this nail by drawing in my design with pencil. I used Vinylux in shades of blues, yellows, and oranges to create the foundation of my design. Filling in all the little squares and broken triangle shapes. Once dried I applied a thin coat of Shellac original topcoat. Now I went in and really defined all those broken pieces. Using Shellac in black pool, I decided to keep this part raw looking by not making perfectly straight lines to reflect that the pieces are broken.

Once cured I added Shellac to only about half of the tiny shapes in slightly different shades but similar. Just to give the piece a little bit more variation in the color scheme. I also added a slight highlight in some of those pieces with a tiny bit of blended in Shellac cream puff. I went over all the black lines with Shellac matte topcoat as the material used in mosaic art to fill in those pieces is usually not a shiny material. Finally I went back in with Shellac original topcoat and filled in the tiny colorful pieces to define how the pieces shine. I hope you enjoy this nail as much as I did creating it and hopefully giving me another chance to showcase my work.

And the winner is… Kristen!

Jan Arnold had this to say about Kristen’s Last Chance nail:

Kristen, the ‘ODE to CND Mosaic’ is brilliant, beautifully written, and visually stimulating, showcasing dynamic color and design. Your intricate story telling is inspiring and emotionally moving and I’m just in awe of the artistry and magic you behold.  Always looking up and out, showing your heart and sharing your soul.  I so appreciate you.  Congratulations…you are the winner of this week’s Last Chance Challenge!!

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