Insight: Understanding scoresheets from nail & beauty competitions
By Katie Barnes | 31 July 2023 | Expert Advice, Feature
To not be a finalist or winner in a nail competition or awards can leave you wondering what you did wrong and make you question your skills. As a competitor and judge, I would like to share my experiences…
Recognition aside, simply applying for a nail award or being shortlisted as a finalist, or working towards a competition entry, brings a multitude of benefits to your nail business. Putting together an award application or a competition entry can help you reflect on your skills and career progress to help you improve. It may push you to become more competitive by increasing your visibility and making improvements necessary to grow your business that you may not have considered previously.
When you are shortlisted as a finalist, you get an opportunity to receive useful feedback about your work and submission. When you receive this, it may be difficult to understand what this means.
If this is your first competition, it can be easy to want to strive for 9 plus in your scores and seeing 4-5 as an insult on your technical skills. Marking is typically 0-10, with 4-5 being average level. This means that this is salon standard level, so to be achieving this, especially in your first competition. is not unusual or anything to be concerned with. Marks around 6-7 indicate above average level which would be an advanced tech, so is great to be achieving. We know that perfection is rare, so achieving a 10 in some areas can be extremely difficult.
If you mark lower than a 4 in one area, it doesn’t mean that you are a poor technician; it means there is room for improvement in that area. Often, it may be something simple such as ‘was the competitor wearing full PPE, including gloves, mask etc?’ If you were not wearing gloves, you would automatically be marked down for this as it was specified in the rules. If something wasn’t completed in the time frame or wasn’t present to be judged, this one area would be a 0 because it was not present or able to be scored – it doesn’t mean that your overall work was scored a 0.
You can take this feedback back to your nail business to make adjustments and improvements, and use this to strengthen your entry in following years and competitions.
When a lower mark is received, there should always be details and comments to explain why that mark was given to help you improve. If you know who the judges were, you may be able to contact them to seek further clarification to help you improve on your scores in the future, if this is permitted by the organisation.
Sometimes, there may be points that you don’t agree with, and it is important to raise this with the competition organiser who can usually give you more clarity or explanation.
If you haven’t already signed up to our free webinar on how to create an award winning Scratch Stars Awards entry, you can sign up here, to prepare you in advance for an entry next year, or explore more of the judging process and what is expected.
Don’t be disheartened if you don’t win or get shortlisted. Use your feedback to help you with your professional development, grow your business and if you are considering re-entering, come back improved next year and remember you are amazing!
Love Katie B x