Nail’d It Episode 2: Recap

Last week was the premiere of Oxygen’s newest high-fashion reality competition, and this week is Nail’d It Episode 2, where three more nail artists push their skills to the max and compete for fortune and finger fame.

Nail'd It Episode 2
Nail’d It Episode 2 contestants (from left) Thao, China and Temeka

Temeka, 30 from Orange CT.
Part-time medical professional.
“I breathe, eat, sleep, wake up to nails”
It seems like Temeka likes doing super-pointy nails.
She currently juggles two careers and is hoping to make her East-coast sensibility a full-time career.

Thao, 24 from Beauford, SC
Second generation nail tech.
“I know I’m going to win this because I do dope-ass nails.”
She also favors super-pointy nails but her painting techniques are amazing!
Her mom is also a nail tech, and Thao is hoping that a win will prove to her mom that she doesn’t have to be a doctor to be a success.

China, 27 from Ft. Lauderdale, FL
She calls herself the “Bling Queen”
China loves the pointy-point too, but her ‘s are all jewel crusted.
“The Bling Queen is going to bring everything I need to bring to win, I’m not going to play it safe. I’m going to give them everything I got, so they’d better be ready.”

 

If you don’t like the word “bling,” then Nail’d It is not the show for you. “Bling” is uttered at least once per minute. If you’re hearty and love to party, we could have the start of a pretty potent drinking game!

All three ladies will compete in two rounds of competition and at the end, one woman will win $10,000 and a spot in the finals. In the Nail’d It finals, the remaining contestants will compete for $100,000 and a cover of Nail It Magazine, a top magazine in the nail art industry. The second place finisher will compete in a consolation round later in the season.

The first round of competition is the Quick Dry Challenge where the artists create designs for real clients. They will have a scant 30 minutes to create designs for young professionals whose careers demand ultimate day-to-night looks. The winner of the challenge will earn a huge (but unnamed) advantage in the elimination round.

Thao is paired with Juliette, a marketing director who spends a lot of time scouting DJs and visiting clubs and lounges. She wants to be classy with a teeny bit of edge. She normally wears nude nails, but Thao present the idea of cheetah print, which Juliette loves.

China’s client is Melissa who works in music management. Melissa spends her evenings out in Hollywood scouting new musical talent and while she likes clean and simple designs, she also loves pops of neon. China wants to do a piano key nail to reflect her love of music and of course, bling it out.

Temeka has been paired with Val, a contemporary art dealer. Her clients are young and hip and she wants to impress them. She doesn’t want crazy colors and as she says to Temeka, “nothing like your nails.” Ouch!

30 minutes pass quickly, Thao creates designs with negative space where you use areas without polish to create dimension, but runs into time management issues. China’s client is chill and totally psyched by everything that’s happening to her. Temeka’s client is a nightmare who dropped a piece of nail bling and messed up another nail.

Their judges for this episode are Elaine Watson, head judge of the most prestigious nail art competition in the world and VP of Cuccio International, and nail artist to the stars, Tom Bachick.

Nail'd It Epsiode 2Temeka’s design is taupe, black, white with pops of teal. I hate the taupe color, it looks like baby poop. The color looks much better from far away and they subtly pops of teal are really eye-catching.  The judges notice that a few of Temeka’s rhinestones are off line, but in 30 minutes, it a lot of work.

Nail'd It Episode 2China’s design has lots of bling, but it looks like three nails have only nude nail polish and no nail art at all. I’m not a fan of the hot yellow, even though it’s totally on trend. The judges think she played it a bit safe, but like her designs. And the thrilled look on her client’s face is the only thing that matters; she is just so proud of how China’s designs look on her hands look.

Nail'd It Episode 2Thao’s design is subtle but classy. She used black and white and baby pink along with gold stones. It’s pretty and the judges like it but warn her to be careful with her control of the nail gel so the nails aren’t lumpy. (I have no clue what that means. BTW)

Temeka wins the quick dry challenge, and she is shocked and thrilled. The judges admires that Temeka dealt with her challenging client by giving the client what she wanted rather than what Temeka wanted.

China isn’t impressed with Temeka’s work and Thao feels like an underdog.

The elimination challenge is to create fantasy-style nail designs that are inspired by candy. The artists will have 6 hours to use real candy and 3D sculpted acrylic in their runway-ready designs. Temeka will find out her advantage mid-way through the challenge.

Nail'd It Episode 2Temeka isn’t feeling well, and is claiming that she has a migraine. The other contestants think she’s faking. I don’t know, they spend a lot of time breathing acrylic and polish; my head aches just thinking about it!

After 2 hours, Adrienne announces that the three contestants will be switching designs. Temeka gets to choose which nails she wants and assign the others. She chooses Thao’s nails, gives Thao the set that China had started and China gets reassigned the nails that Temeka had been working on (and when I say “Nails” I mean the two nails that Temeka had been working on). If it wasn’t such a time crunch, I’d say that China got a pretty blank slate. The 6 hours flies by and I have no clue what some of their nails are going to look like. Thao made a nail with a butt on it. China made a chocolate-covered nail that might look like a poop.

And I haven’t seen any models. Last episode, the models came in with 30 minutes left for application…

Nail'd it Episode 2During the break, Natalie Minerva presents a do-at-home nail tip for a speckled egg design.  This looks pretty easy to do, and would be adorable for spring.

On the judging runway, we see that the hand models are wearing Katy Perry-inspired candy fem-bot costumes.

Nail'd It Episode 2Temeka’s design is tasty. Her blue rock candy nail is my favorite. Temeka didn’t want her nails to be matchy-matchy, but the judges don’t like the eyeball from Thao’s original design on Temeka’s work — it doesn’t match Temeka’s theme. The judges like a cotton-candy nail that uses flocking powder. Adrienne loves the blue rock candy nail too, (because she’s smart like me.)

Nail'd It Episode 2China’s nails look gross and heavy to me. Her chocolate nail definitely looks poo-dipped. Adreinne calls that nail the “doo-doo” nail. “I know you think your nails look the S#!$, but you don’t want your nails to look like S#!$.” LOL, Adrienne, you’re awesome. The judges do find a few points that were a little messy and unfinished, but think China’s designs are cheerful and very colorful.

Naild It Epsiode 2Thao’s work is the most 3D of the bunch but her work doesn’t looks shiny. Her theme is “Eye Candy” and the judges are gaga for her candy syringe and like her ice cream cone, but they thing her nail backgrounds are blah.

Each of the three contestants put a very different twist on the theme of candy, whose design did they like? Thao was announced the winner and breaks down in tears. Thao feels like her career now has legitimacy. The judges give China second place and another opportunity to compete for a chance in the finals. Poor Temeka is out, but she knows this isn’t the end of her career.

Naild-It-Ep2-13So after 2 episodes, we have Classic and Thao in the finals. Next week, three new competitors will create nail art that is the bouquet for a bride’s wedding. That should be incredible, and incredibly fragile! There’s a huge difference between the delicate nature of a flower and the shiny chunkiness of a candy. Can acrylic be used to make flowers? We will see.

images © Oxygen Media / Lindsey Byrnes