Aspiring beauty professionals, have I got the show for you. For the first time since I’ve been with NAILS Magazine, I attended the Barristar Beauty School Forum and found that it’s a terrific show to get your feet wet. I attended the Burbank event (if you missed it, don’t worry; there’s one in Anaheim in April, and there are several more in other locations throughout the year, see below) and was excited to see that it’s an intimate cash-and-carry show that’s full of manufacturers who want to reach beauty school students specifically and that it hosts basic nuts-and-bolts classes for students and for beauty school instructions. Here’s how I spent my day.

I was intrigued by a class titled “State boards from an ex-examiner’s perspective”, so I popped in and met instructor Nadene Bruders. Bruders was a California state board examiner as recently as 2004 and now she writes books to help students pass the California state board exam. She has one specifically for aspiring nail techs called Score! How to Pass the California Manicurist State Board Exam. She also tutors students and teaches classes like this one, in which she went over some of the common questions students have about the exam. Find out more at www.californiastateboard.com.

Nail company Backscratchers had a booth to do nail demos, including its acrylic dip system and its wraps. Diana Snipe (left) and Olivia Palmer were also selling both sample kits (which do about three sets of nails) and full kits (which do about 20 to 30 kits) to students. Find out more at www.backscratchers.com.

Wax n Waxing’s Daniel and Patricia Cepeda were offering free brow and lip waxes to demonstrate the company’s product line. They’ve been exhibiting at the Barristar shows for about 20 years and regularly teach classes at beauty schools as well. Find out more at www.waxnwaxing.com.

I watched Mireya Cardona of IzelNails stay busy with product demos. IzelNails makes acrylics, glitters, and all sorts of fun nail art accessories. IzelNails also has an academy through which is teaches nail art classes. Get a schedule and find out more at www.izelnails.com.

Tip Jar’s Adam Tran (left) and Chris Vo manned a table of the company’s assorted nail tips in all sorts of colorful and fun designs. The company hopes to get more involved in recognizing talented nail techs students in the coming year. Find out more at http://tipjar4u.com.

Of course, the show floor didn’t just have nail companies. There were even more hair companies, plus salon clothing lines, cosmetology associations, exam toolkits, salons, and schools.  Beauty School Forum will also be held in San Jose, Calif. (Nov. 20), Kissimmee, Fla. (Feb. 26), Mesa, Ariz. (March 18), Anaheim, Calif. (April 15-16), Minneapolis (May 6), and Indianapolis (Date TBA).

Have you ever been to a Beauty School Forum? What did you think of it?

—Sree