Every effort is made to ensure that we provide qualified judges. Being a competition, this is obviously the most important aspect to maintain a fair & fun competition. Judges meet prior to the competitions starting so all are very clear on what they are judging & their responsibilities. Judging sheets will be made available to competitors after the award ceremony and judges will make every effort to be available for any questions/critique after, though this is NOT guaranteed. Any judging sheets not picked up after the competition will be sent out by show management with your certificate of attendance.
The judging is blind, meaning only the models hands will be seen by each judge, with the exception of the Fantasy Nail Art Competition. The judge will have no knowledge of which technician created which set of nails - models will be identified by numbers randomly assigned at the competition.
Also, the judges do not all judge every aspect of the set. Each judge is given 3-4 points out of 10 to judge. This way they can concentrate on a few aspects of the nails, rather than all. This will help to keep the judging consistent and keep any one judge from drastically raising or lowering a competitors score, since they do not judge all 10 points. The last benefit to this method of judging is that the judging process tends to move a bit quicker, which is good in larger competitions, such as ours.
Judges are allowed to use partial points (6.5 or 7.3 etc), also in the event of a tie, the head judge's score will determine the place. For any ties falling below 10th place, each entry with the same score will simply be listed in alphabetical order, as a place below 10th will not effect competitors' standing in ranks.
In keeping with our International Status, every effort is made to ensure judges are a mix of US and International Judges.
***Please read all of the rules and get clarification on ANY rule you are not 100% certain of, as this is your responsibility. If you compete & are judged with a deduction due to a rule that you did not interpret the way it was meant, it is too late to change this at the competition. Judges decisions are final and all entries are judged on the exact same criteria. Don't learn a lesson at the competition, get ALL of your questions clarified before hand to ensure a more satisfying experience.