Meet the Winner

The story of Cover Tech Anastasia Luksha’s start in the nail business is a familiar one: She was looking for a job to provide her with independence while she pursued a college degree. “I was studying programming at the university and decided I didn’t want to wait six years until graduation to earn an income,” she says. “After researching cosmetology, I chose to get involved in the nail industry, thinking I could easily combine it with my university studies. Eleven years later, I’m still doing nails and I still feel like there is so much to learn.” Luksha says her nail career really took off in 2007, three years after her initial decision, when she began competing. “Nail competitions helped me to improve my skills, learn about discipline, and set goals and achieve them,” she says.

Today Luksha is the proud owner of Nail Couture, a nail product distributor. “We provide trainings for nail technicians in Russia and internationally. Since 2013, we’ve also been conducting online trainings all over the world,” she says.

As for the winning image, Luksha’s intention was to play with contrast by combining black and white, and to create a design that would be striking even when viewed from a distance of several feet. “I like doing small-scale, miniature designs too, but for the cover I wanted something less complicated, but eye-catching at the same time,” she says. “As the focus was on the nails, we decided not to add anything that would be a distraction.” The nails themselves are sculptured acrylics. “I used forms, but in order to create really long nails, I had to stick two forms together,” she notes. “The black and white circles are made of acrylic as well, and I outlined them with a little acrylic paint.”

The project was a team effort among friends. “The model is one of my first students. The makeup artist is also someone I met when she attended my training, and the photographer is her husband.”