Nail’d It Episode 3: Recap

Nail’d It Episode 3 is zooming onto Oxygen tonight. I have been waiting for this episode ever since I saw my first Nail’d It tease. One of the things that I love about this show is they don’t mess around; once the opening credits roll, they get right onto the contestant intros. So let’s follow their lead, dive in and get nail’d.

Kandi, age 23 from Long Beach, CA
Calls herself the “Nail Ninja”
“I’m a ninja because, they kill the nail game every single time.”
Has never done a nail competition, but at age 23 has worked for celebs and is the owner of her own salon. Kandi rocks candy-colored pink hair.

Winnie, age 30 from Vancouver, Canada
Calls herself “The Crazy Asian Nail Lady”
She’s new to Competitions, and if she hadn’t told me her age, I would have thought she was 18. She has a youthful face and her energy is wacky! She’s straight out of a sitcom.
“I don’t think I’m that popular yet … so maybe I’m the wild card”
“I’m going to bring the Winnie out.”

Ashley, age 27 from Ft. Lauderdale, FL
She’s a six-year competition veteran and claims that she sasn’t lost yet.
She’s a focused single mom and her priority is her young daughter.
“I have to win.”
Ashley’s hair is an awesome ombre that transitions from blue to pink and her bright blue eye shadow matches her hair. I can definitely imagine Demi Lovto loving this style!

Nail'd It Episode 3Quick Dry Challenge
This challenge fores the nail artists to create wearable designs for real clients. Adreinne Baillon comes out rocking a nude-looking leather dress. It’s hot.

“Your clients will take you on a spiritual journey. Each one of them has psychic abilities.” Can any of them foresee who is going to win? The artists have 2 hours co create nail art that is inspired by the client’s astrological sign. They must also incorporate Magnetic Gel Polish, which I have never heard of, but allegedly magnetic fibers (?) in the gel can be manipulated by a magnet to create cool designs. Once again, the winner of the Quick Dry Challenge will get a big advantage in the Elimination Challenge.

Winnie is paired with Pisces Elizabeth, an energy healer. Since Pisces is a water sign, Winnie wants to use water-like flowing lines, blue colors and put moons on Elizabeth’s thumbs.

Pink-haired Kandi is paired with Kapua, a crystal healer who is a fiery Leo. Kandi is into zodiac signs and is an Aries and since Aries and Leos get along well together, they are vibing each other. Kandi wants to do red and gold to play off of Kapua’s fire sign.

Ashley is paired with Dalila, who is a fairy card reader/healer and a Libra. She can channel fairies and angels and loves magic (M’kay.) Dalila likes green and blue, but finds herself wearing a lot of pink and sparkles. Since she’s a Libra, Ashley wants Dalia’s hands to be perfectly-balanced mirror images, which is gonna be tough in only 2 hours.

Everyone is having a difficult time with the magnetic polish; it’s not making the fantastic swirls that it’s supposed to. Of course 2 hours flies by in a blink of TV editing. Kandi is done 20 minutes before the challenge is over, so while her competition struggles to finish, she takes this time to chat with her client, sip water and talk smack.

Returning s judges today are Elaine Watson, head judge of the biggest nail competition in the world, and Tom Bachik, nail artist to the stars.

Nail'd it Episode 3 Winnie is up first for her critique.
She made her client’s nails blue with hand-painted fish on several of them. The fish are shaky and messy and the judges warn her to work clean and focus on making uniform lines. Winnie used gold polish over caviar beads to create the astrological sign for Pisces. It is really cute and looks like stamped metal and her client said she’d love all of her fingers to look like that.

Nail'd it, Epsiode 3Ashley’s nails look like fairy wings on a blue background. It’s really lovely and balanced. You can tell that this isn’t the first time that Ashley has used magnetic nail polish, because Tom talks about some of the pitfalls that Ashley avoided. The judges would have likes Ashley to push herself creatively, but her client is thrilled. It doesn’t seem like a literal translation of a zodiac sign but I think there are only a small number of clients who want such literal art on their hands.

Nail'd It Episode 3Kandi painted beautiful nail art of a lion head and a lion’s paw, but her freehand-drawn crystal looks terrible. I’m not a fan of gold and red, it just looks out-dates to me, even though it’s what her client wanted. Kandi really struggled with the magnetic nail polish, but Kandi feels really confident in her art.

The judges choose Ashley as the winner of the Quick Dry Challenge and she starts to cry. Ashley’s motivation is her young daughter and I think she’s already making plans for the $10,000 prize. But hold your horses sister, you aren’t done yet!

This week’s Elimination Challenge is to create fantasy nails that when held together, look like a bride’s bouquet. The show has been teasing images of this episode since the summer, and I have been totally dying to watch this episode. Who doesn’t love weddings! Of course, this is totally fantasy and would most likely never be worn boy a bride, but I’ve been mentally imagining how I would do this (which is hilarious, because I can barely paint my nails! This week I have vinyl wraps on my hands, and I did not do a great job. But, a girl can dream, right?) Ashley will find out her advantage later in the challenge.

Winnie is thinking tulips and roses, Ashley is hoping to make her bouquet of stargazer lilies, orchids and roses, and Kandi wants to make roses for her grandmother, a sunflower for her grandfather and a lily for her mother. I hope it’s not a true-to size sunflower, because that would looks ridiculous!

Kandi is a fast worker and is hoping her strategic and methodic work will put her on top.
Ashley is working in white acrylic and will then paint everything once her masterpiece is built.

Nail'd It Episode 3
Judge Tom Bachik sneaks a peek at Ashely’s work

At the halfway point, Adrienne comes into the workroom and has the women stop. It’s time to reveal Ashley’s Quick Dry prize … she has the power to make one of her competitors sit out of the competition for 30 minutes. Ashley is no dummy, she tells Kandi, her biggest competitor, to take a load off. Kandi doesn’t care, “30 minutes is like a hundred dollars to a millionaire.” And for the next 30 minutes, Kandi tries to annoy Ashley by dancing around the workroom, spinning, bowing, and just acting like a five year-old. It’s so annoying and so hilarious.

As they artists start putting their designs on their models, it looks like handfuls of hot mess rather than bouquets of flowers. I guess I was imagining a model walking down a runway who lifts her hands into an amazing position and, gasp! Her hands are now her flowers! This isn’t the case, The models’ hands will be static. Beautiful, but non-moving.

Jenny Fox’s nail tip is a marble technique that look simple. All you need is three colors of nail polish and a plastic bag. (You can watch the short clip here) Of course, if I was doing it I would have marbled hands as well as marbled nails.

Nail'd It, Episode 3Here come the nails… they better not be pale!
At the judging panel, the models have been transformed into beautiful brides. Of course they look lovely, but the real showstoppers are their hands!

How did the models keep on those flimsy finger flowers while getting into a wedding gown? Getting into a gown can be a bit of a challenge. Kandi and Winnie also tied ribbons around their model’s hands … what if they had to do potty? Props to the models this week!

Nail'd It Epsiode 3Ashley’s work is up first on the runway and looks incredible. Unlike the other girls, she put multiple blooms per finger so her bouquet has more than 10 flowers. Her model is also holding her hands the most naturally of the three models (although none of the artists seemed to think of a natural hand position for her model) Ashley’s color palate of pink and purple looks gorgeous,  and it’s incredible that she built each flower as a white bloom and then painted each one! The Stargazer lily on the top is magnificent and the judges even like some of the smaller, filler flowers that Ashely created. I really like that Ashely created her designs on wire and then wrapped the wires with floral tape.  It’s allows each stem to feel light and give some motion to her bouquet. The way that her flowers cascade reminds me of real bridal bouquets I’ve seen.

Nail'd It Epsiode 3Winnie’s model is up next.
Her flowers are much shorter and closer to her model’s hands. Her flowers are white roses, blue orchids, clear butterflies and green twirly things sticking out of the bouquet. The way Winnie’s model has to hold her hands looks as if he is holding a water balloon in her hands and was afraid of popping it with her nails. The clear butterflies are charming it looks like they have simply landed on the model’s hands. I’m not sure of she fabricated them of found butterflies in the supplies in the work room, but I’m sure lots of brides would love to have that pop of whimsy in their bouquets. The judges love the shape of Winnie’s creation, the tight, round shape looks very modern. Winnie used hot glue to hold her flowers together, which is effective, but shady. (This is how I hold most things together in my house. I love my glue gun!)

Nail'd It Epsiode 3Kandi shows her stuff last.
Her wedding bouquet looks sparse but extremely colorful. It reminds me of a free-spirited bride who would simply walk into a florist and choose whatever flowers struck her fancy. Kandi’s flowers (especially her roses) look so lifelike that I can only imaging that they would have a scent. And I think the sheet leaves that Kandi made really show what a talented fabricator she is.  She knows a lot of techniques for working with acrylic. She tried to hide the point where her flowers meet her model’s nails by covering them with a ribbon, but once removed, it’s obvious that she could have been a little neater. And her poor model had to hold her hands in a position that was akin to praying, which could not have been comfortable.

Each artist presented something totally different and the judges have a tough decision to make. Only one artist will win $10,000 and a guaranteed spot in the finals. For the third place artist, her journey ends here. And the second place finisher will compete again in a consolation round. Thankfully, the producers of Nail’d It are merciful and we don’t have to wait long.

Winnie is eliminated first, but she is undeterred — her career will go on. She and her voice are so baby cute!

Ashley is tonight’s winner! For someone who has just won $10,000, Ashley isn’t as pumped as I would be. I wanna see some whoo-hooing or at least boo-hooing. But I’m a fan of being loud, which is why I found Kandi’s antics during her time out so entertaining. Kandi as tonight’s runner-up, will compete later in the season.

Next week Nail’d It will have its first male competitor.