Anaheim
Nailympia 2025 locations revealed
The world-renowned Nailympia competition has officially announced its locations for the 2025 season, with the first event set to take place at the Premiere Anaheim trade show in Anaheim, California. Scheduled for February, this marks an exciting start to a year packed with talent, creativity and global participation in nail artistry.
As part of the esteemed Premiere Show Group, Nailympia Anaheim will attract nail technicians, artists and industry professionals from around the globe, offering a platform to showcase unparalleled skill and innovation. Nailympia continues to hold its place as the ultimate competition for nail professionals, celebrated for its non-biased judging system and commitment to fairness.
Nailympia’s Unique Approach to Competition
Nailympia has built its reputation as a competition free from brand influence, ensuring that skill and creativity are at the forefront of its judging criteria. It caters to all skill levels and its evolved judging system remains true to its founding principles:
- Blind Judging: All competitions are judged anonymously. Judges have no knowledge of the competitor whose work they are assessing, ensuring fairness and transparency.
- Unified Divisions: Competitors from all divisions are judged together based on merit, allowing for instances where a Division 1 competitor can outscore higher divisions.
- Skill-Centric: Nailympia evaluates competitors purely on their technical skills and artistic creativity, making it an open playing field for all participants, regardless of the brands or systems they use.
Expanding the 2025 Schedule
While six confirmed locations are already in place, Nailympia is exploring the possibility of adding a second event in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for 2025. This expansion aligns with the competition’s global mission of reaching new markets and providing opportunities for nail artists worldwide.
The Origins of Nailympia
Nailympia’s roots trace back to The Nail Olympics USA, a competition founded in 2001 in Las Vegas. Created by three organisations—IBD (run by Lee Tomlinson), Too Much Fun (Dianne D’Agnolo & James Johnson), and EZ Flow (David Daniel & Danny Haile) – its concept was revolutionary:
- Competitors could use any system or brand.
- Judging would be division-based and anonymous, ensuring fairness.
- Skill levels would determine divisions, with competitors ranked only after judging was complete.
This ethos laid the foundation for Nailympia, which was later introduced to London in 2005, with Alex Fox – then editor-in-chief of Scratch Magazine – serving as the global competition director.
Looking Ahead to 2025
As Nailympia prepares to dazzle audiences once again, it reaffirms its commitment to showcasing exceptional talent, fostering creativity and maintaining a fair and inclusive environment. Whether in Anaheim, Ho Chi Minh City, or its other global stops, Nailympia 2025 promises to be a thrilling year for competitors.
New rules & score sheets can be viewed on this website www.nailympia.de
Nail imagery for 2025 – with thanks to Elena Popova
Nails – Elena Popova @popovaelena_nfp
Photographer – Elena Gelberg @pena_litrova
Make-Up Artist – Varvara Tabutarova @varvara_tabu
Hair Stylist – Ksenia Golubeva @ksenja_golubeva
Model – Alina Philipskaya @alina__0606
1st AMERICAS CUP 2023: Katarzyna Kruszynska – Ireland
In the competing world, Katarzyna (Kate) Kruszynska has achieved the highest championship title in Ireland: ‘Irish National Nail Champion. She’s also a multiple award winner in nail styling championships’ all over the world. Recently, in the past year (2023), Kate has represented Ireland in Mexico, Germany, USA: Orlando, Texas and Ohio where overall she won 40 medals and trophies.
“This year I was honoured to achieve the Nailympia Americas Cup, The Nailympia Premiere Cup, Nailympia Art winner of winners and Individual Top Scorer awards. Also, the success of my business was recognised with the ‘Best Established Business’ award from the Local Enterprise Office in 2019.”
Born and raised in Poland, Katarzyna Kruszynska worked as a police officer in the Traffic Accident Department for a number of years, before deciding to follow her heart and move to Ireland.
In 2010 nails became her full-time job starting with a small nail table in the corner of her kitchen where she would find herself often in tears believing she wasn’t good enough.
However, with the support of her family and friends, Kate did do it and eventually opened a nail bar in 2015.
“I have been successfully running Beauty Vision Ltd and an accredited training centre and am the creator and owner of the Kohana Professional nail brand. Kohana is my brand of professional beauty products for nails, eyelashes and eyebrows. The name Kohana comes from many different places and is very unique. In the Japanese language it means ‘little flower’, but it has two more very personal meanings for me: I love Walt Disney productions, and in the movie Lilo & Stitch, I heard that: ‘ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten’, and from there the Kohana name was born. Using ‘K’ for Kate, and ‘Ohana’ for family. Together they make ‘Kohana’, for Kate’s family.
1st Nailympia Premiere Cup 2023
“The other very special meaning with Kohana is in the Polish language Kohana means ‘loved one’, and so I thought that this was just prefect for my brand name, because every person is loved and considered family.
“Behind the business, I’m a loving wife and a mother to three wonderful children. I am an animal lover, with two dogs and one cat at home. I love travelling and trying different foods, and I’m hugely passionate about a fit and healthy lifestyle.
“I’ve been sharing my work and knowledge on social media to help others for a while now and absolutely love this element of my work. I started posting on different social media platforms three years ago and since then I’ve reached over 60,000 followers. The content I share is all about nails, nail art and beauty as well as my business.
“To think that I’m sharing my creativity with so many is an amazing feeling and being able to meet other nail enthusiasts through the world of social media is exciting. I enjoy teaching people who are also passionate about this line of work through my courses and I pride myself on Kohana being a place where someone can learn new skills in a great atmosphere.
“I’m so thankful for the life this business has given me. Not everyone can say that they love their job, but I’m one of the lucky few who can.”