Lockdown: the advent of online nail competitions
By Chloe Randall | 24 March 2021 | Feature
Nail competitions have been growing steadily in popularity for some years now with the likes of Nailympia London attracting many nail pros from around the globe to its arena every autumn.
The onset of national lockdowns across the globe and heavy restrictions on travel have meant that 2020 did not see any live competitions, but instead saw the emergence of the online nail competition.
A quick response to the pandemic saw localised competitions arise in Greece, Egypt, Poland and Russia to name a few, in the first half of the year. Nailympia, not so swift to respond, did not enter the online area until October 2020.
Alex Fox, global director explains, “It was a really difficult year to navigate in terms of understanding what the direction of the pandemic would be. Back in May 2020 it did not occur to me that the UK would not be open all hours in the following October. I lived in a belief that Nailympia London would go ahead as planned. By July, I realised this may not be the case and so started really looking closely at offering an online version of the competition. I’d been invited by a few organisations to judge, and so was aware of what was being offered.”
“Always steering Nailympia in its own lane, I devised a completely different online competition to what Nailympia live arenas offer as well as all the other online competitions.
This began by creating a unique judging and scoring system that could be bolted into the current website, as well as formulating an entirely new division for veterans and generally making Nailympia as sexy online as it is in real life.”
“I’ve been astounded at the take-up of this first edition. It has proved extremely popular and its message has gone far and wide with many techs signing up that are new to this brand of competition. I’m so pleased that I went down this route, as it gave me a project to really sink my teeth into as well as inspiring nail artists to express themselves during a time of much uncertainty. We all need motivation and a mission.”
For the full Nailympia Online winners list, click here