Nail’d It Episode 6 Recap: “A Diamond in the Rough”

Tonight on Nail’d It Episode 6, the final three contestants are competing for the final guaranteed spot in the finals and to have their work worn in rapper Diamond’s newest music video.

Nail'd It Episode 6 recap
Episode 6 contestands (from Left)

Jami
Age 34 from Syracuse, NY
She’s a multi-tasker because, “I’m a mom, a mermaid, a ninja.” She owns an edgy salon called NailBang, which looks graffiti-inspired. She also takes care of her ill father.

Amber
Age 34 from Tampa, Florida
This is her first competition, but don’t let her inexperience fool you; she came to win. She (and her T-shirt) proudly exclaim, “I love my hubby,” and I’m wondering, how did Amber get my shirt? She has three cutie-pie daughters and when her youngest was born with health issues, she left her salon and now works from home.

Julie
Age 21 from NYC
This shy introvert’s specialty is hand-painting. She’s hoping this competition will help her come out of her shy, little box.

Nail'd It Episode 6 RecapWhile Adrienne is talking about the show’s prizes, ($100,000 and a cover of Nail It Magazine, they showed a new(er) cover of Nail It magazine! It must be from summertime, because it’s so patriotic! But it’ll work for tonight too, since it’s Veteran’s Day (thanks Veterans for your service!)

Quick Dry Challenge
This week, the artists will be creating designs for biker chicks. (but not gross biker chicks, hot biker chicks.)

The artists have 60 minutes to create designs inspired by their client’s touch-as-nails biker personals. They have to use metal embellishments and can’t use hand-painted designs, which I’m assuming means they can only pain the nails a single color and work from there.

Amber’s client loves anything “over the top.” She likes crosses but nothing accult-like, like skulls. They have similar personalities so Amber is hoping to use her own tastes to influence the designs.

Nail'd It Episode 6 Recap Jami’s client has a charming British accent and she belies convention by being a feminine biker. She’s from a seaside village, so she loves ocean blues. She’s a little retro and she’d be too cute on a Vespa.

Julie’s client loves turquoise, hot pink and black. She loves spikes, whips and chains and seems like the kind of woman who is up for everything. Julie is totally nervous and her client does her best to talk her down. Amber’s client sees Julie’s nervousness and taunts her. I love a little taunting, but it would be better if it was the contestants talking smack, not the clients.

And hour is like the blink of an eye in the world of nail design and soon, Elaine Watson, head judge of the world’s biggest nail competition and VP at Cuccio international and Jan Arnold, co-founder and style director of CND, prance in as this week’s judges. (Based on the pics I got from Oxygen, it seems that the judges come out and check out the work while it’s going on, but they aren’t’ shown to us viewers until judging)  BTW- I love Jan’s sassy dress.

Nail'd It Episode 6 Recap
Jami’s Quick Dry

Jami’s nails have a pretty sea-inspired ombre with gold embellishments. The judges call her out for not mixing her metals because her client’s bike has chrome accents. Jami did herself a disservice by not explaining that her client requested gold.

Nail'd It Episode 6 Recap
Why is Jan taking Amber to task?

Amber used matte colors on her client’s nails to replicate leather. Some of the nails are unfinished looking, but her nail that is totally blinged out and the nail that has a cross are awesome.

Nail'd It Episode 6 Recap
Check out the ring fingers … hand painting = cheating!!!

But, I must point out that I’m pretty sure we saw her paint a dark color on top of the nail’s maroon color before adding her crystals. This is totally cheating in my book.

When the judges ask her what she thinks of the design. Amber’s client thinks her design is just “OK.” Amber’s client has revealed herself as a bitch, first she taunts Jami, then she disses her her artist (And I have a picture of her giving Jan major attitude face.). Is the giant biker chick show?!? No? Then bitch needs to step off!

Sorry, I went off there for a second. I’m back.

Nail'd It Episode 6 Recap
Julie’s Quick Dry

Julie used bright colors, lots of different metal styles and techniques to create her design. Her nails use a lot of chain and the judges love that she has chain falling off the end of one of the nails. I don’t think that it’s an application that is practical for my lifestyle, but Jan Says, “Julie, you are really quiet, but your nails speak volumes” she wins the Quick Dry challenge and will have an advantage in the elimination challenge.

Elimination Challenge

Don’t worry folks, I’ll have this week’s nail porn up tomorrow
For the elimination challenge, the artists will be creating a look for Diamond, a platinum-selling artist who also stars on Sisterhood of Hip Hop. They have 5 hours to create a look for Diamond’s alter ego, “Miss 32 Flavors” she wants chic, bright candy-colored nails.

After 3 hours, Adrienne stops the clock and announces Julie’s advantage. Julie gets to choose a nail from each of her competitors and throw it away. Julie takes Amber’s ice cream cone nail and Jami’s mermaid tail nail. I think both nails look terrible and just because both worked hard on them, doesn’t mean they did good work.

Elaine comes in and checks out the work of the artists. She says that Jami’s ice cream cone (What is with the literal interpretation of 32 Flavors, or is it Flavaz?) doesn’t make sense. Amber seems like she’s in a good place. We don’t get to see to much of her work, but I catch a glimpse of a fishnet nail, which is a look that I love.

Jami gets done early, so she tries getting into Julie’s head by hovering over her shoulder. Let the games(wo)manship begin! Shy Julie can’t stop herself from shaking; can she pull it together?

During the break, Natalie Minerva’s nail tutorial is a white tiger print that looks like it would require a steadier hand than I possess, even though the look is supposed to be imperfect. I’m not ambidextrous, so maybe I could get my artistic husband to paint for me, if I ever wanted to look like a white tiger.

It’s judgment time… Diamond joins Elaine, Jan and Adrienne on the judges’ stage.

Jami’s designs are presented first. She had a cool nail with a lot of crystals, and a hot 3D boom box, but overall, I felt underwhelmed. The judges like her boom box, but they call her ice cream nail juvenile.

Amber is up next. Her designs are brightly–colored and have a graffiti look that reminds me of old-school hip hop (like Will Smith’s Fresh Prince of Bel-Air opening credits) I think they’re fun and really well done. The judges love her nails, and applaud her for changing the shape of the nails by cutting out pieces and putting a hole in one. Jan says, “These nails are nasty, they’re tough, they’re provocative, they’re playful, they’re flirtatious.” That’s an incredible compliment.

Julie’s nails are colorful, but feel dark. The zipper design that she did on one of the nails is awesome, but I would have loved if she used a different color inside of the nail to show that the zipper is actually opening something. Julie picked up her color palate from Diamond’s colorful hair and makeup, but the conteast between her chic dark nails and her bright nails feels disjointed. The judges love her attention to detail on her hand-painted work. But they call her work, “flavorless.”

The judges deliberate, but in my opinion, Amber’s bright design is the tops and Julie should get another chance.

The judges partially agree with me; Amber’s fly designs are this week’s winners. She wins $10,000 and a spot in the finals. And in a shocker, the judges eliminate both Julie and Jami. Phew, those divas are tough! I think Jami’s lack of confidence really sunk her, because her work was good.

Next week, three of this season’s second place finishers will compete for a chance to join the finals. I can’t wait to see Candi again, who simply loves to mess with the minds of the other contestants.

Like Nail’d It? Find more recaps here!
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Adrienne Bailon talks Nail’d It on Qxygen