Nailympia & Premiere strengthen partnership for 2023 with 4 USA locations

 Nailympia Competitions, the globally renowned competition organisation for nail professionals, is expanding into three further locations for 2023, owing to a strengthened partnership with Informa Markets.

The success of the Nailympia Orlando 2019 and 2022 editions will see Nailympia Competitions at beauty exhibitions in the following locations, in line with the Premiere group’s growth across the USA:

Nailympia Anaheim 2-3 April

Nailympia Orlando 4-5 June

Nailympia San Antonio 1-2 October

Nailympia Columbus 8-9 October

 

This expansion comes at an exciting time, since Informa Markets announced earlier this year that it has partnered with the BolognaFiere Group and the Professional Beauty Association to deliver a landmark joint venture, promising an impressive series of beauty events in the US beauty market.

Nailympia Competitions will be hosted in seven locations for 2023; London, UK; Mexico City, Mexico; Düsseldorf, Germany, and Anaheim CA, Orlando FL, San Antonio TX and Columbus OH in the USA, in partnership with the world’s leading nail magazine, Scratch.

Each competition location will offer six live competitions on the show floor:

UV/LED Gel Tip & Overlay, L&P Acrylic Sculpture (with Perfect Match), The Joy of Nails, Stiletto Nails, Salon Nails & Reality Nails.

There will be four turn-in categories, comprising Flat Art, Runway Nails, Invent A Nail Shape and Extreme Nails Styling poster. All turn-in categories will have a theme that will be announced before each event and Reality Nails will be themed on the floor during the competition brief.

Click here for rules, regulations, address for postal entries, email for sending in jpeg for Extreme Poster Styling, deadlines & themes for Nailympia Anaheim. https://www.nailympia.com/anaheim/rules-regs/

Meet – Gemma Lambert-Lewis – UK

Get to Know a Nailympia Expert…

NAME: Gemma Lambert-Lewis

Business name: Nail Team Ltd

Location: Doncaster, Tamworth & Preston

Nationality: British

Who Trained You: So many: Antony Buckley, Trang Nguyen, Catharine Wong, Viv Clement-Simmonds, Barbara Ujvari, Kristina Ujavri, Agnes Sebestyen, Krisztina Kalmar, Gabriella Kovacs and more.

Years in Nails: 24 years

Years Judging: 15 years

Nail Brand You Represent/Use: Nail Team, Gems Nail Systems, Perfect Nails.

Role in Industry: Product owner, international educator & judge, product distributer & nail artist

Favourite Trade Exhibition: Olympia Beauty UK

Favourite Nail Tool: Gems airbrush

Favourite Book: Sorry – 50 shades of Grey – lol

Favourite Movie: Pursuit of Happiness

Favourite Food: Salad

Favourite Vacation Destination: Canada

 

Your Hobbies: I don’t really get time for hobies, so I guess it’s spending time with my family

What Inspires Your Work: Everything from clothes, nature, packaging and fashion

Who You Admire In Industry: Barbara Ujvari and Krisztina Kalmar, as their art is just amazing

Top Technique You’ve Mastered: One stroke nail art

 

 

Advice to Competitors: Speak to the judges after the comp, their feedback is priceless

Hot Tip or Trick for Competitors:  Structure is more important than art, so concentrate on getting that perfected, as it gains more points.

What Lockdown Has Taught You: To be ready to change with the times

A Funny Memory From Your Nail Desk: The two that really stick in my mind are, my husband, who worked in the taxi rank behind my shop, walked into a full busy salon and asked me out on a date, bless him. And my son who is now 21, making aeroplanes out of manicure brushes.

 

An Affirmation You Love: Practice will never make perfect, but it will improve and give you better results. I also love, ‘never try to run before you walk’.

Why Nailympia: It’s the most widely recognised, international competition, with the highest standards of judges and the most organised scoring system. Plus, I love Alex to bits and love working with her.

Any Workshops/Classes you Offer Online: I offer over 75 courses online at www.thenailteam.com

 

Instagram: @the.nail.team

Facebook: the nail team

TikTok: the.nail.team

 

Meet – Milena Mingozzi – Italy

Get to Know a Nailympia Expert in 23 Steps… 

NAME: Milena Mingozzi

Business name: I’m ROXY

Location: Italy

Nationality: Italian

Who Trained You: I attended my basic preparation and nail art courses with the greatest nail artists in the world: Malsaeva, Shanskaya, Sacripante, Bonvicini, Trang Nguyen, Khabelkaeva … and many others.

Years in Nails: 31 years

Years Judging: 5 years

Nail Brand You Represent/Use: I’m Roxy

Role in Industry: Master nail art educator, competition coach & mentor

 

Favourite Trade Exhibition: Cosmoprof Bologna

Favourite Nail Tool: Sculpting brush and my L&P acrylic powder system

Favourite Book: Divine Comedy

Favourite Movie: Pride & Prejudice

Favourite Food: Fish & chips

Favourite Vacation Destination: When with family – everywhere

Your Hobbies: Model making, doing puzzles, embroidery & gardening

 

What Inspires Your Work: The world around me, nature, colours & the wind.

Who You Admire In Industry: Alex Fox, Malsaeva, Khabelkaeva, Bonvicini.

Top Technique You’ve Mastered: Nail & 3D sculpture

Hot Tip or Trick for Competitors: Always believe in it and never give up. Participate in competitions, always observe other’s at work, because with your eyes you can steal the secrets of the trade.

A memory from the nail desk: A client, a long time ago, asked if she could move the nail extensions back and forth every day!

An Affirmation You Love: Always love never hate.

Why Nailympia: It has always been the most important nail competition circuit in Europe. It’s the one which the whole nail world watches, and which many have used as an example and benchmark when organising their own national events.

Instagram: Milena.Mingozzi

Facebook: Milena Mingozzi

 

 

Meet – Jeanette Ulriksen – Denmark

Get to Know a Nailympia Expert in 23 Steps…

NAME: Jeanette Ulriksen

Business name: Nails Beauty and Wellness

Location: Denmark

Nationality: Danish

Who Trained You: Catherine Wong, Steffi Fowler, David Fowler, Trang Nguyen

Years in Nails: 17 years

Years Judging: 7 years

Nail Brand You Represent/Use: Urban Nails, Astonishing

Role in Industry: Distributor, Master Educator

Favourite Trade Exhibition: Olympia Beauty, London, UK

Favourite Nail Tool: My acrylic brush

Favourite Book: The Da Vinci Code

Favourite Movie: Pretty Woman, Outlander (the series)

Favourite Food: Chocolate 😀 / Italian pasta

Favourite Vacation Destination: Spain

Your Hobbies: Painting, singing, being in nature, skiing, playing games with my family.

What Inspires Your Work: Colours, music, pictures on the internet, out in nature.

Who You Admire In Industry: Catherine Wong, Steffi Fowler, David Fowler, Pham Hung Tony

Top Techniques You’ve Mastered: Fantasy 3D nail art, Extreme Shapes

Jeanette Ulriksen with Alex Fox

 

Hot Tip or Trick for Competitors: Bring baby wipes to remove dust.

What Lockdown Has Taught You: To see the positive in things even though everything looks bad.

A Funny Day/Memory At The Nail Desk: Gluing myself to the customer while adding Swarovski crystals

Always positive

Why Nailympia: I love the competitions and the mood. We are serious judges, but we can still have a laugh. The variety of the competitors. All the brands that attend the show.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nails_beauty_and_wellness/

Twitter:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nailsbeautywellness/

 

Nailympia Div 4 champion 2021 launches online learning option

Champion nail tech and artist, Olena Oezman has launched an online nail academy. Utilising her time efficiently during the pandemic, Olena focused on creating a portal of nail education, in order to further her reach as an international nail tutor and trainer.

And the timing is excellent, since taking part in the first edition of Nailympia Online, Olena was presented at its awards ceremony on 15 March 2021 1x gold, 2 x silver and 1 x bronze medals as well as they Division 4 VIP 5-Shape Challenge trophy.

Acting as mentor and teacher to multi-award winning UK medalist and nail artist, Mino Vo, Olena is cited as a great beacon of knowledge and inspiration. Talking after his success winning three of the eight Nailympia Online trophies, Mino says, “When competing, it’s not just about who is the best in structure or the best in art. You need to read the rules, this is your best friend. For you to be successful there are many points to consider and a big area you need to focus on the cleanliness of your work, your surface and cuticles.” Mino then goes on to share his success comes a direct result of what he learned on Olena’s course. “I took the Olena Özman combined manicure online class and can honestly say, I can now make clean cuticles confidently. This course covers every single thing you can imagine. Every skin type, every tool. And the quality I can promise you is the best.”

Showcasing an image of  his nail work, Mino reveals, “This picture has not had a single edit or any photoshop work done, I didn’t even change any light settings. It is purely a manicure born from skills learned on Olena’s class.”
Currently there is a code on offer if signing up for Olena’s classes – use the word – MINO for an extra 10% off.
After 14 years working as a nail professional Olena decided it was time to pass on her experience and nail knowledge. Creating a website for nail education, Olena promises structured learning with videos that will not only dramatically elevate your nail skills, abut also provide a clear understanding, afford a new freedom, raise self-confidence, the respect you are shown and ultimately widen your choices in the field of nails.
Olena cites her success is down to, “My secret to success is hard work, continuous learning, my passion for nails and always doing the best I can.” Olena advocates pushing oneself and coming our of your comfort zone to take on the challenges that appear – reflecting that only by doing this can one step up their game. And, by golly, the results speak for themselves since not only is Olena successfully reaping the rewards through winning medals and trophies, but her students are also taking centre stage.

Meet – Catherine Wong- Singapore

Get to Know a Nailympia Expert in 25 Steps…

NAME: Catherine Wong

Business name: NailQueen

Location: Singapore

Nationality: Malaysian, living as a permanent resident in Singapore for the last 30 years

 

Who Trained You: When I first started using the acrylic system in the 90’s, I trained with EZFlow products, hence I had the opportunity to learn from Danny Haile, Alisha Rimando and Antony Buckley.

I then went on to train with Tom Holcomb and Tom Bachik specifically in French sculptured nails when they launched the Entity.

Enfu Oh, founder of NFU coloured acrylic systems was my educator when I fell in love with coloured powders and 3D nail art.

Trang Nguyen mentored me for competition, helped me understand the nail business and with building a great competition and education team in South East Asia.

Anna Lajourdie, who was training for Akzentz when I first started distributing at the time, was a huge inspiration to me in perfecting my salon style French gel application. In my journey as a nail professional, I’ve attended countless classes with various educators internationally. There weren’t any online classes back then and so I invested a lot in travel or to fly them out to me!

Years in Nails: 24 years (2021 inclusive, however I stopped nail as a full-time career in 2015)

Years Judging: 11 years

Nail Brand You Use: EzFlow, Entity, Akzentz, NfuOh, ONS, EMI

Role in Industry: Freelance educator now. I was previously a distributor up until 2015

Favourite Trade Exhibitions: Beauty World Japan, SINAIL Korea, CIBE Guangzhou, Beauty Dusseldorf , just to name a few

Favourite Nail Tool: Nail Art Brushes

Favourite Book: The Art of Living by Epictetus

Some of my favourite quotes from the book:

 

  • ‘The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best’

 

  • ‘First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do’

 

  • ‘There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things, which are beyond the power or our will’

 

Favourite Movie: The Godfather

Favourite Food: Korean BBQ

Favourite Vacation Destination: Bali

Your Hobbies: Nail art, cake decorating, flower arrangement, fine dining, travelling

 

What Inspires Your Work: Art & fashion

Who You Admire In Industry: Alisha Rimando, Viv Simmonds, Gina Silvestro, Lilija

Michalikova, Marina Shyvtsova, David & Stephanie Fowler

Top Technique You’ve Mastered: Design sculptured nails, mixed media & fantasy, hand painted nail art

 

Advice to Competitors: Read and understand the rules. When practising, use the judging criteria as a checklist to go through your work and ask yourself how you would score your own work, so you know what to look out for when attempting to make improvements. If you’re competing for the first time, then you may want to find a mentor or attend a specific class where you can get the right guidance. Nothing valuable in this world is free of charge, so don’t expect good training to come free. Your career is an investment, so invest wisely. Research and find a suitable mentor for your specific needs.

Hot Tip or Trick for Competitors: Find a great hand model! Beautiful hands and nail beds are halfway to a set of winning nails. Make sure that your model understands what is required of her (discuss the do’s and don’ts), feed her well before the competition and keep her warm and comfortable so you can work peacefully.

Always bring a table lamp (if it’s not provided at the venue ) and check the voltage so you carry a converter suitable for the country you are competing in. (100-120V for USA, 220-240V for Europe and Asia)

Arrive at the venue early and choose a table that’s not directly where the wind is blowing, otherwise you will be in the receiving end of all the filing dust when everyone starts filing

 

What Lockdown Has Taught You: Be the change. Don’t wait for things to change, but change yourself to adapt so you don’t get left behind.

 

A Funny Day/Memory At The Nail Desk: Working on a fellow nail educator’s nails while they’re sleeping is a norm before a beauty or training event. I used to fly to the USA & Mexico for beauty shows and training events. A few of us from different countries would end up sharing an apartment. We would fix each other’s nails late into the night, so the one getting the nails done would always be sleeping to the point of snoring.

 

Another funny incident: It’s quite typical for nail artists to hold another nail artist’s hands to admire her latest nail designs. I remember picking up Gina Silvestro’s hands to do just that in a posh steak restaurant at the Treasure Island in Las Vegas and the waiter gave us both a dirty look!

 

An Affirmation You Love: Carpe Diem

Why Nailympia: Nailympia is a global competition that draws a lot of good quality competitors, which are not only highly skilled but also very driven to excel. The judging team of multi-talented and highly experienced judges makes judging such a breeze and fun to work with. Personally, whenever I’m judging at Nailympia London in particular, I learn a lot even as a judge and get inspired to pick up my nail brushes to play when I get home.

Instagram: @catherinewongnailqnailart

Facebook: Catherine Wong