We can hardly believe it’s been eight years since we launched the first-ever NAILS Readers’ Choice Awards. Allowing YOU to choose YOUR favorite products by category has always made sense to us. I mean, who better to choose the best professional nail care products than those of you who use them on a regular basis?

For a professional nail product manufacturer, making it on the top five list is a very validating moment in the spotlight. Ours are not “editor’s picks” or a “best of” roundup; they’re simply a snapshot in time telling us the products you and your peers love at this moment.

So what are your favorite products? We’ve tallied the votes and are happy to announce the winners of the 2011 NAILS Readers’ Choice Awards. (The votes for products were very close, so we are listing your top five favorites in each category. We’re also highlighting the top 20 favorite new products for 2011.)

And since we have some history behind our awards, log on to www.nailsmag.com/RCA to take a look at our new online feature that shows what products are consistently on the list from year to year and who has broken into the club of finalists. You’ll notice we’ve modified our categories a bit this year to reflect industry trends (we added a gel-polish category, for instance).

Now for the small print: We sent out nomination forms to every major product manufacturer in the nail industry. They nominated themselves (NAILS did not select the products for voting). In August and September, we sent readers online to vote for their favorite ­products. If your favorite products weren’t listed, you could write them in. Readers were not required to vote for every category.

If you have any comments or would like to see additional categories in the future, please let us know. You can e-mail Hannah.Lee@bobit.com.

Related Article:

NAILS Readers' Choice Awards Winners (2004-2011)