Iryna Giblett - Nail Art

RIP Tom Holcomb

2011-10-30T01:13:00.005+02:00

It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Tom Holcomb earlier today.

Tom was the greatest nail technician in the history of the industry. Tom's successes include 10 times World Champion, 5 times Japan Master, 2 times International Champion in Düsseldorf and 2 times International Champion in Munich. In total, Tom won more than 200 competitions during his 26 year career.

Tom was the Creative Director of EZ Flow and later was a co-founder of Entity Systems. Tom educated many thousands of nail technicians during his career and his students - which includes many competition champions - will remember Tom for his tremendous skill, his humour, kindness and humility.

We never had the great fortune to meet Tom - but he inspired Iryna who followed his successes while she was a young nail tech in Ukraine and he has always been her nail idol. She created the tips today as her tribute to the great man.

Bob

Düsseldorf - here they come!

2011-10-10T16:34:00.006+02:00

Congratulations to Viktoria Prihodko and Olena Shuhtina for winning the acrylic and gel categories in the Estonian national nail competitions on 8th October 2011 in Tallinn. Now both Viktoria and Olena will represent Estonia at the International Nail Championship, held in Düsseldorf, Germany, in March 2012.

Both Viktoria and Olena are Global Educators for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy, and are photographed at their salon and training center in Tallinn. As you can see, Iryna offered her services as a model ;-)

As you can imagine, it's very unusual that both the acrylic and gel champions work together in the same company. We are so happy for them both and look forward to supporting them in Germany next year!

New competition success at IBS Las Vegas!

2011-06-21T14:01:00.000+02:00

Viktorija Prihodko took 3rd place in the 3D Acrylic category at the IBS Las Vegas competition on June 20, above competitors from a number of countries that included Russia, Korea and Japan. This was the first time Viktorija had entered in this competition and she made this detailed work against the background of expecting her first child in August.

Viktorija's success follows that of Tanya Klester who took 1st place in Mixed Media at Nailympics this year, and Iryna's 2nd and 3rd places at IBS Las Vegas in 2009 and 2010 for hand painting and 3d Acrylic. Both Viktorija and Tanya are Global Educators for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy and we are deeply valued colleagues.

We offer our deepest congratulation to Viktorija and are sure that more competition success will occur in the future!

Are your nail products safe?

2011-05-28T12:14:00.012+02:00

During the last years there has been a major increase in the availability of low-cost acrylic and gel nail products in Europe and the USA. Almost none of these companies own factories, they simply buy their products from the cheapest available source and supply the products in low-cost containers with simple labels.

Some of these products originate from China, and while the quality of Made in China can be good (bearing in mind that many of the products we buy are manufactured there), it's also important that we consider the recent scandals such as unsafe toys and baby milk that brought dangerous Chinese goods and the sometimes desire for profit, regardless of conscience, to worldwide attention.

As recent as April 19 an article published by the European Business website cited that "China again heads EU's dangerous products list". Yet despite this information, an increasing number of nail technicians choose to purchase professional nail products that are Made in China; in some cases purchasing these from unknown vendors on eBay, or as I read recently on the US-based BeautyTech forum some nail techs have even gone to the effort to import products from suppliers in Hong Kong.

Sometimes it's not easy to know if even a respectable branded product is genuine - which makes buying from a reputable supplier even more important. Illegal copies of famous brand products including counterfeit Shellac (TM) and Gelish (TM) products are manufactured in China and it is notoriously difficult for any original manufacturer to stop this counterfeiting trade (this problem can be greatly reduced through the use of high security hologram labels that only cost a few cents per label. We were the first nail product manufacturer to use these.)

As a manufacturer we understand that we have a responsibility to meet certain legal requirements. To ensure that we were compliant, we took the unusual decision to invite Läkmedelsverket (Medical Products Agency) to inspect our products and production facilities. Läkmedelsverket is the Swedish national authority that is responsible for the regulation and surveillance of the development, manufacturing and marketing of medical and cosmetic products and ensuring that these meet European law. As it turned out, we were fully compliant and have their letter of confirmation proudly displayed on the wall of our office ;-)

The legal requirements are similar for both the USA and Europe; the products must be safe (this actually means that the manufacturer has performed safety and risk assessments that are held on file for inspection by the authorities if required), does not use any banned ingredients and the products must be correctly labelled (the labelling requirements in Europe are more stringent than in the USA).

However, in the USA and Europe it is not necessary for manufacturers or importers to have their products tested before placing them on the market. In comparison, it is a requirement to submit products for testing and be issued certification before cosmetic products can be sold in Russia, Ukraine and many other former-Soviet countries!

And what if a manufacturer or importer sells products that don't meet the legal requirement? Actually, very little. Here's what the Läkmedelsverket website says about such a situation:

"Companies that do not comply with the regulations will be required to make improvements. The controlling authorities may in certain cases decide to impose a ban on the sale of a product."

Which basically means that if they are caught (and the likihood of that is negligable), then the manufacturer or importer will get a slap on the wrist and if they persist then maybe the offending products are banned. Little wonder that the number of companies distributing low-cost products has dramatically increased here during the last years!

But what is often not understood by the average nail technician, is that they also have a legal responsibility to ensure that the products they use are safe. When the nail tech buys from a reputable source, they can largely assume that the products do meet the legal requirements - after all, no serious company is going to risk being sued. In the event that the nail tech does have to defend themselves in court against a client who claims to have been harmed, they can at least state that they took reasonable precautions by purchasing a well known or trusted brand. However, a nail tech who buys unknown low-cost products from eBay or a supplier in Hong Kong would have no such defence. In fact, the actual manufacturer may be using banned ingredients and may never have performed a safety and risk assessment on any of their products.

As I explained in a previous article, the difference between using a premium product such as our Kudos gel and a low-cost product can be as little as 1 Euro per service.

Few nail techs know the cost per service of their material or how to calculate it. So it is perhaps not surprising that some of them look at the sticker price and try to save money in the hard economic situation that we have today.

Hopefully this article will help to educate them to the potential economic and health risks that saving 1 Euro per customer can cause.

Bob

Gellini in Kiev

2011-04-27T11:42:00.016+02:00

It's been a long time since Bob and I made any nail photographs. But the weather in Kiev has been so wonderful during the last week that we thought it would be great fun to take some outdoor shots of our new Gellini gel nail polish.

We were helped by our good friend Alysa, who is also a professional make-up artist. Alysa is also a shoe monster and we can always rely on her to have interesting shoes for photographs! ;-)

All the photographs were taken on or around Independence Square in Kiev; the scene of the Orange Revolution in 2004. It's still a popular place for people to meet and sit in the sun. At weekends all traffic is banned, so you can walk around, browse shops or just take a slow coffee.

What's the cost of your reputation?

2011-04-15T12:04:00.013+02:00

Image credit: www. zazzle.com

As I write this, there are seven webshops in Sweden offering low-cost nail products. By low-cost I mean that they are selling gels and acrylics up to 50% less than the premium brands (ours included). Most of these webshops have appeared during the last year so we have yet to see if they will make enough money to survive - after all we are a country of only 9 million people and fewer consumers wear nail enhancements than in other countries.

Of course you get what you pay for. Some of these shops are selling Chinese products and others seem to be buying their products from one of the companies in Germany who specialize in selling low-cost products for private labeling (putting your own label on). Of the products I have personally seen here in Sweden, none of them follow the correct labeling laws (European Regulation 1223/2009 states what information must be included). This is the legal responsibility of the importing distributor, so it would not be surprising to also find that in order to reduce costs, that the distributors have not checked that the manufacturers have undertaken Safety and Risk Assessments for their products and that the products are not potentially dangerous.

In any case, what I am hearing is that the quality is poor and it's mostly non-professionals and newly trained nail technicians who are buying these products. In other words, people who don't have the skills to determine what is or what is not a good quality product. I guess when they find the application difficult and the product lifts quickly, they must be blaming their skills rather than the products used.

It's the new nail techs who surprise me and it raises several questions:

are schools educating them in the importance of using quality materials and tools, and the impact this can have on their future reputation?
are the schools selling the benefits of their brand?
don't the students value product support or feel any loyalty to buy product from their school?

Or is it that the industry has changed?

has the rapid increase of low-cost salons in Sweden putting price-pressure on new nail techs to the extent that they feel the need to buy cheap material?
or are they just more internet comfortable than previous generations and therefore more willing to shop online to get lower prices?

Perhaps the reasons are a combination of these, but it may also have more to do with their perception of value.

I am sure the same youngsters don't buy their clothes from a supermarket and they would probably never consider wearing make-up made in China or buying a cheap phone or MP3 player from an unknown brand. So in these and many other buying decisions they make; they do consider price, quality, product safety, customer service, their own personal image and personal satisfaction from buying a certain product. So perhaps the reason that they are buying low-cost nail products is that they are simply not equipped to make the right value-based decisions.

And yet it's strange that so many of them do make the right decision to be educated at the more professional schools ( whose classes run for between 15 days to 25 days), rather than one of the newer "schools" who offer to train you as a nail technician in 2 days.

Perhaps the simplest answer is for the schools to inform them about the cost of the materials per service. When you break down the costs like this and compare between using cheap and premium products, the difference in price is so much less.

Calculating the cost of materials for each service
The cost will vary depending on :

the service you do
the type of material used
the amount of material used
the average nail plate sizes

So any answer is not going to be precise. But you can either obtain the costs from your supplier (if they have them) or you can make a simple estimate by simply writing down how many customers you serviced for each jar of gel or acrylic you use (you should also include the cost of nail prep, bonder, nail forms, tips and files).

We've measured the cost of service for all our gel and acrylic products, whether creating French with tips, French sculpted tip and natural nail overlay. Her is one example (this has also been verified by two of our distributors who calculated remarkably similar results) :

Kudos Gels
Service: French nails, sculpted tips
Material: Kudos gels

Cost per service when using 13 gram gel jars: 24.6 Swedish Krona (approx. 2.72 Euro)
Cost per service when using 39 gram gel jars: 21.3 Swedish Krona (approx. 2.36 Euro)

Of course, the cost of materials depends on the price in that country. In the US, prices are much lower because of the market size.

But what's important here is that the average price for a set of new French sculpted nails in Sweden is between 700 krona and 1200 krona. That means the material cost is between 3% and 1.5% of the service!

Low-Cost Gels
If we now make a similar comparison with low-cost products and to be a devils advocate let us assume that these cost 50% less than our Kudos gels and have identical coverage. This would give the following results:

Cost per service when using 13 gram gel jars: 12.3 Krona
Cost per service when using 39 gram gel jars: 10.7 Krona

In other words the difference in price is only 12.3 kr to 10.7 kr - that's only 1 Euro!!

For this small saving of just 1.5% to 0.7% of the price of their service, the nail techs risk:

increased service times
nails that yellow
premature lifting
increased possibility of damage in ordinary use

...and only to save 1 Euro per customer. That is the cost of a nail techs reputation.

Bob Giblett

Introducing ...Gellini UV and LED Gel Polish!

2011-03-23T12:19:00.005+01:00

The new Gellini gel polishes are available from 6th April! There are 25 modern colors in the Gellini family. All of these give excellent color depth, a high shine and provide beautiful chip and scratch free nails for between 15 to 21 days.

If you have tried other gel polishes, you will appreciate the easy application with Gellini. Apply the primer sparingly, a coat of the Gellini Base & Top coat, then one thin coat of color (two coats if you want extra depth), and finish with a final Base & Top coat. The curing time is 2 minutes in a 36W UV lamp or between 30 to 60 seconds in the Gellini LED lamp.

Soaking off is easy and takes approximately 10-15 minutes. For faster soak-off times when applying Gellini on natural nails, you don't use the Base & Top coat.

Each Gellini gel has a very competitive price of 18.95 Euro for 15ml (not 8.5ml as others). Until the end of June we have several special offers:

Offer 1
25 Gellini colors, 15 ml
1 Gellini Base & Top Gel, 15 ml
1 X2 OneBond Primer

....usual price is 499 Euro, offer price is just 374 Euro and includes free shipping in Europe.

Offer 2
As offer 1 plus the Gellini LED lamp

....usual price is 664 Euro, offer price is just 499 Euro and includes free shipping in Europe.

More practice

2011-03-12T13:56:00.000+01:00

Here's an example that I made recently that uses our new InspirationZ metallic acrylic powders. You can see the shine of these coming from the leaves. It was really nice to find the time to practice again!

2011-03-12T09:40:00.001+01:00

Competition Training in Kiev

2011-02-07T12:58:00.000+01:00

On the 7th and 8th of February we organised an acrylic and gel competition training class for our Instructors at our school in Kiev.

The 'Guest Star' teacher was Linara Dokechaeva from Moscow, who was the trainer for last years winner in the acrylic category at the world championships in Düsseldorf. Linara is an international competition judge and owns three schools in Russia.

Everyone who came to the class was delighted with their new knowledge and skills, and appreciated Linara's teaching ability and willingness to answer all questions. This is a class that we will definitely repeat in the future!

New Master Artist Instructors in Ukraine

2011-02-06T13:04:00.000+01:00

We send our congratulations to the five Instructors from the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy on Ukraine who graduated as Master Artist Instructors on the 6th February. They are now qualified to educate and award diploma's in all Level 1 and Level 2 nail art education developed by the Academy.

The practical examinations followed four days of intensive education in hand painted nail art (inc. one-stroke technique), color gel and 3D gel nail art, and basrelief and 3D acrylic design. They also received an introduction to fantasy nail art. The educators of the class were Iryna Giblett and Irina Zamostinchuk who is a Global Educator for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy.

New Master Artist Instructors in Estonia

2011-01-24T14:39:00.000+01:00

With the graduation of three new Master Artist Instructors, high quality nail art education becomes more available in Estonia. The fours students who had all previously graduated at Instructor for the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy, attended an intensive 4-day education under the care of Iryna Giblett. The qualification allows the Instructors to provide Level 1 and Level 2 nail art education in the categories of hand painting, one-stoke painting, gel and 3D gel, and basrelief and 3D acrylic nail art.

New School in Sweden

2011-01-24T14:17:00.002+01:00

We are delighted to welcome Susanne Qvick and Studio Q as an Instructor in the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy. Sussi's school is based in the town of Gävle which is 2 hours north of Stockholm. Having become an Instructor, Sussi's is now accredited by the Iryna Giblett Nail Academy to train new nail technicians in both gel and acrylic, and resell the Iryna Giblett nail products.

Sussi has been an educator for a number of brands in her career; so her experience and professionalism will be a great asset to our team in Sweden.

Kudos acrylic and gel samples

2011-01-23T14:07:00.001+01:00

We finally found the time to create product samples! There are four different sample kits available at a low price of just 9.95 Euro per Kit.

KUDOS Gel Sample Kit
Contains: Clear Sculptor gel, Cover Pink Sculptor gel, White Snow Sculptor gel and Top gel. 4 x 3.5g = 14 grams of gel.

GENTLE Gel Sample Kit
Contains: Clear Soak-Off gel, Arctic White Soak-Off gel, Pink Soak-Off gel and Top Soak-Off gel. 4 x 3.5g = 14 grams of gel.

COOL (low-heat) Gel Sample Kit
Contains: Clear gel, Cover Peach gel, Cover Pink Gel, Non-Wipe gel. 4 x 3.5g = 14 grams of gel

KUDOS SALON Acrylic Sample Kit
Contains: Alpine White Polymer, Cover Pink Polymer, Clear Polymer and Acrylic Liquid. 3 x 5g = 115 grams polymer plus 15 ml monomer.

2nd Instructors Class in Kiev 2010

2010-10-24T19:19:00.003+02:00

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

2010-10-14T20:23:00.003+02:00

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....

2010-10-14T20:07:00.003+02:00

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.

2010-10-14T20:01:00.002+02:00

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

2010-09-25T16:51:00.011+02:00

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

2010-08-14T14:26:00.002+02:00

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

Free nail art designs

2010-08-10T12:01:00.005+02:00

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

2010-07-30T22:04:00.005+02:00

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

2010-07-11T15:19:00.005+02:00

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

2010-07-05T11:44:00.002+02:00

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

2010-07-03T14:41:00.003+02:00

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

2010-05-22T14:04:00.002+02:00

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

2010-05-12T13:51:00.003+02:00

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

2010-04-26T20:42:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-23T19:49:00.008+02:00

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

2010-04-21T19:43:00.001+02:00

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

2010-04-20T19:39:00.002+02:00

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

2010-04-10T18:34:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-02T17:57:00.001+02:00

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!

2010-02-25T00:33:00.008+01:00

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!

2010-02-22T01:34:00.002+01:00

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

2010-02-21T16:16:00.009+01:00

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

2010-02-21T15:39:00.006+01:00

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

2010-02-21T07:55:00.011+01:00

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

2010-02-14T07:31:00.009+01:00

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

2010-01-30T13:13:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-27T11:31:00.002+01:00

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!!

More photo's with Frida

2009-12-17T13:45:00.001+01:00

We spend some time in the Bob's photo studio today together with our beautiful model and friend Frida Kardeskog. Frida is a very talented makeup artist who we met at a beauty show in Stockholm 18 months ago. Since then she has become the 'face' of our nail products with her image appearing in advertising in the USA, UK, Sweden, Russia and Ukraine. Love you Frida!

Here are two more unedited shots.

Photo's with Alysa

2009-12-03T14:01:00.000+01:00

We're back in Ukraine for a week, meeting with lawyers to complete the create of our new company here "OOO Iryna Giblett. "OOO" means that this is an incorporated company.

Still we have time to meet with our good friend Alysa. Alysa was one of my customers when I had my nail salon in Kiev, she's a makeup artist and was our first model for our nail photo's. A visit to Kiev can't pass without Alysa receiving some new nails from me and then a quick photo session with our other good friend, photographer Victor Medinsky. As always, we finish the session with a trip to a restaurant and a cocktail!

Kirsty Meakin wins in Finland

2009-11-14T14:15:00.003+01:00

Kirsty Meakin - winner of mixed media and twisted French at IBS Las Vegas 2009 and multiple UK champion, joined us at the FinNail show and won 1st place in the mixed media category using the Iryna Giblett InspirationZ(TM) colored gels and acrylics!

One hand had to be pre-prepared, while the contestants were given 2.5 hours to create the second hand.

Competition judges: Anette Claesson (Naglar i Norden magazine, Sweden), Chantal Schwede (Germany), David Fowler (Germany) and Vitaly Solomonoff (Nail Spa magazine, Russia)

This was the first time we had exhibited in Finland. Global Educator Irina Zamostinchuk and I were kept busy making nail art demonstrations and showing the products to potential partners.

Baltic beauty Show: Riga, Latvia

2009-11-01T15:10:00.004+01:00

More than 16,000 beauty professionals visited the Baltic Beauty show in 2008 - making it one of the largest shows in Europe despite being hosted in one of it's smallest countries. With a wide range of competitions - including nail art which I was invited to help judge - but also make up, hairstyling and body art competitions there was always something happening during the three days.

Unfortunately, the economies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been hit very hard by the global recession but the show did have a lot of visitors and they seemed happy enough to see that a company had come from Sweden to show them some nail art!

We were helped on the booth by Irina Zamostinchuk our Global Educator who made nail art presentations while I was busy with the competitions.

You can find more photographs here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/irynasnails.com/20091031BalticBeautyShowRigaLatvia#

New InspirationZ 3D Colored Gels!

2009-10-22T14:57:00.000+02:00

With 14 colors, the new 3D gels within the InspirationZ (TM) range give the nail artist new tools for creativity! Normally used for volume painting, 3D sculpting is also possible with care. Thanks to Frida for loaning us her hands again!

Opening a school and salon in Kiev, Ukraine

2009-10-18T10:11:00.005+02:00

As well as being at the Estet show the last three days, our evenings have been spent viewing different premises in Kiev as we need a headquarters for the distribution business in Ukraine and a location for a new school and salon. Lena, our new Sales Manager in Ukraine contacted the real-estate agents and did an initial search so that Iryna and I had a short-list of properties to view. Lena did a great job!

Yesterday evening we signed a contract to rent a wonderful office in Kiev. It's located right in the center on one of the two streets where all the upmarket fashion shops are. It has two large rooms, a waiting area, kitchen and bathroom with shower. High ceilings and modern suspended lights with white walls give a first impression of elegance and style. We fell in love with it immediately and the owners are absolutely lovely people who we will meet for a meal next time we are in Kiev.

In addition to Lena, we expect to start with an instructor (we meet tonight to make a formal offer), two nail techs for the salon and a old friend who will be our accountant. We plan to open for business on the 1st December and will announce a series of Master Classes that will be held from January.

The school will also be available to our other school partners in different regions or countries so that they can make their own Master Classes in Kiev. It's all very exciting!!

Bob

Shows in Russia, England and Ukraine

2009-10-18T08:05:00.018+02:00

It's Sunday morning here in Kiev, Ukraine. Bright blue sky outside and a hint of winter in the air. As I write this the bells from the 1000 year old Orthodox church of St. Sofia are ringing out across the city.

Yesterday the ESTET beauty show ended after three days. For us this was the best show to date - in September we had a booth at a show in St. Petersburg, Russia (that's a beautiful city) and also the Olympia Beauty show in London. Six weeks and three shows - that's one crazy schedule and in all honesty too much - Iryna is pretty exhausted. Now we have 10 days to recoup before we do shows in Riga, Latvia and Helsinki, Finland and Iryna goes to Sofia in Bulgaria to help judge their national competitions.

All three shows were successful for us. We're a new company and don't have high expectations - but we gave out thousands of catalogs and business cards, Iryna's nail art demo's were a hit everywhere, we had interest from schools that want to partner with us and most importantly all the people we spoke to about our new concept really embraced our ideas and were totally enthusiastic about these. You can really more about the concept here:
http://irynagiblett.com/en/our-offer

The ESTET show was always going to be special. Kiev is Iryna's home town and before she moved to Sweden to live with me she had her own salon and school here and for five years was a judge at the national competition. So during the three days many of her old business friends and contacts came by to say hello!

The show was very busy even though Ukraine is suffering badly because of the economy. By early afternoon of the second day we had run out of catalogs and business cards. So I ran out and quickly bought a low cost colour printer, designed a one-page flyer and started to print these on our booth! Such was the interest that on the first day we had to call Iryna's Mum to come and help us on the booth - she's also a nail technician. On the second day we called a friend to help. So we started with three people and ended up with five!

Iryna and Irina Zamostinchuk continuously made nail art presentations. Irina is a very talented nail artist and competition winner - everyone who saw the nails she made on the show were totally impressed with her work. Another friend from Moldova, also an expert nail artist also popped by and started making nails ;-) The photo below shows from left to right: Dojana Chilochi, Irina Zamostinchuk and Iryna Giblett:

Here's a photo of the wonderful nails that Dojana made for Iryna:

Here's some photo's of our booth that I took early yesterday before the show became full of people:

Bob

New website released

2009-09-18T16:26:00.002+02:00

Our new website at www.irynagiblett.com was launched yesterday evening. There is still some information and a partner log-in area to add but we had pressure to release the website before the Olympia Beauty show this weekend.

Our first product catalog!

2009-09-02T21:46:00.004+02:00

English version, and............................................Russian ;-)

Two crazy weeks!

2009-09-02T21:04:00.006+02:00

Both Bob and I suffered from jet lag after getting back from the US. But with just over three weeks to our next show in Russia, we just had to work through the tiredness.

We managed to do a lot! Bob designed labels for our new product jars and ordered these to be manufactured. Then we created a 16 page catalog, started work on a new website, designed 4 adverts for two magazines and two show catalogs, designed graphics for the shows and ordered all the furniture and other items. Phew! Who needs sleep anyway ;-)

As I haven't had much time to make nail art, I felt began to get a craving to do something. So I've spent a couple of evening practising hand painting and the results can be seen below.

Hand painting is something that I really want to continue to work on. I didn't study art formally, so I have pretty much learned by trying and practising. I have spent a lot more time to develop my acrylic skils, so painting will be my main focus for the next months.

A busy time in the USA

2009-08-22T18:22:00.001+02:00

We flew to Las Vegas on the 20th July and that was the start of our four city tour that lasted nearly 4 weeks. After a week in Vegas with Vicki where I made a workshop and we planned our activities for the coming months, we flew to San Diego for a weeks vacation. We just love San Diego!

Next up was Portland in Oregon were I was one of the educators at the NW Networking Event. It wasn't well attended, but it was nice to see those who came and the other educators. I made another two-day workshop there and then we headed to Long Island.

We had a few hotel problems on arrival as the room we ordered didn't actually sleep 5 people as advertised and we had our three children with us. Our youngest was given an air bed and spent the entire night rolling around - byt 5.30 in the morning we were all so exhausted we finally managed to sleep - by which time Bob had gone online and booked another hotel.

The Long Island Networking Event was very well attended and had a great atmosphere. Met more friends and BeautyTech forum contacts which was great. I made another two-day nail art workshop and then we became tourists for two days in New York before heading home. It was heaven to sleep in our own bed!

Special thanks to everyone who came to my workshops and for making these such fun and a success. I'll be back!! ;-)

Photo: Attending a lecture in Portland.

New Nail and Nail Art Brushes

2009-07-16T00:07:00.004+02:00

The price list for Iryna's new brushes can now be downloaded from here. This also shows our current stock position. Other brushes are on back-order and will be delivered in a few weeks.

These aren't the cheapest in the market, but are very high-quality and Made in Germany. The factory grades each hair to ensure that each brush meets specifications, and the natural hair end is never cut - unlike with cheaper brushes.

The acrylic ovals sizes 4, 8, 10 have the metal handle and cap as seen on the bottom of the photo. All the gel and nail art brushes have the clear acrylic handles for durability.

We decided to offer brushes because it was very difficult to buy top quality nail art brushes in Sweden. So we contacted a number of factories and Iryna tested their samples to finally develop her own products.

Vicki Peters will sell these in the USA and has stock in her warehouse. For other countries, please contact us via Iryna's main website www.irynagiblett.com/eng/

Second place in 3D competition at IBS Las Vegas

2009-06-20T15:01:00.000+02:00

I decided in May that I would like to enter the 3D nail art competition at the International Beauty Show in Las Vegas. This show was the weekend after the Premiere Beauty show in Orlando, so as we going to be in the US already it meant staying one extra week.

The competition theme was "Prehistoric Age", so I prepared tips that contained backgrounds of different layers that embedded hand painting and bas-relief acrylic designs, and onto these added some 3D acrylic figures of a dinosaur, parrot, neanderthal man/woman/child and a homo sapien man. The designs were based on the four main prehistoric ages and had to be less than 5cm high:

This was the first time that I had entered a 3D nail art competition and it was a lot of work to make the nails! When it came time for the award ceremony, we were allowed to look at the work made by all the competitors. The standard was very high and I didn't think that I would be going home with a prize. When my name was called for the second place, it took some seconds for me to believe it! Bob gave me a nudge and I went to the stage to collect my trophy. It was a very funny experience as last time I was on a stage I was a judge and giving out the prizes ;-)

I am very happy with my second place. Although I wanted to get some prize, I wasn't keen to win as that would put more pressure on me in future competitions. Entering competitions requires different skills to just making nail art and I have a lot to learn about the different competitions. So I want to take my time. For example the rules stated the tips had to be 5cm high or less, but I could see from the other work that it was OK for the acrylic design to be bigger than the tip. Every competition has some things that aren't totally clear until you enter, so next time I will know ;-)

Now I have the competition bug! After we arrived home from the USA, I immediately started work on my design for Nailympics London in September!

Nail art workshop in Orlando

2009-06-09T13:31:00.001+02:00

The day after the beauty show ended, I held a nail art workshop in a conference room near our condo. This was arranged at the last minute after I'd received emails from some nail techs who asked if I could do this.

Eight people came to the class which ran from 9.30 in the morning until 7.30 at night! I showed them how to do make designs that they can sell to customers using hand painting, colored gels and 3d acrylic. It was a lot of fun and the girls made some very nice designs. As a surprise present we gave everyone a free copy of our magazine.

Here's a photo of the class:

Experiences at Premiere Beauty show in Orlando

2009-06-08T12:39:00.001+02:00

This was the first time that we had visited a beauty show in the USA and it was also the first time we had been an exhibitor. It was a lot of work for Bob to organize the booth and make sure everything arrived from Sweden. He was quite nervous about it all, but everything went well and we didn't have any big problems.

We arrived on June 4th, two days before the show opened so that we had time to make any last minute arrangements. Like many other nail techs we rented a condo (apartment) in the Hilton Grand Vacations holiday village. The condo was very big with it's own small kitchen, two bathrooms (one with jacuzzi!) and overall it was very nice. There were restaurants in the village and a swimming pool.

On Saturday night (June 6) we went to a BBQ evening that was arranged by the Beauty Tech nail forum (www.beautytech.com). We had a lovely time meeting old friends and meeting nail techs from all over the US, and other countries. Here's some photo's from the evening:

Here are some photo's Bob took before the show opened. You can see our little booth and under the TV a picture frame that contains some of my nail designs. I like to use picture frames for these as it makes a good impression. The nail tips are mounted on a black velvet cloth. All of the visitors to our booth were interested to see these and get some ideas for their own nail art!

On Sunday and Monday I was an Educator at the show. Each presentation was 1 hour and I showed different nail art techniques. We were told to expect 10 to 15 people to each education, so we were very surprised and delighted that on the first day more than 50 people came! In total more than 90 people came to both classes and I met some wonderful people.

Thanks to everyone who met us at the BBQ evening, visited our booth and came to my classes! It was lovely to meet you all.

ImagiNAILtion nail art magazine launched at Premiere Orlando

2009-06-07T12:11:00.001+02:00

Our new nail art and design magazine "ImagiNAILtion" was formally introduced at the Premiere Beauty show in Orlando (USA) on June 6. We rented a booth to promote the magazine and were lucky to have a very nice location.

We were very happy with the show and will be back next year. We sold quite a few magazines and received a lot of positive comments that Bob and I really appreciated.

Although this was the formal launch, we had already created a website and have received orders from many countries including the USA, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany and the UK. All of this without advertising! It is only the start, but we are very happy that people like the magazine and are interested enough in nail art to want to buy it.

Read more on the website: www.imaginailtion.com

Kauneus Beauty Fair Helsinki 13-15 November

2009-06-01T16:51:00.004+02:00

We've just signed up to exhibit at the Kauneus Beauty Fair in Helsinki Finland which takes place on the 13-15 November. It's a big event with nail competitions together with fashion, health and wedding themes.

Helsinki is a lovely small city by the sea and it's easy to reach from Stockholm as low cost ferries run every day.

Iryna will be creating nail art on the stand so stop by and take a look! We'll also be showing the ImagiNAILtion magazine, Vicki Peters products and our own InspirationZ nail art products. You can find us near the entrance on stand 1e31.

If you are interested to know more about Helsinki, here's a link to their tourist website.

Education in the USA

2009-05-18T10:44:00.002+02:00

Looks like we will have an interesting summer! In addition to being an Educator at Premiere Orlando on June 7/8, I will also be giving workshops at the North West Networking Event in Portland on August 1/2 and then at Beauty Tech's Long Island networking day on August 10. Bob and I will also visit IBS Las Vegas, but won't have a booth there.

Here's the website links:
Premiere Orlando catalog
NW Networking Event
Long Island Networking

Hope to meet some of you at these events!

New Imaginailtion magazine

2009-05-13T22:45:00.002+02:00

It was supposed to be a nail art book, packed with stunning photographs and nail art step-by-steps from some of the world's elite nail artists.

But books are expensive and the content becomes old as fashions change and new styles and techniques are introduced.

A magazine is affordable by nearly everyone and it allows us to publish four times a year and to keep our audience both educated and inspired. It's still packed with stunning photography and nail art from some of the best in the industry though ;-)

The people behind Imaginailtion are Iryna and Bob Giblett. During the last 18 months, this dynamic duo have been awarded six front covers on international nail magazines and Iryna's designs have been published in 14 articles in six countries - a remarkable achievement.

Passionate about nail art and the nail industry, Iryna and Bob have created Imaginailtion magazine to both Educate and Inspire. Nail techs the world over are tremendously creative people who love nail art, but unfortunately outside of Russia, Ukraine or Korea there are very few schools or artists that excel at this.

We've recruited some of our friends, elite nail artists and competition winners to help us. Visit the temporary website at : www.imaginailtion.com to see what's in the first issue.

We're excited and we sincerely hope that you will be to. We did it for you. Enjoy!

Choosing nail products to resell

2009-04-28T18:33:00.003+02:00

Deciding to resell nail products is a major decision for any nail salon or school. In time it can allow to earn a regular income and one that's many times more than you can make as a nail technician working in a salon. But there are risks:

You will need buy stock. You may have the money to do this or you may have to take a loan - if so, can you afford the payments if sales are slow? Will you have to secure your home to obtain the loan? If the supplier cancels your contract, or you don't make enough money what position will you be in?
It will use up your time. If you are already working as a nail technician or running a salon, deciding to start selling products is like starting a new business. You will have to invest your time and money in marketing and selling, and this may reduce the money you make in the salon. It's very difficult to run two businesses at the same time - often one will suffer. If you have a lot of money then you might decide to hire someone to help you - just be careful it's someone you can trust who won't set up their own business later and compete with you!

You will need to estimate the time for your new business to reach break-even, this means to make a profit (and pay you a salary). Whatever time you estimate, multiply it by a factor of three - remember most new business fail because of insufficient money - they thought it would be easier or be successful faster that it was.

Find out if the manufacturer sells directly. There are few manufacturers who are happy to appoint local resellers but equally happy to make special offers via their websites and then poach the customers of their local school/reseller's. Some will also setup other resellers in your area if they think your sales are too low are not building fast enough - or worse they will cancel your contract and you could be left with $1000's of stock you can't sell. With some manufacturers it will always be tough for you to make money from selling products and build a long term business. So check the reputations of the manufacturers and talk to their out of state resellers to find out what the deal really is like when you buy in.

If you decide to resell, make sure you get a contract and understand what the manufacturers expectations are. I've heard a few stories lately about manufacturers that either don't give contracts or failed to give a copy of the signed contract to their reseller and then when they canceled the contract unexpectedly the reseller doesn't have a contract to take to their lawyer.

Don't buy into the manufacturers marketing or hype until you've proved it's honest. Good marketing does not mean it's a good product for you (or that it's even a good product) - it only means they are good at marketing. Look at who's behind the company and what their experience is in the nail industry. There's some fairly dubious claims out there so only believe what you can see, have tested or have been recommended to by people you trust.

Most nail technicians are not trained in business, so ask questions and get professional help. Some countries have government run business centers where start-up company's can get advice from experienced business people free.

I hope that some of these suggestions are helpful.
Bob Giblett

Choosing nail products for the salon

2009-04-27T17:33:00.002+02:00

I like to use a wide variety of materials from different gel and acrylic (liquid and powder) manufacturers for my nail art. Most nail artists that I've met do the same, we pick and choose what we think are the best products from different company's and then use whichever is most suitable for a specific nail art design.

In my salon I have also used different manufacturers products over the years. Mostly I create gel nails, but I also create acrylic nails for some customers. Normally it's not possible to use only one manufacturers products because I usually find that there is one item in their range that I don't like.

Finding good salon products isn't easy, as first it's necessary to take some form of cross-over training to learn the specific preparation steps and then it takes months of testing before you get to trust and know how a product works.

When I'm choosing a product for my salon it has to meet the following requirements:

the finished nails must look excellent
be strong enough for my customers lifestyle - my salon nails are the thickness of a credit card
nails don't lift, even after many infills
don't yellow
quick to apply with practice

Price is not a major concern for me. I'd rather pay more if I have to and not lose customers due to an inferior product.

So if you are thinking about changing products, here's a few things that I've learned:

1. Always take the manufacturers cross-over training to learn the correct preparation and application.

2. Test the products on friends, not customers. This sounds obvious but when I first moved to Sweden and couldn't buy the gel I used in Kiev, I bought a Kit from one of the big names and did a cross-over training. Three months later many of my clients nails started to lift after they have been infilled a few times. I spoke to the supplier but never got to the bottom of this. The supplier claimed it was my faulty application - but couldn't offer other suggestions (funnily enough, I later heard from a number of techs who had the same problem - which kind of suggests the product is not forgiving). Fortunately, I only had a handful of clients at the time and they stuck with me through this. But the moral of the story is never trust a product until you've done your own testing and test a variety of products before committing to use a new product on all your clients. Also have a Plan B if you find months later the product is not what you expected.

3. Decide what you want of the product and manufacturer. Are you only looking for a product you can buy from various sources, or do you want a deeper relationship with the manufacturer or supplier?

Some manufacturers don't employ full time educators so while you can get cross-over training easily enough, if you want to advance to educator or global educator etc - it might be difficult as they may only run courses once a year or less.
Do they offer the kind of training you want? If you are thinking about competing - do they offer competition classes? Or if you are interested in nail art - do they have good educators for this?
What's their reputation for support if you have questions? Is there someone local you can call or go visit?

Premiere Orlando

2009-04-21T11:48:00.002+02:00

Bob and I will be exhibiting for the first time in the USA at the Premiere Orlando show from June 5 to 8. I am also an Educator and will be presenting on Sunday and Monday from 11.45 to 12.45. If you visit our booth, you can also see me creating nail art designs at different times during the show.

You can read more about this in the pdf that Bob created for the show catalog here.

Hope that we will see you there! We're really looking forward to be in the US again!

How to use a compact camera to make nail photographs

2009-04-20T17:38:00.009+02:00

This question has been asked a few times recently on different nail forums. So I'm reprinting a post Bob made a few weeks ago with his suggestions:

If I make a nail photo using a compact camera I try not to use the flash - with the camera so close it over lights the nail and washes it out. Much better to use natural daylight, but preferably indirect light. A cloudy day is the best indirect light - there's no one light source like the sun to create bright spots on the nail or dark shadows. If you're photographing indoors and it's bright outside so several windows cause reflections on the nail - get yourself a sheet and create a tent around the sides of the nail to diffuse the light from the windows.

If you're at an exhibition or training, using the flash is unavoidable. However, before you go, stick a bit of the scotch tape over the flash - it will make the light softer! (use that easy to remove scotch tape not that darn sticky stuff you can't get off your fingers)

Macro is good - but most modern compact camera's have a picture resolution of 8 million pixels or more. What's a pixel - it's a dot of colour used to make up the photo (or show images on your PC screen or tv). 8 million of these blighters is a lot - means you can get good photo quality up to A3 size - bigger than most of us need to put nail photo's on our websites. So you don't have to use macro - simply take the photo and then cut out the nail part of the image to get a closer look. I use Photoshop to edit photographs or re-size them but cheaper software is out there, such as Picasa which is surprisingly good and a free download from Google: http://picasa.google.com/. Note that when you use this non-macro technique, get as close to the nail as the focus on the camera will allow - don't be a million miles away because you will never be able to see the nail close up on print in good quality.

Macro has the advantage it's like a zoom - you can take very close up shots. But the downside is that the depth of focus is less - so the top of the nail might be in focus but the base of the nail may not be (if you don't use macro, the depth of focus is bigger). You need to experiment a bit with your camera to find out what it's limits are here.

Another tip if you use flash is to angle the nail in such a way as the flash doesn't hit the nail head on (90 degrees) - the highlight cause by the flash will be less. Unfortunately so see the nails most clearly that's usually what you have to do. Just move around, take different shots and be lucky!

One final point - before you take the photo, try to think of an interesting background or theme. This will really help to give the photo's "life. Personally, I find this and composing the model the most difficult part - but when it works, it really works! You can look at old nail mags to see get ideas, I also visit jewelry websites for inspiration ;-)

All the photo's below were taken in natural light in a salon. The camera was a cheapo Casio but with 8 Mpixels. No macro was used. We call this one our working girl series - we did it for fun. Iryna is the model and made her own nails. Personally - I like close ups of the nails but also photo's which show the nails in real life situations - I hope Iryna's customers can then better visualise how the nails would look if they had them.

Registration documents for Nailympics 2009 London

2009-04-20T14:47:00.004+02:00

If you are thinking about competing in this years Nailympics in London, here are the documents you will need:

Competition Registration form
Nailympics Brochure

Nail Art Poster and Mouse Mats

2009-04-18T23:56:00.004+02:00

Bob has been busy the last few days and created a series of large posters and mouse mat designs that we are able to sell through a new web shop. All of the products are based on photographs of my nail designs; many of these have been published in different nail magazines.

We came across the idea having looked around to see what nail posters are already available for salons. There wasn't much choice that we could find and nearly all of the posters we saw only pictured french nails with fairly similar themes.

So we saw a gap in the market for nail art posters that have not only been professionally photographed but offer a unique fashion style. In other words, the kind of posters that we would like to hang up in our salon and would inspire both us and our clients.

Have we succeeded? Only time will tell. But take a look for yourself and please do feel free to send your comments to my email at the top of this page, or post them on this blog. Thanks!

Click this link to take a look: Nail Art Gifts webshop

Nail competitions in Moldova

2009-04-13T09:43:00.007+02:00

When I was visiting Russia a few weeks ago, I met Svetlana Deliu who manages the Moldovian national nail art team. "Sveta" is a lovely woman who gives freely of her time to train the nail techs and helps to organize their local competitions. She is also an experienced competition judge and runs her own school in the capital Chisinau. As you can see from the nails below that won 2nd place at a competition in St. Petersberg in February 2009, they have some very talented nail artists there:

From April 29 to May 3 they will have national competitions, so it was very nice of Sveta to invite me to visit as one of the judges. The competitions will include P&L, Gel, Nail art on French and Mixed Media.

During our conversations, Sveta explained that in the past Moldova had not been able to send their P&L/Gel winners to the International Nail Championships that are held in Düsseldorf Germany each year, often called the World Championships. Instead the nail techs from Moldova had to compete in the Ukrainian championships to win a place and that the distance and costs involved meant that many nail techs couldn't afford to make this journey.

Bob called Tina Werle who is the organizer of the INC and we learnt that providing we strictly follow the INC rules and conditions of neutrality, Moldova would be welcome to participate in next years competition! So now the L&P and Gel competitions on May 3rd have taken on a whole new dimension - Sveta has told us that the nail techs there are really excited and are so very pleased to have the competitions in Moldova recognised in this way! Big thanks to Tina for helping to make this possible!

April issue of Scratch and Gloss

2009-04-02T11:55:00.009+02:00

April's Scratch arrived this morning and it was a real treat to see some of my work published. Although I knew several months ago that some photo's would be used, when you see them in the magazine it always feels like a surprise!

In addition to the step-by-step above, the Gloss special feature on nail trends contained some of my tip designs. These are part of a new spring/summer collection of 24 designs that I created a few weeks ago:

Vicki Peters Nail Cruise 2010 in Hawaii !

2009-03-31T19:32:00.004+02:00

Next years nail cruise destination has been formally announced - it's a 12 day cruise from Mexico to Honolulu! We've already booked our cabin and wouldn't miss this for the world!

The price per person is $1599. This includes hotel quality cabins, food 24/7, nightly entertainment plus music in bars and there are discos, plus terrific non-product specific education, nail fun and competitions. Plus don't forget this is tax-deductible!

For Bob and I, our first cruise in January rated as the best holiday we've had. We have many new and wonderful friendships from this holiday and life-long memories. Personally, I learnt a lot from the other educators and nail techs there. You can never know enough!

I've scanned a copy of the advert that appeared in this months Naglar i Norden magazine (it's in English). You can read more about our experience on the last nail cruise in one of the posts below.

Nail Spa cover

2009-03-30T22:53:00.003+02:00

While in Russia, I collected some copies of the January issue of the Nail Spa magazine in which I'd been awarded the front cover and a two page article of my nail art work.

Naglar i Norden #1 2009

2009-03-30T18:56:00.004+02:00

A few articles where published this month. Bob wrote the following in English:

"Nailed in the USA" is a description of our trip on the Vicki Peters nail cruise while "What makes You different from the competition?" includes some suggestions how to make your salon more unique and competitive.

I produced a step-by-step and an article on being a working mother. Both of these are in Swedish:

In Moscow

2009-03-23T18:05:00.004+01:00

We arrived in Moscow yesterday where I will be a judge at Festival of Beauty nail competitions. Today was a free day so we visited some tourist sites such as Red Square, St Basil's Cathedral, and the History Museum as it's Bob's first time in Moscow. As we came out of Red Square we meet some interesting characters ;-)

Düsseldorf Beauty International show

2009-03-22T17:54:00.002+01:00

Bob and I visited the Beauty International show on 20th March. The show actually runs from 20-23rd March and hosts both the German national and World Nail championships. It was very busy with many women pulling along carry-on luggage to carry all their nail product purchases. There were special show prices so I stocked up on some nail art materials ;-)

We met Triang Nyugen and Anthony Buckley who were demonstrating on the Odessey and EZ Flow stands, and Vicki Peters who was a judge for the European competitions. Five or six Russian and Ukrainian nail artists had been flown in to demonstrate on other stands and impressed everyone with their wonderful designs.

Jazz theme photo's

2009-03-22T01:31:00.010+01:00

Bob had the idea to create a jazz theme for some photo's, so he borrowed a saxaphone and I made some nail art on Frida. We spent 1.5 hours in the photo studio and created a few different images.

Model and makeup: Frida Kardeskoog
Photographer: Bob Giblett

Nail Aesthetics magazine article

2009-03-17T18:02:00.007+01:00

Following my cover photograph that appeared in December, the Ukrainian magazine Nail Aesthetics published a single page article in the January issue. This was an interview that described my experience as a nail technician who had moved to Sweden and my current work as an educator, nail artist and nail stylist.

When I was living in Ukraine, I always looked forward to the next issue of Nail Aesthetics, even though this meant a trip across town to buy a copy from a nail products supplier.

Nail Aesthetics always contained a lot of useful articles and inspiring nail art, so it's a wonderful feeling to think that my work has finally appeared in this much loved magazine.

New nail art training catalog!

2009-03-16T13:36:00.009+01:00

I've been receiving some invitations recently to provide nail art training in other countries - which is all very exciting! So Bob spent the weekend finishing my education catalog - bless him! I am really happy with how it looks. He's created a version for Sweden and international clients that you can see online here.

In addition to the training described in the catalog I can create a customized workshop to suit your company or school.

Playing with mixed media nail art

2009-03-16T00:49:00.007+01:00

I love flamingo's since I saw them in San Diego zoo in January. So tonight I created a this mixed-media design. Hope that you like it!

Fantasy Fairy

2009-03-10T22:52:00.004+01:00

Back in January a group of nail techs I was with asked me to create a birthday present for our friend. Here's what I created. The decoration and fairy is made from acrylic using fantasy techniques. The heart was created from red beads.

You can click on the images to make them bigger.

Sam Biddle's visit to Sweden

2009-03-07T10:09:00.007+01:00

Just a reminder to book early for the nail art workshops that Sam and I are making in May. We have some places left on all dates but the advert in Naglar i Norden magazine will be published in the next issue and we expect a lot of response.

See the advert here.

Booking information
Dates for this creative nail adventure are:

22nd May (Götebörg)
23rd May (Malmö)
24th May (Norrköping)
25th May (Stockholm)

Workshop times on each day are as follows:

Working with coloured gels: 08.30 to 11.30
Hand painted designs for salon customers : 12.30 to 15.30
Introduction to fantasy and acrylic sculpting : 16.00 to 21.00

Prices:

600 kr plus moms for one workshop
1500 kr plus moms for all three workshops

Step-by-step in February's Scratch magazine

2009-03-07T08:51:00.011+01:00

My Valentine Nails design appeared in the February issue of Scratch together with several of my photo's in the wedding nails article.

Makeup/model: Frida Kardeskog
Photographer: Bob Giblett

Makeup/model: Mariya Rodjkina
Photographer: Victor Medinsky, Medinksy Studios (Kiev)

My one-on-one with Sam Biddle

2009-02-24T17:26:00.011+01:00

I've just had two days of nail tech heaven! Learning new techniques, a great instructor and lots of nail chat!

Although I'm quite familiar with most of the fantasy techniques, each person tends to follow their own path of discovery. This means even though you might have studied a subject before, that different instructors will always give you some new information or skill. As an educator myself, it's not unusual for me to learn something from my students as well.

So for the last two days I've been here in Bournemouth on the south coast of England to spend some one-on-one time with Sam Biddle. I was especially interested to meet Sam for two reasons. Firstly, Sam has a very interesting creative approach which tends to be quite 'out of the box'. I suspect that Sams point of reference for any design is to totally avoid producing anything that's been done before which is something that I also strive to achieve. Secondly, Sam uses a different technique to create some of her fantasy figures than what I use in my work. So this was a chance to develop my own skills further in this area.

Here are some photos of the pieces that I created. Click to see a larger image:

The figure of the man is sitting on a drink straw and is about 3cm high. So you can get a perspective of the size of the pieces from this.

Creating fantasy designs is all about knowing your product and being able to control the material. All of the pieces above were created only with acrylic; it's important to be able to work quickly and precisely. I guess that's one reason why I find it so fascinating!

At the end of the two days I was happy with what I had managed to create and Sam was very positive about my results. Along the way I learnt a lot of new tips and also understood more about the difference between the materials we used and how to manipulate them to create the best result.

Thanks Sam for a wonderful time! See you in Sweden for our Nail Art Smögåsbord workshops we are making together in May! (see earlier post for information on this).

Finally, Bob and I would also like to thank Sam's husband John who drove 40 minutes to Bournemouth to join us for an evening meal. Lovely to meet you John!

Photographic workshop with Sam Biddle

2009-02-22T18:04:00.004+01:00

Bob and I have flown to the UK to meet Sam Biddle. Today we attended Sam's photographic workshop, then tomorrow and the day after Sam will give me some instruction on how she creates her fantasy designs.

The photographic workshop is designed to show nail techs how they can use simple compact cameras to create good images for their website or other marketing material. It isn't designed to teach you how to be a photographer, but more how to plan your image and use colour to create a specific mood. Sam does talk briefly about lighting and how to get the best from using flash.

After the instruction, Sam asked everyone to create a photographic concept and then produce the photo with our models and any accessories we wanted to use. After two hours we all chose our best photo's and then sat down to review these as a group.

Personally, I found the process of writing a creative plan quite frustrating. Perhaps to some extent this was due to the limited time we had which meant I was limited in the accessories that I could use. Also, my natural style is to be a bit more of an artistic free-thinker and for ideas to evolve during the process, rather that define the process at the start.

Bob found the process easier. His personality is much more logical and organized. In many ways I think this is why we work so well together as our personalities compliment each other. On the other hand he became very frustrated being forced to use a compact camera rather than his professional camera - at one point he wanted to throw my camera against the wall!

It was a very interesting day. We met some lovely people and we all had a lot of fun. Both Bob and I picked up some new ideas and information that we will find very useful. The most important of these is that in future we will plan our photos much more in the future. Thanks Sam!

French nails using gel

2009-02-14T13:10:00.007+01:00

Here are two photographs we made earlier this week. I used gel to create the nails. Jenni was my model and Bob took the photo's. The jacket is from Zara and the handbag from Karen Millen. Hope you like the photos.

International Nail Experts School

2009-02-14T12:04:00.002+01:00

INES was created on 18th December 2008 in Moscow, Russia. The objective of the organization is to establish standards for competition judges, judge training and assessment so that competitions have equal standards of international judging.

Until now different competitions operate under different rules and may have judges who have not been trained. This can create a not uncommon problem that one judges marks may be very different and inconsistent with the other judges. Also, if competitions operate under different rules how should we really compare the standards or winners in different competitions?

INES hopes to clarify these points and establish international standards. You can read an introduction to INES here.

The standards are created and maintained by a group of Honourable Judges who are listed here. They will also provide training to new judges or experienced judges that want to follow the INES standards.

Festival of Beauty in Moscow

2009-02-14T10:17:00.005+01:00

A nice surprise arrived by email on Thursday. I received an invitation to help judge the nail competitions at the Festival of Beauty in Moscow from 25 to 28th of March. It's a honour to be asked and I'm delighted to accept.

I enjoy judging. It's an opportunity to see the work of some of the best nail tech's which I always find inspiring. It's also a chance for me to give something back to the industry that I love.

Judging is a serious business. Nail techs not only often travel great distances to attend a competition, but those few hours of competition are the sharp end of many months of work to refine and perfect their technique. This makes judging quite stressful as it's critical to concentrate and mark the nails to the best of your abilities, which is difficult especially when the standard is high and the differences between the best nails is extremely small.

The competition is being organized by the International Nail Experts School. This is a relatively new and very interesting organization that I'll describe in my next post.

Sam Biddle visits Sweden, May 2009

2009-02-02T09:58:00.013+01:00

Sam Biddle - Be Inspired

We're delighted that Sam Biddle has agreed to visit Sweden and make a 4-day nail nail art workshop in Sweden! Sam is a Master Artist Educator for EZ Flow Systems, a national and international competition winner and her work has appeared on the covers of Scratch and NAILS magazines.

Sam is famous in the UK for her nail art workshops which are so popular they are usually sold-out.

A Smörgåsbord of Nail Art
Introducing... NEW to Sweden a colourful smörgåsbord of Nail art and design with Sam Biddle and Iryna Giblett

We invite you to come and join us and develop your skills, build on your creativity and increase profitability within your business, with these three unique master classes.

Utilize the benefits of nail art within your business, find out how you can make a profit from adding this simple service to your menu. Win new clients and keep old with a range of simple but effective designs using just paints and glitters. Iryna Giblett will guide you through the steps to make paint work for you, adding a little extra something on your finger tips.

Show off your talents and maximize individuality with Fantasy.

Learning some amazing product control with international competition winner and judge Sam Biddle from the UK, you can give your business a boost and make it stand out from the crowd. Learn how to improve your creativity and inspire your clients with some amazing art work.

Use gel, now you can try something different offering your clients an alternative to their regular looks. Give them a lift and try something different. Gel is a fantastic medium which if used correctly can produce stunning results. Now here is your chance to wow the crowds with Sam
Biddle's front cover look. Learn how to work with what you've got, creating an elegant and stylish look in the same time you would create a French.

These three creative colour master classes are developed for you to mix and match your learning. Each day we will hold three classes of approximately 3 hours, incorporating 2 full hours of practical application.

This new concept offers you a chance to choose which workshop suits you. Each class is run for 3 hours and all you need to do is book on the one which interests you. All material provided for each class, just pick up the phone and book your master class today. The price is only 600kr (approx. 60 €) per master class, or for the full smorgasbord menu of three 1500kr.

About the Instructors
Sam Biddle and Iryna Giblett are internationally recognized as two of Europe's leading nail artists. Sam Biddle is an international competition winner and Judge, with her successful brand Be inspired, Sam produces front cover looks and contributes to the industry as a whole with a wealth of knowledge in art and design. Helping techs get inspired sam produces DVD's and step by steps to bring back the colour and creativity into technicians work.

Iryna, is well known to Swedish nail techs for her regular nail art contributions to Naglar i Norden. She is also an international competition judge and opened the first nail art school in Sweden in 2008. Iryna's passion for nail design and talent to produce amazing images has produced an international reputation in a very short time. Her images have appeared in magazines and as front covers in four countries.

This mini road show of workshops will be held in;

22nd May, Götebörg
23rd May, Malmö
24th May, Norrköping, and
25th May, Stockholm

Minimum places available. To book your place send an email to iryna@irynagiblett.com and we will send you the payment instructions. On receipt of payment we will confirm your place.

Workshops

Working with coloured gels: 08.30 to 11.30
Hand painted designs for salon customers : 12.30 to 15.30
Introduction to fantasy and acrylic sculpting : 16.00 to 21.00

Price: 600 kr per workshop or 1500 kr for all three.

For more information on Sam and Iryna's work, visit their websites:
www.sambiddle.co.uk and www.iryna.giblett.com

Nail Those Profits At Sea 2009 cruise with Vicki Peters

2009-01-27T22:28:00.023+01:00

We've just returned home from two weeks in San Diego and the NTP 2009 cruise down the Mexican Riviera. It was an amazing experience where we made many new friends, had some terrific education and shared some wonderful experiences. This was our first NTP cruise and it was a great privilege for me to be invited as a NTP Educator and to be given the opportunity to demonstrate some of my nail art.

The following people also provided education:

Dr. Ken Gerenraich - a leading authority on foot care and sanitation, creator of the Dr. G products
Christine Turner - the 'Vicki Peters' of Canada. Champion nail tech, judge and competition director, winner of Nail Technician of the Year 2004-2005 and Salon of the Year 2004-2005.
Jessica Hoel - winner of the NAILS magazine cover competition 2009
Lina Hernandez - Educator for Light Concept Nails
Loni Jensen-Preato - competition champion and one of the hottest nail techs who travels the US with her High Road to Education.
Nanci Soltani - winner of Salon of the Year.
Doug Schoon - unfortunately Doug couldn't attend the cruise this year but we meet for a group breakfast before boarding the ship. Doug is a master nail chemist who led CND's R&D lab for more than 20 years.
Anette Claesson - editor of Sweden's Naglar i Norden magazine and pioneer who introduced nail enhancements to Sweden in 1985. Anette is a nail health specialist who's presentations are in constant demand
Vicki Peters - as a nail technician, she wowed the industry with her championship nails. As a cover artist and author, her work has been published worldwide, more than any other tech in the history of the nail business. As an educator, she has trained techs from Russia, Germany, Japan, Ireland, UK, Canada, Mexico, Africa, Australia and the US.

For my education class, I showed a wedding nail design that uses the 'gel island' technique (you can read more about this technique in an earlier post).

Lonni and Nanci did some lovely modern gel designs and definitely gave me some new ideas. Thanks ladies!

We also had a competition with Vicki as the judge. The task was to create a perfect stiletto nail with decoration in one hour. I was extremely nervous with so much talent and experience to compete against, and was therefore very happy to win the 2nd place with 93 out of 100 points. Loni came first with an amazing 96/100 points. Christine came a close third even though she was suffering badly with sea-sickness.

Photo (left to right): Vicki Peters (judge), Loni Jensen-Preato (1st), Iryna Giblett (2nd), Christine Turner (3rd).

My stiletto entry:

During the cruise it was Vicki's birthday. As one of the gifts from us all, I was asked to decorate a glass. I only had a few hours before the evening meal, but here's a photo of it. The fairy at the top was made of acrylic using fantasy techniques:

We had shore stops on three different days at Acapulco, Zihuatenajo/Ixpata and Manzanillo.
Of these, Zihuatenajo was my favourite as it's a small, natural Mexican fishing town where we had a wonderful guide in Alejandro Ruiz (Alex) who spent four hours showing us around. One of the highlights was coming back from Ixpata and Bethanne deciding to hold a crocodile for a photograph! I just about manage a smile but I am ready to run at any moment!

In Zihuatenajo we came across this nail salon which was open to the street. It was the nail tech's house and gave a new meaning to 'drop-in nails'! Bethanne O'Neil is back left and Anette Claesson is show back right. Bob also took a photo of the menu.

A few more cruise photo's:

With husband Bob at an evening meal

With Vicki

Son Andriy getting an NTP award for being a good boy!

Hard at work during the stiletto competition

Carnival Spirit

Pelicans fishing

Nail and foot treatments in Manzanillo

Acapulco

Zihuatenajo

Beach in Zihuatenajo

Before the cruise we spent 4 days looking around San Diego and the area. It's a very nice city which has a small town feel about it, with lots to do. We went whale-watching (we saw two males and a female), spent an afternoon at the San Diego zoo, and rented a car for a trip to the small beautiful town of La Jolla.

Some photo's of San Diego:

View from our hotel

View from the whale-watching boat

Sea lions in the habour

For any nail tech's who haven't been on a NTP cruise, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a tremendous opportunity to meet some of the top nail professionals in our industry and I guarantee you will come home filled with enthusiasm and ideas to make both you and your salon more successful, and a raft of wonderful new friends! The next NTP cruise is April 11-23 and goes to HAWAII! See you there!

Baltic Beauty Show - Riga, Latvia

2009-01-11T09:44:00.000+01:00

We made a late decision to come to the show after Bob discovered that it attracted more than 16,000 beauty professionals during the three days. He also found out that they were looking for a nail art judge and so he 'volunteered' me to help!

We'd been to Riga before - it's quite popular to take a ferry (more like a small cruise ship) from Stockholm to Riga, Tallin in Estonia or Helsinki (Finland). Riga has a lovely old town and has good shipping and restaurants - so it's perfect for a weekend break. You can read more about Riga here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riga

Unfortunately, the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been hit very hard by the economic crises. So we really didn't know what to expect from a beauty show during these difficult times.

Although the show seemed to attract a lot of visitors, few people were buying products from what we could see. We didn't take products to sell (we didn't have the time or energy to make arrangements with the Latvian tax office to collect and pay sales tax) - but instead wanted to show ourselves and products, and get feel of the market. Iryna Zamostinchuk our Global Educator and distributor from Moldova came and helped, making nail art on the booth when I was judging.

Over the three days we made some good contacts who are potential partners in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, saw some nice nail art and met many nail techs who were interested in our products and education concept. So we were glad we went!

Wedding nail design using "gel island"

2009-01-06T15:05:00.010+01:00

One of the nail magazines is running a wedding nails article in February and wondered if I could supply some nail designs. With the help of Bob as the photographer, plus Jenni and Frida as models we managed to create a series of photo's in a few days.

The first design below is a variation of the "putty technique" that I invented for the Valentine nails in a previous post. I call this method the "gel island" technique.

Both techniques are methods used to produce different shaped holes in the nails that can either be left open or form a transparent window - without using an electric file. In this design I used transparent gel with a hint of glitter. You can click on any image to make them bigger.

The second design uses standard gel and acrylic techniques:

Lotta's Christmas nails

2008-12-23T17:53:00.000+01:00

I spend about 30% of my time making salon nails for customers. The remainder is spent learning Swedish, working towards a Swedish car license, practising nail art techniques and making nail design photographs.

When I started work in Sweden in April 2007, none of my customers wanted nail art just simple french or strengthening of their natural nails. However, 20% of my customers now have nail art on one nail or more.

Lotta is one of my 'ten nail' customers who loves nail art. This time she brought a bottle of nail paint in the color she wanted, and I created these holiday nails for her using a similar color of green gel with glitter and embedded with lace.

Snake skin nails

2008-12-19T16:10:00.001+01:00

We were browsing through Karen Millen in Stockholm last week and Bob found a wonderful pair of snake skin shoes - perfect for a nail photograph! The only question was how to create a snake skin effect on nails? After trying a couple of methods, I managed to find a technique that was quick and looked reasonably similar.

Valentine nails using "putty technique"

2008-12-11T16:21:00.004+01:00

When we were at the Beauty 08 exhibition in Stockholm back in October, Bob noticed a very attractive model who had entered in the make-up competition as Marylin Monroe. Realizing the potential for an interesting nail photograph, Bob spoke to her and she was delighted to help us!

Frida Kardeskog is a professional makeup artist who works in the entertainment industry and has worked on CD covers, fashion and TV.

We wanted the theme of the nail photo to be based on Marylin Monroe, and I decided to make some bright red stilettoes with a love theme.

As part of the design I wanted to have a heart shaped hole in each nail. Using an electric file clearly wouldn't work as the bottom of the heart had to be a sharp 'v'. I could have used a small file to create this, but to do ten nails would take a lot of time.

After some discussion with Bob, we came up with a new method that we now call the "Putty Technique". You can see the effect here:

Blue and gold nails

2008-12-07T19:43:00.000+01:00

Jenni Jansson is the model for the blue and gold nails.

Front cover of Nail Aesthetics

2008-11-29T08:07:00.002+01:00

I was very happy to learn that one of my designs had been chosen for the December 2008 issue of the Ukrainian magazine Nail Aesthetics.

Photographer: Victor Medinsky
Makeup/model: Alisa Kalagnova

Red, black and gold nails

2008-11-08T20:50:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Jenni Jansson for being our model. Photographs again taken by Bob Giblett.

Beauty 08 exhibition, Stockholm

2008-10-25T17:01:00.002+02:00

I rented a booth at the show to test or disprove the theory (often heard in Sweden) that nail art isn't popular. Incidentally, Bob's theory is that it's nail art education that isn't popular and that unless a nail tech can show a range of designs skills then the customer doesn't know what's possible or ask for it.

During the three days at the show I created 49 designs, with each person getting nail art on all ten nails. After the first few hours I had to organize an appointment system due to the demand and later we simply had to turn people away. In total, we estimate that we had to turn away between 150 to 200 people during the three days.

The queue seen below was typical. I'm somewhere behind all of this! As you can see we used a flat screen TV hooked up to a video camera to show the progress of each design. Many people would just stop to watch this, even if they didn't want nail art.

The most often heard comments from the customers were that they didn't know such nail art existed, or how difficult it was to find a nail technician who was a trained artist.

So if you hear that nail art isn't popular, simply remember that no-one wanted the iPod until it was shown and demonstrated! It's up to you, the nail tech, to develop your skills and offer your customers a wider choice. You will also have a lot more fun being creative and will also win more respect from your customer as a skilled professional.

Remember that more respect also equals greater loyalty. As we enter a global recession it's even more important for you to differentiate your services from your competitors. While it's unlikely that more than 20% of your customers will want nail art, 100% of them will be interested to see your new designs every month and appreciate that you are developing your skills.

After all, would you prefer to go to a hairdresser or a top hair-stylist?

Acrylic stilettos

2008-10-21T17:42:00.001+02:00

This is a complex acrylic and gel design that took six hours to produce. Thanks to our new model and friend Jenni Jansson for her patience!

As you see from the photo on the right, the lines design goes through the nail and isn't simple white paint.

Creating our own photographic studio

2008-10-20T05:50:00.005+02:00

Until now, all of our nail design photographs have been produced in Kiev. We are lucky to have a wonderful friendship with professional photographer Victor Medinsky; and friends such as Alisa Kalagnova (makeup and model), Mariya Rodjkina (model) and Anastasia (model).

During 2008 we have visited Kiev three times and apart from the cost of flights and accommodation which we fund privately, we have come to realize that we also need the ability to make photographs in Sweden so that several designs can be produced each month.

This means we need to find local models, a makeup artist and setup our own photo studio. The last part is purely a question of cost, but during the last six months Bob has been buying lights, lenses and background material. He's also going to attend a short lighting course in a few weeks.

Having a local facility doesn't mean we will stop making photo's in Kiev. Bob freely admits that he isn't a professional photographer like Victor, and we will want to visit Kiev twice a year anyway to visit my parents and our friends.

Naglar i Norden cover

2008-10-01T09:00:00.001+02:00

Our second front cover for Naglar i Norden this year. Six inside pages also covered my most recent nail designs.

Photographer: Victor Medinsky
Models: Mariya Rodjkina (cover), Alisa Kalagnova, Anastasia
Makeup: Alisa Kalagnova

Article for USA's NAILS magazine

2008-07-01T09:31:00.000+02:00