Amy Hwang (@aymehnails) of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, won the first ever Beauty Envision Award for nail art. The win was announced Sunday at the Hollywood Palladium.

On Sunday, July 21, 27 top hairstylists and three nail artist professionals from the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada came together for the inaugural COTY Professional North American Beauty Envision Awards presented by TrendVision at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California. The Beauty Envision Awards presented by TrendVision is a competition for salon professionals who are ready to influence the very definition of beauty with the art they create. This competition replaces the Wella Professionals’ TrendVision Awards and the Sebastian Professional’s What’s Next Awards.

Guests cheered on finalists, who were narrowed down from over 5,000 entries, competing in eight beauty categories. Kaleidoscope was the theme during the live competition. This year’s theme challenged competitors to capture the complex pattern of constantly changing colors and shapes tied to the idea that life is constantly evolving, as is the beauty industry. Hwang and fellow finalists Guadalupe Ocaranza and Allison Goertzen each completed two nail art looks on a model at the live event.

Finalists in each category were mentored and judged by a group of leading professionals in their field. Mentors guided finalists towards achieving their final looks representing the “Kaleidoscope” theme, while judges looked for high levels of innovation, technique, skill and creative interpretation of the theme. For the nail art category, the judge was OPI co-founder Suzi Weiss-Fischmann and the mentor was Suzie Moskal. Hwang walked away with $5,000 and $1,000 toward OPI education.

Fischmann said that this new way of competing (competitors entered the contest via Instagram) “keeps OPI at the forefront of the industry” and “excites consumers and professionals alike.” She noted that this competition elevates the professional’s place in the beauty industry and shows everyone how far techs can push the creative limits.

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