Here’s what happened at Slovenian nail competition, Nail Design 2019

By Scratch Staff | 25 June 2019 | Events, News

Multi-award winner and founder of Nabuno, Sue Davies, reveals nail tales from a trip to Slovenia, at which she lent her judging expertise to the Nail Design 2019 competition…

Last winter, I received a message from a nail buddy, Mojca Janezic, from Slovenia. Mojca owns Akademija Studio Lepota – a specialist nail academy; one of only a few in Slovenia. She was in the process of bringing her national nail competition back to the fore and asked if I would be able to join her team of judges. We’ve worked together in the competition arena a few times over the years and so I jumped at the chance to work with her again.

Nail Design 2019 was to take place on 18 May in Portoroz, Slovenia. I’ve never been to that part of Europe and although I’d heard a bit about it over the years, nothing prepared me for the beauty of landing in the midst of the Triglav National Park, which is a stunning vista of forest and green with an airport runway in the middle of its neatly edged tree line.

On arrival, I was met by a member of the competition team and we awaited the arrival of Emma Harris, multi award-winning competition tech and educator, arriving from Dublin. Emma and I were to be roomies and we had a lot of catching up to do as we hadn’t spent time together since I organised my last competition in Dublin in 2016.

Driving through Slovenia from Ljubljana to Portoroz was a journey of lush green views and great commentary on what we were seeing by Mojca’s son who was driving us down to the competition venue. We were warmly welcomed by the competition team at Hoteli Bernardin in Portoroz, a stunning hotel built into the cliffs overlooking the Adriatic Sea and Croatia. We got to meet the lovely Zlatka Brodie, who was the competition’s head judge.

Having settled into our room, Emma and I ventured out for dinner along the sea front and enjoyed a stunning sunset. Over dinner, we reviewed our rules for the competition the next day. The competition is slightly different from how UK & Irish competitions are now most often formulated and there is still a requirement for both hands to be completed with pink & white on the left and red on the right.

On Saturday, we were on the competition floor for 9am for the first briefing, and although we couldn’t understand what was being said, we could still feel the palpable tension on the competition floor. We met our last colleague on the judging team, Diana Brajevic from Croatia. The competition was a one-day event with Manicure, Permanent Polish, Salon Nail, Pink & White Competition and Boxed Mixed Media with an overall winner of the event based on accumulated points.

There was a mixed standard with some beautiful nails and great creativity in the boxed art and most categories were able to compete in three divisions for students, competition first timers and experienced competitors. There’s nothing like seeing the joy of competitors placing and winning and there several multiple winners who couldn’t believe their success.

The rules didn’t allow for cover pink in the competition and so choice of model was even more important as there was a 50/50 length requirement for nail plate/free edge measurements. This means models with long nail beds were a necessity to achieve a balanced finish to the competition nails. Although this is not how we work within competitions in the UK any longer, it was interesting to see how the competitors worked with this constraint. A final difference was that the score sheets are held by the organisers and competitors need to apply for their scores and placing following the competition as this information is not given as a handout at the end of the day as we would do in UK competitions. It seemed unusual to us as we are used to score sheets and queues to speak to judges, but perhaps this polite country and society prefer an alternative to the hustle and bustle that UK comps have at the end of the event.

After the competitors had left the team toasted the day and introduced us to the wonders of Borovnicke, the traditional Slovenian homemade Blueberry Schnapps. Warming and effective!

Emma and I had a great weekend and had probably one of the most memorable meals of a ham and cheese toastie and pomme frites in the hotel room on Saturday night as the dandelion pesto on the menu in the gorgeous restaurant was a little out of our desires after a long day in the competition room. It was definitely a night that required carbs!

It was a long but enjoyable day of judging and was a joy to be part of such a hard working and passionate team. The competition will be running next year and so it maybe one to put in your diary if you fancy a trip to beautiful Slovenia to compete. Although the language barrier can be a challenge, the organisers are able to provide all rules and regulations in English and even if you can’t attend you could possibly send over a Boxed Mixed Media entry for judging.

We enjoyed a great after party at the hotel and the next day went back to the capital, Ljubljana for some sightseeing, including visiting the medieval castle and indulging in traditional Slovenian food along the riverbanks of the Ljubjanica River.

It wass great to spend time with like-minded nail professionals from different countries and experiences over drinks and lunch before heading back to the airport to return home to the UK.

I am already looking forward to Nail Design 2020!

For more information about Nail Design, click here.

THE WINNERS – NAIL DESIGN 2019

SOAK OFF GEL POLISH

Division 1