2nd Instructors Class in Kiev 2010

Inna Spivak, Viktoria Evtushenko, Oksana Perekodnik, Irina Ivchuk, Tatjana
Chernysheva, Natalja Garna, Viktoria Polyashenko, Iryna Giblett, Natalja Belousova,
Viktoria Nydosik (Master Artist Educator), Oksana Veremchuk, Natalja Dehtyarenko

Nail technicians from Ukraine and Russia attended the latest Instructors education at the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy in Kiev, Ukraine.

After five days of intensive education, each student undertook a comprehensive practical and theoretical examination that was judged by Iryna together with course leader and Master Artist Educator, Viktoria Nydosik (front row, second from right).

Everyone passed both examination with high marks, and they were delighted to receive their diploma's. After the award ceremony (which included the tradition of champagne and cake) the girls presented Iryna and Viktoria with gifts of flowers and chocolates!

The addition of these new Instructors brings the total number of schools within the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy to 31 schools in nine countries since January 2010.

Fantasy Forms

I love these forms! They are a new idea from Arabella and come in 10 nail sizes, with 20 in each packet. You can use them to create your own nail tips for mixed-media competitions - like you can see in the inset photo, or you can make small acrylic details on them in advance to add to a customers nails to save time.

The forms are made of some kind of plastic so the acrylic doesn't stick. You simply lift peel the created tip away from the form. I've had mine for about a year and they still work perfectly.

The price of the tips is $26.90 which includes worldwide postage. You can buy them from our little webshop at the link below:
http://imaginailtion-nail-art-magazine.com/webshop

Keep on practising....

Since we started Iryna Giblett Inc and developed our own professional nail products, Bob and I have been traveling so much that I've had to give up my salon work. I miss the clients, especially the customers who wanted nail art, but it all became too stressful trying to juggle everything.

Still I love making nails and I think it's important that I keep developing my skills, so other nail techs and our Educators see that I'm trying to lead by example and can understand why our products are the quality they are.

So the work above is my latest practice piece. It's mixed-media, with most of the figures created with acrylic and embedded. The external details are the tree, horses wing, girl and fairy's hair and the fairy's wing.

Some of the smallest details were painted with acrylic paint, but very little. The fairy and girls hair were made with our new InpirationZ metallic acrylic powders and as you can see in the photo, they've caught the light beautifully!

I'm already working on my next piece. But Shhhhh! Tell you more later!

Read more about our nail art products here:
http://www.irynagiblett.com/en/product-category/nail-art

ImagiNAILtion nail art magazine, latest issue.

It's out! ImagiNAILtion 3&4 is a 64-page double issue containing 23 nail art step-by-step tutorials from some of the best nail artists. Visit the website for more information:
http://imaginailtion-nail-art-magazine.com/

Nailympics 2010

Fantasy from the Japanese nail art seminar

The Olympia Beauty show took place last weekend and central stage was the annual Nailympics nail competition that is now in its 6th year. Nailympics is now one of the most important competitions in Europe as it attracts contestants from all over the world, but especially from the Japan, Korea, Russia, Italy and Sweden who regularly send competition teams.

This year the Korean team dominated many of the competitions, while contestants from Japan, Hungary and Sweden also collected many medals.

I was honored this year to be invited as one of the judges for the nail art competitions, so I was really excited to see the different entries in the nail embellishment, mixed media and fantasy competitions. I was not disappointed! The standard was very high and in mixed media alone there were 66 entries - the largest of any Nailympics competition.

Like when judging the salon nail competitions, all judging is done 'blind'. Each entry is given a number that each judge uses to identify each score sheet. Nailympics also takes one more step to ensure that no one judge can influence the results - each judge is given the task to only judge 3 or 4 categories (out of 10).

This year we had encouraged some our educators from Russia and Ukraine to enter in the mixed media competition. It was the first time that any Ukrainian nail tech had entered Nailympics! The advantage of this is that the boxed tips that they create can be sent by post, so the competitor doesn't have the cost of travel and hotels.

So it was a pleasant surprise to learn that one of our Educators, Tatiana Klester from Russia had won 1st place in Division 2 of the Mixed-Media competition. Tatiana’s entry that received 95 out of 100 points (!) can be seen below.


The 2010 Nailympics competition judges:

The audience waiting for the competition results:

The Olympia Beauty show:

Nail Shows and Competitions

If you would like us to add your competition or nail show to the calendar, please contact us.

Free nail art designs

In this issue of the Iryna Giblett product catalog we decided to include five nail art design tutorials.

Rather that have Iryna create all of these, we decided to promote some of our wonderful Educators and asked them to create the designs. We think you will love them!

The cover photo was created by our good friend and Global Educator for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy, Irina Zamostinchuk. Thanks Irina - stunning work as usual!

The catalog can be downloaded free from our website below:

http://www.irynagiblett.com/en/product-category/catalog

New Metallic Acrylic Colors

Coming soon! Iryna has created 2 new metallic color acrylic powder collections. The first collection is called InspirationZ Earth Metallics and the second is called the InspirationZ Vibrant Collection. There are 10 colors per collection, making a total of 20 new colors.

It's difficult to show the depth and brilliance of these colors on a computer screen. Or that they sparkle ;-) But even as a guy, I think these colors are fabulous!

The Metallics will be available at the end of August.

2010 ImagiNAILtion Cover Competiton winners

The winner of the 2010 ImagiNAILtion cover competition was Natalia Rusnak from Ukraine. She received a prize of $1000 and her photograph will feature on the cover of ImagiNAILtion in July.

Here's the names of all the winners:

1st prize: Natalia Rusnak, Ukraine
2nd prize: Natalia Penkova, Russia

3rd prize: Svetlana Murdrakova, Ukraine

In total we received 48 entries with many of a very high standard. The judging was totally independent and performed by the following experts:

• Alex Fox, Editor of Scratch nails magazine, UK
• Ella Sadovnikova, Editor of Hands & Nails magazine, Ukraine
• Lilia Birjuk, president of the Baltic Nails Association and international judge, Estonia
• Carla Collier, NailPro (IBS) competition head judge and educator, USA

We'd like to thank everyone who entered, with our special thanks to the judges who are exceptionally busy people but kindly gave their expert time.

All the entries and a selection of step-by-steps will be published in the ImagiNAILtion double issue 3&4 available in July.

Choosing the right brush for 3D acrylic sculpting

From my experience, the reason why so many nail techs find 3D acrylic sculpting so difficult is often they are using a brush that simply isn't good enough and doesn't provide sufficient material control. Paying a lot of money for a brush from a well known company does not necessarily mean it is good!

The correct brush size to use is a #4. A good brush should have only the best quality Kolinsky hair (there are many different qualities) and it must have both the right length and enough stiffness to allow you to sculpt the material in fine detail.

The #4 brush shown above is one of our most popular brushes. It was also one of the most difficult to develop, but the end result was worth it because experienced nail artists just love it!

So if you are learning how to do 3D sculpting and not getting the results you want, take a closer look at your brush. You can ask for recommendations from experienced nail artists on forums such as Beauty Tech or Nail Geek.

Instructors education in Estonia

Back row from left: Elena Säkki (Finland), Ulyana Naryshkina (Estonia), Viktoria Prihodko (Estonia), Laura Laine (Estonia), Natalija Harkova (Ireland), Natalia Piryaeva (Estonia).
Front row: Liliya Birjuk, Iryna Giblett. Not in photo: Merelin Markov (Estonia)

Our latest Instructors class was held in Tallinn from 28th June to July 2nd. Seven nail technicians from Estonia, Finland and Ireland attended, with all passing their final practical and written examinations to become Instructors for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy.

Our thanks to Liliya Birjuk of Star Beauty (the Iryna Giblett distributor in Tallinn) for doing a wonderful job to organize the training and our big congratulations go to all the new Instructors!

Nail Art training in Ukraine

From the 17th to 22nd June we ran a Master Nail Art class for our Educators in Ukraine. This consisted of hand painting, gel, and flat and 3d acrylic nail art techniques. Everyone passed with flying colors and are now qualified as Master Nail Artist Educators to teach Level I and Level II nail art for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy.

Below are some examples of their work:

Nail Cruise in Italy

I love cruise ships! This was only my second time on a cruise, but it's wonderful to be on a floating hotel, make some nails and also visit new places! I gave three nail art educations and everyone seemed very enthusiastic which was nice to see. Thanks to Nail Evo in Italy for a wonderful time - especially Alberto who looked after us. And special thanks to my new Italian nail tech friends!

The photo below is at Santorini, a volcanic island in the Greek sea. All that's left of the volcano is the rim where the town is built about 300 to 400m above sea level.

After the ship came back to Venice, we stayed for two days to look around. Venice is really beautiful and romantic. I'd love to go back and spend more time there.

3rd in Las Vegas

I am really happy to have managed 3rd place in the hand-painted nail art category at IBS Las Vegas! This was the first set of hand-painted nails that I've attempted, so I really didn't expect to be placed as I knew the competition from the Japanese and Korean nail artists would be very hard. Tonight Bob and I will celebrate with a glass of wine ;-)

Introducing - Oksana Kolishevskaya

This wonderful nail design was created by Oksana Kolishevskaya, an expert nail artist who owns three schools in Sumy, Krementscuk and Poltawa in Ukraine. Since February, Oksana and her colleagues are valued members of the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy and distribute our products through her schools.

Oksana's competition success includes:

• 1st prize Kiev Cup 2005
• 2nd prize Nail Design 2005
• 1st prize Elena Maltseva competition
• 1st prize 10 Championship 2006
• 2nd prize Nevskie Berega, Russia
• The Grand-Prix winner of Diamond Nails 2006
  

More of Oksana's work will feature in the next issue of ImagiNAILtion (www.imaginailtion.com)

New LED UV lamp is environmentally friendly

Available from May 1st, our new SAFELED lamp uses the latest technology electronic UV-A LED lights to deliver an environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution.

The lamp contains 12 UV-A LED lamps. Each lamp can be used for over 50,000 operating hours. This means if the lamp is used for 4 hours a day, the LED life is 12,500 days - so it's highly unlikely that you will ever need to replace the lights.

The SAFELED is not inexpensive at 495 Euro, but is cost-effective when you calculate the cost of a traditional UV lamp plus replacing the bulbs twice a year - and the effort to buy bulbs. Also, unlike traditional mercury based bulbs that damage the environment the LED lights are safe and don't reduce the UV-A output over time - which can result in under-cured gels.

Please note that the SAFELED is only compatible with our Gentle gels or other gels designed for LED lamps.

Gentle gels - kind to nails and the environment

The new Gentle Gels from Iryna Giblett have been developed to be kind to both customers and the environment. The gels can be easily soaked off in minutes without filing and cured using our new LED UV lamp that contains electronic lights instead of glass UV-A bulbs containing mercury. (If necessary, traditional UV lamps can also be used).

We offer both sculpting and color gels:

* Gentle sculpting gels: Arctic White, Pink and Clear
* Gentle gels : 10 colours used as a non-chip alternative to nail polish

The Gentle Gels will be available from May 1st.

Irina's acrylic nails with color drops

I just wanted to share this photograph with you. These were created by Irina Zamostinchuk who used the InspirationZ colored acrylics and Liquid Colors to create this stunning design. Irina is a Global Education for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy and is our partner in Moldova.

Excitement in Düsseldorf

The 2010 World Nail Championships were held in Germany during March 27-28. The top national competitors from many countries competed in the gel and liquid & powder competitions in a challenge of the best of the best!

It was a privilege for me to be one of the six judges this year and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. It was also a pleasure to meet the other judges: Lynn Lammers, Peppyn Borrel, Gabriele Kainz, Michaela Cepcovejand fellow Ukrainian Victoria Meyler.

The photo on the right shows Ekaterina Raskutina who won the L&P competition.

During the competitions Bob was busy managing our booth. He reported a lot if interest in our products and free education concept. Several hundred people signed up for more information.

The other highlight of the show was that Maia Chemscaia from Moldova took 4th place. Last year Bob and I decided to sponsor the Moldovia national nail competitions so that they could send their gel and L&P winners to Düsseldorf for the first time. So being there to see Maia getting joint 4th was a real pleasure and we hope motivates more nail techs from Moldova to enter competitions!

See us at Beauty International, Düsseldorf: March 26-28!

Beauty International show is held each year in Düsseldorf, Germany. It's one of the largest beauty shows in Europe and has one entire hall just for professional nail products! For the first time, we will be exhibiting at the show and will launch our Iryna Giblett professional nail products in Germany.















The show is also home to the prestigious World Nail Championships where national champions from many countries come to compete for the ultimate prizes in L&P and Gel.






















Irina Zamostinchuk our Global Educator from Moldova will be demonstrating some wonderful nail art on our booth. Irina is winner of two 1st prizes in mixed-media and 3D nail art, and won 3rd place in the Master-of-Master competitions in Russia last year. She has also won several national competitions.

For more information on the products we will offer, please visit www.irynagiblett.com

We will also be launching the new German version of our ImagiNAILtion magazine and will offer this at a special show price: www.imaginailtion.com

We hope to see you there!

Iryna, Bob and Irina x

A dream cruise and 100% free international nail education!

Starting in romantic Venice on May 2nd, this 9-day cruise visits the beautiful Greek islands and promises sun, relaxation and wonderful sights! In addition, there are 13 International Master Classes so that you can improve your technique and learn totally new skills - these are included in the cruise price.

The nail cruise is filling up fast, but some places are still available. However, you must book by March 15!

For more information and booking, see www.nailcruise.com

First Nail Products to Include Hologram Labels

Stockholm, Sweden - 21st February 2010. It's a sad fact that product counterfeiting is a massive and illegal worldwide business. While most of us have experienced being offered DVD's and CD's at unrealistic prices, counterfeiters are usually highly professional gangs capable of copying most products. In the beauty industry counterfeiters have targeted cosmetics and perfumes for many years.

Rather than wait for the inevitable to happen, we have decided to take steps to protect our clients and give them the total confidence that they are purchasing and using genuine Iryna Giblett professional nail products.

From March 1, all Kudos (TM) gels and acrylics will include a hologram label on the container - the first of it's type from any nail product manufacturer. The label is manufactured with the highest available resolution and 3D technology unique to our supplier. A further level of protection is assured by registering our hologram image in an international database. Each label measures 25 mm by 15 mm (1" x 0.6") and also has a tamper-proof design so the label is damaged on attempted removal.

As a further step to maintain the integrity of our education system, all educational certificates issued by our company or school partners will also contain the hologram label with a central database maintained at our head office in Stockholm. Existing holders of certificates may return these for the label to be attached at no cost.

1920's Flapper Nails

These nails were inspired and created together with my good friend and our Global Educator Irina Zamostinchuk who was visiting us from Moldova.

We decided on a 1920's theme and one of the most recognizable images from the "Roaring Twenties" time were the so-called Flapper Girls - a new breed of liberated women who liked listening to jazz, drove automobiles and lived life to the full.

Because music was so important to them, we hand painted piano keys and musical scores on the nails. We each made a hand!


Our model and talented makeup artist Frida K completed the image captured by Bob.

Instructors Training in Ukraine: 15-18 Feb, 2010

Back row left to right: Natalia Konovalenko (Kiev), Viktoria Nydosik (Krivoj Rog), Nadezhda Olijnik (Vinnitsa), Tatjana Klester (Russia), Anzhela Vlas (Moldova), Inna Trooshevskaya (Lvov). Front row: Irina Zamostinchuk (Global Educator, Moldova), Oksana Kolyshevskaya (Poltava), Irina Valueva (Kremenchug), Iryna Giblett, Margarita Morgun (Sumy). Yulia Stadnik (Kiev) was not available for the photo.

So much has happened in my life and career since I moved from Ukraine in 2006 and married Bob that it's been difficult at times to absorb it all. The last year especially has been a whirl as we traveled to so many countries and worked so hard to develop our products. But this week, giving an Instructors training class to 10 nail techs who want to be our school partners in Ukraine and sell our products in my home country, suddenly made me realize what enormous changes have occurred. None of this could have happened without the help of wonderful teachers who helped me to develop my skills and the friends who guided us and provided encouragement.

Nail techs from Russia, Ukraine and Moldova gave up their time and traveled in some cases for 24 hours by train to come to the class. Many of the girls already owned successful schools, some had also won national competitions - all were highly experienced.

The main objective of an instructors class is two-fold; to teach them how to teach new nail techs using your products and using application techniques, and then to examine them both practically and theoretically for their competence. But it's also a time for team-building, to make some fun and to also take private time with each person so that you can understand the needs and wishes of your future partners and also so that they can understand who you are and what expectations you have.

Developing a close personal relationship is especially important for us - Bob and I want to attract (and have been lucky to attract) exceptional people. Many exceptional people get lost in bigger organizations - but we want to promote our Instructors as the very talented individuals they are and to help them achieve greater success and reputation in the future.

It was a wonderful week. We came together as near strangers having only communicated by email or a few phone calls and left as good friends, excited about working together. Everyone graduated as Instructors, we took photographs and drank champagne - this has been a week I will never forget.

InterCHARM Show: 10-12 Feb. Kiev, Ukraine

InterCHARM runs from the 10 to 12th February and is the largest beauty show in Ukraine. It also plays host to the National nail competitions whose winners take part in the World Championships in Germany at the end of March. The last time I helped judge was in 2006, the same year that I moved to Sweden, so I was very happy to be invited back to help this year and see old friends. In addition to the judging, I also invited to be one of the educators and made a one hour class on 3D Gel application and design.

Meanwhile, Bob, our colleague Natasha, Irina Zamostinchuk our Global Educator and partner from Moldova and my Mum worked on our booth. Irina gave many nail art demonstrations while Bob, Natasha and Mum were kept busy serving customers with our products and the ImagiNAILtion magazine.

Despite the snow, the show was busy. Nail techs in Ukraine are always hungry for new information, techniques and ideas - so the weather won't keep them away! This year we created a special brochure for the show that described our upcoming and extensive educational program in Ukraine that included information on our educators. We initially printed 1000 of these, but had to get more printed late on the second day - so people seem to be interested.

During the three days we also received inquiries from several schools who are interested to join our team. So overall, it was another good show in Ukraine for us.















There were three halls this size.















We were busy from 10.00 to 6.00 each day.















Global Educator Irina Zamostinchuk wowed the Ukrainian nail techs with her nail art and techniques















Ukraine national nail championships. Winners compete in World Championships in Germany, end March.















Competition judges. My 5th year as a judge. Hope I am invited back! ;-)






















Some winning nails.

Russian version of ImagiNAILtion magazine

We have created a Russian version of the ImagiNAILtion educational nail art magazine! After showing the English magazine at shows in Russia, Latvia and Ukraine we received many requests from nail techs who wanted to buy it - so it became clear there was demand for this type of information.

The magazine will be launched at the InterCHARM exhibition in February.

Instructors training in Sweden

The first instructors training for the Iryna Giblett nail products took place from the 17th to 21st January in Vaxholm, just outside Stockholm. On the 22nd and 23rd we continued with nail art education in hand painting, and then from the 24th to 26th we did 3d acrylic nail art - the nail art extension to the class being part of a two year program to train our instructors to the highest levels.

Eight nail techs attended the training, with Bethanne coming all the way from Edmonton in Canada and Dawn from Scotland.

For the training we rented a "Vandrarhem" - a type of Swedish youth hostel. Located a few km outside Vaxholm deep in the forest with snow all around it was a lovely calm location to focus on nails. Bob brought regular supplies of red wine and goodies to keep the girls happy during the evenings ;-) . On the last night we enjoyed a meal in a pub overlooking Vaxholm harbour.















Left to right back row: Bethanne O'Neill (Canada), Ingrid Beckman (Jönköping), Carina Högnelid (Luleå), Jeanette Jensen (Solna), Lina Nyberg (Stockholm). Front row: Dawn McRoberts (Scotland), Iryna Giblett, Tanya Hincheva (Stockholm). Sushi - Tanya's dog was the class mascot!!