How to prepare for a nail competition
By Scratch Staff | 23 January 2019 | Expert Advice, Feature
Industry veteran and seasoned nail judge, Catherine Wong, serves up reasons why you should compete – and how to prepare for a nail competition…
“Competing pushes you out of your comfort zone and tests your limits. It makes you a better nail tech over time and earns you the achievements of your nail career.
“Take at least one competition class, get mentoring from a champion competitor and read the rules. Look at past winning works so you know what kind of standard is expected. Hand models are so important, it will be good to have at least two hand models to practice on if you can. Prep your hand model at least one month prior to competing to strengthen their cuticle area. Push back cuticles and provide complete cuticle and hand care on a daily basis.
Tip: I would totally do a deep manicure on my hand models days or weeks in advance.
“It’s often difficult and costly to bring your own hand model to every competition, however, serious and champion competitors always bring their own hand model for a very good reason.
“Hand models should have a consistent nail bed of at least 1.4cm especially on the index, middle and ring finger. After pushing back the cuticles, they will be at least 1.5-1.6cm. The skin should be free of cuts, even skin tone and smooth. Ideally, models should have long slender fingers, but it’s more important to find consistently long nail beds. Train your models well, treat them with care as you want them to have a good rapport with you. Good models will save you all the stress as they know how to place their hands and co-operate with you while you’re competing.
“List down your timeline from preparation, form fitting, application, filing, polishing to finishing and cleaning and stick to the time frame. Make use of all the time given in the competition, do not waste it on finishing early.”
What not to do…
“I can only say that you must finish! No matter what happens in the process of the competition, in order to get placed, you must finish.
“Sometimes, you run out of time, or you mess up something, and if you still get your nails finished to a high shine, there is still a chance to be placed. You may get some points deducted here and there, but when you do not finish your set of nails, no matter how beautiful your structure may be, an unfinished set of nails will not be placed.”