For the seventh Last Chance Challenge of the season Amberley Robinson and Kristen Hartley are going head-to-head to see who will stay 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.
CND Last Chance #7: Glowing Review
Choose your favorite CND product and create nail art on a single tip (using whatever mediums you’d like) to pay homage to this product. The CND item featured in your artwork MUST be used to create some aspect of your nail design. In your write-up make sure and explain why you love this product and how it was used to make your nail art.
Here are their entries:
Kristen:
CND has been a staple brand in our industry and in my own personal practice for many years. When I first started doing nails, Brisa Gel was my go-to. In my small town, we only have one beauty supply store, and lucky for me, CND products are always available. I appreciate the versatility of CND, and the clarity and strength of it leaves the competitors in the dust. It’s reliable, strong, quick drying and very malleable. All the things I need and rely on in order to provide the best product for my clients.
CND’s newest product, Plexigel, has been intriguing and a game changer. It’s a perfect balance between a hard gel and a polygel. The first gel polish I ever used was Shellac. It was very innovative and has stood the test of time. There is never a shortage of colors, making it perfect for solid overlays and intricate art.
To showcase CND, in all its glory, I sculpted this nail tip with Plexigel on a Futur Form. Plexigel is very simple to use, and soft to file, requiring little effort for that perfect shape. I used the CND Brilliant White powder and liquid to sculpt the 3D snake. The malleability and quick drying nature of CND’s liquid and powder make creating these 3D art forms so easy and seemingly effortless.
I used After Hours and Indio Frook shellac to paint the snake. The deep, rich pigment of these shades meant little effort to cover the sculpture. The background is also painted with Shellac, and accessorized with a 3D bottle of Shellac, to highlight my favorite product.
Amberley:
What is my favorite CND product? There are so many to choose from but I’d have to say my all time favorite product to work with is liquid and powder or as most know it as acrylic. I personally think you can’t have a solid set without the Retention +. I have been using this system since I began doing nails 6 years ago and have never looked back. This product is resilient and my clients can wear their nails up to 5 weeks without any lifting. Sculpting nails using forms is also a favorite of mine. I enjoy sculpting because it’s an art. You can create tiny masterpieces on nails simply by building the acrylic and filing perfectly to shape.
On this nail I created what would be the nail desk set up needed to do a set of acrylic nails. You need the liquid monomer (CNDs Retention +) to build the bottle use white acrylic building the thickness than filing with an e-file to shape. Polished the label using a mixture of CNDs shellac polish in the colors Blue Shadow , Boats and Bikinis, and Chance Taker. Painting in the lettering using Cream Puff and Black Pool. A must for building acrylic is polymer powder so of course I had to include a jar. I built layers of clear acrylic to make the jars for the powder and liquid and used the e-file to drill the center out. For the liquid effect I mixed clear gel and Artizan Bizarre. For the brush I dipped a needle into the monomer and then the polymer to encapsulate it for a smooth straight structure. I then sculpted a hand. Using the future forms I cut tiny pieces to create micro sized forms. To finish I added a lamp sculpted with clear acrylic and polished the top with Black Pool.
And the winner is…Amberley!
Here is what Jan Arnold had to say about Amberley’s nail:
“Amberley, your little nail table, and the CND Retention+ L&P system, not to mention the finished hand, was beautifully represented and just brilliant! I too am an L&P girl…never tire of seeing those perfectly created beads transforming a nail into a work of art. It’s incredible how accurate but so tiny this scupture is. Great job! Congratulations, you win this week!”
Tune in Friday to see who Amberley will be going up against next in the CND Last Chance Design Lab.