NAILS Magazine's Next Top Nail Artist Top 24

Hey guys! Sooooo, I have some pretty exciting news to share! A few months ago I applied to compete in NAILS Magazine's Next Top Nail Artist contest. The craziest thing happened...I MADE IT!!!! I made it to the Top 24 and I could not be more excited.

How amazing is that? To see my name among some of the most talented nail artists in the business is truly surreal. I still can't believe this is happening. There are nail artists from all around the world competing. Seriously, pinch me!

We had our first pre-challenge this week. Our challenge was to create a set of hand painted nail art inspired by one of NAILS magazine's past covers. They began in 1983 so there were A LOT to choose from. In the end I went with the issue from March 2005.

There was just something about the chrome and red nails that I was drawn to. After a little investigating I found out the steering wheel belonged to a 1956 Chevy Bel Air and my ideas began rolling.

I am so proud of how it turned out. I love old cars so this was so fun for me. A 57 Chevy is actually one of my dream cars, it's just so cool!

The other entries are starting to roll in and they are so awesome. Did I mention these are some of the most talented nail artists in the WORLD? Yeah, no pressure there.

As part of the challenge we were to create a step-by-step tutorial as we went along and post it to the Nail Art Gallery by Nails Magazine. If you're interested you can check it out HERE.

We get the results of this challenge next week when 6 of the 24 will be cut from the competition. The Top 18 will then get their next challenge too. After that one they cut another 6 artists and they will have their top 12 and the REAL competition starts shortly after that and one person will be cut a week until they get down to the final 3 who will do their final competition in California.

I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for this opportunity. Of course I want to make it to the end but even if I get cut next week and don't go any further than this first week, this has been one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

This is just surreal! To think next month is my 4 year blog-iversary and it all started right here. This has been so crazy lol. Thank you so much to all of my loyal readers for following me on this journey. I never would have imagined doing nails would be my dream job!

Thanks so much for reading today and I hope you have a great week! I will be sure to update next week on the outcome of this week's challenge! XOXO