A few weeks ago, I went to the first day of the two-day Nail Expo Long Beach, formerly Expo Latino. I especially enjoyed watching the winners of Day 1’s student competition. The competition was a team competition where each team had to design an “Elegant Evening Total Look” — meaning do the nails, hair, and make-up for one glammed-up model who then strutted her stuff on the main stage.

The left hand nails were done ahead of time, and the right hand nails had to be done to match the first hand during the allotted 30 minute competition time span. The make-up and hair were done from scratch during the 30 minute period.

Professional nail competitions also took place at this event. (Check your November issue of NAILS for a complete listing of the professional winners.) Competitions included a day-to-avant-garde competition, where each competitor first created a “daytime” look for her model then transformed it into an over-the-top but still sellable “avant-garde” look; and a pink-and-white competition.

The date for next year’s show is July 11 and 12, 2010.

Here are a few of my photos from the Expo.

The “Latina Glam Squad” came in third place in the Elegant Evening Total Look competition with this nail, hair, and make-up design.

Here’s the team (with their model) that won first place in the Elegant Evening Total Look competition.

Max Estrada (here introducing himself and his model) won first place in the Day-to-Avant-Garde competition.

The winners (left to right) of the Day-to-Avant-Garde competition were Kyoko Amemiya (3rd), Satomi Uchiyama (2nd), and Max Estrada (1st).

Tom Bachik (left) and Carla Collier (far right) pose with the winners of the Pink-and-White competition. Winners (left to right) were Yoko Ono (3rd), Lynn Lammers (2^nd), and Magumi Sawase (1st).

—Sree