Empire's Nail Art Display

OMG. I just judged the most extraordinary thing EVER!!!! The Empire Education Group held its 2010 Future Professionals Expo recently and I was assigned the honor of being one of the judges for the Nail Art Display category. "I can do that," I thought. "Reallyâ€¦how tough can nails be?"

Ummmmm, turns out it can be VERY toughâ€¦especially when it's really not NAILSâ€¦but art created with nails! These 90 dioramas were like nothing I had ever seen before.

There was a museum piece where the nails were used as the canvas and great works of art were painted on this canvas. This "artist" pained Mona Lisa, Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and other mind blowing replications of iconic art. HOW WAS THIS DONE????!!!!

There was a Barbie display that had actual LIVE fish swimming in a baby pool at Barbie's feet.
There was a Hello Kitty display with real dirt.
There was this mind bogglingâ€¦totally perfect from inside and outâ€¦Alice in Wonderlandâ€¦and Wizard of Ozâ€¦and an Ed Hardy Storeâ€¦and salons and wedding cakes. Unbelievable!!!!!

I was honored to be included among a very select and exciting group of judges: Jan Arnold, co-founder of CND; Jan Zanettini, National School Account Manager of CND; Trang Nguygen, owner of Odyssey Nail Systems and Catherine Wong, trainer for Odyssey Nail Systems.

The winner was Tiffany Manning from Gwinnette, GA. Her display was an homage to "Endangered Species". It ROTATED!!!!

Her prizes include an Odyssey Nails Educational Event, a CND gift set, a backstage experience at NY fashion week with CND and the Future Professionals Expo trophy.

Awards to 2nd through 5 include trophies and Gift Sets from Odyssey Nails and CND:

2nd: Amy Essig from Wyoming Valley, PA
3rd: Jennifer Soto from Aurora, CO
4th: Colorina Salazar of C. Tucson, AZ
5th: Nichole Aukerman from Portage, MI