Nailympia COMPETITIONS NEWS

Immerse in competition highlights, interviews & points to note from the Nailympia realm, with its global director, ALEX FOX

Nailympia San Antonio 2026: The results

The end of August saw the fourth Nailympia competition for 2026 play out. Fifty-one competitors from seven countries battled across six arena competitions, four poster and four turn-in art categories – with two sets of judges lending their expertise to scoring. Sixteen experts were enrolled to judge the poster competitions, which were verified and ranked before the two-day arena categories took place 30-31 August in San Antonio, Texas.

The Nailympia San Antonio 2026 arena judges.

Standing proud inside the Premiere San Antonio expo, Premiere’s Ann Donlon and I welcomed competitors and displayed the creative entries that had been submitted to the turn-in art categories. To Stiletto & Beyond entries drew much attention, with their exceptional interpretations of the theme: Time Fracture in the Spirit of Dalí.

The level of artwork, architecture and imagination stepped up for this event. All turn-in categories were of high quality, and all spoke with skill, intelligence, precision, originality and expression. It was exciting to be around such works and to see that the Nailympia themes are stretching and exciting artists.

Trophies were awarded on 31 August, with Maksymilian Borowy of Ireland taking the top title of the 4th Nailympia Premiere Cup 2026, following in the footsteps of earlier recipients: Kataryzyna Kruszynska, Natalia Trefon and Deborah Cocco.

INDIVIDUAL TOP SCORER Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland

WINNER OF WINNERS Division 1 Sezy Tran – USA

Division 2 Larry Ngo – USA

Division 3 Ryuji Nakayama – China

4th PREMIERE CUP WINNER 2026 Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland

ART WINNER OF WINNERS Halyna Kaliugina – USA

TOP USA TECH Larry Ngo

Pedicure Poster entry by Iryna Shemet - 1st place, Division 2.

Manicure Poster entry by Olha Khlomova - 1st place, Division 2.

Gel Polish Manicure by Yeveniia Alienikova – 1st place, Division 3.

Reality Nails by Jessica Vero – 1st place, Division 3.

Runway Nails by Ariana Nevoienna – 1st place, Division 3.

MANICURE POSTER

Division 1 1st – Olena Kolomoiets – USA Division 2 1st – Olha Khlomova – USA 2nd – Iryna Shemet – USA 3rd – Olga Sapunova – Canada Division 3 1st – Viktoriya Komar – USA 2nd – Ariana Nevoienna – USA 3rd – Oksana Viriutina – USA

PEDICURE POSTER

Division 1 1st – Olena Kolomoiets – USA Division 2 1st – Iryna Shemet – USA 2nd – Olha Khlomova – USA 3rd – Mariana Dolganova – USA Division 3 1st – Viktoriya Komar – USA 2nd – Oksana Viriutina – USA 3rd – Ariana Nevoienna – USA

GEL POLISH MANICURE

Division 1 1st – Daryna Narbut – USA 2nd – Clara Banuelos – USA 3rd – Tatiana Kovaleva – USA Division 2 1st – Tetiana Shykhova – USA 2nd – Viktoriia Fedorovykh – USA Division 3 1st – Yevheniia Alienikova – USA 2nd – Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland 3rd – Halyna Kaliugina – USA

REALITY NAILS

Division 1 1st – Sezy Tran – USA 2nd – Gabriela Rivera – USA 3rd – Tatiana Kovaleva – USA Division 2 1st – Larry Ngo – USA 2nd – Chloe Elizabeth Reed – USA Division 3 1st – Jessica Vero – Canada 2nd – Halyna Kaliugina – USA 3rd – Wiktoria Kozlowska – Poland

RUNWAY NAILS Division 1 1st – Sezy Tran – USA 2nd – Katie Vu – USA 3rd – Laura Pham – USA Division 2 1st – Larry Ngo – USA 2nd – Chloe Elizabeth Reed – USA Division 3 1st – Ariana Nevoienna – USA 2nd – Jessica Vero – Canada 3rd – Halyna Kaliugina – USA

AI NAIL VISION STYLING POSTER

Division 1 1st – Sezy Tran – USA 2nd – Olena Kolomoiets – USA 3rd – Nilam Lakhani – USA Division 2 1st – Larry Ngo – USA 2nd – Olha Khlomova – USA 3rd – Iryna Shemet – USA Division 3 1st – Halyna Kaliugina – USA 2nd – Vira Bushta – USA 3rd – Ariana Nevoienna – USA

Flat Art Boxed entry by Olha Demchyk – 1st place, Division 2.

Salon Nails by Wiktoria Kozlowska – 1st place, Division 3.

Extreme Nail Styling Poster entry by Oksana Viriutina – 1st place, Division 3.

Stiletto Nails by Maksymilian Borowy – 2nd place, Division 3.

L&P Acrylic Nails by Ryuji Nakayama – 1st place, Division 3.

Extreme Nail Styling Poster entry by Sezy Tran – 1st place, Division 1.

The Joy Of Nails entry by Halyna Kaliugina – 2nd place, Division 3.

UV Gel Competition Nails by Ryuji Nakayama – 1st place, Division 3.

Pedicure Poste r entry by Viktoriya Komar – 1st place, Division 3.

Flat Art Boxed entry by Halyna Kaliugina – 1st place, Division 3.

To Stiletto & Beyond entry by Maryna Kozhevnikova – 1st place, Division 3.

COMING UP…

4-5 October 2026 Nailympia London (arena)

28-30 November 2026 Nailympia Sicily The Nailympia Sicily turn-in categories and themes are: Design Nails for an Album Cover – Tarantella Siciliana Flat Art – Sicily

Full Cover Creative – My Africa

Stiletto & Beyond – Childhood

Mixed Media – open

Manicure Poster – open

Sculpt & Style Nail Poster – open (NEW) Enter by 15 November at www.nailympiasicily.com

To register your interest in Nailympia’s upcoming events, visit bit.ly/nailympia-ryi-2026 or scan here

FACT FILE

The first Nailympia London was held at the inaugural Olympia Beauty trade event in March 2005. Its tagline was ‘Everyone can enter – anyone can win’. It had five sponsors: OPI, CND™ , NSI, Backscratchers and BABTAC, with two media partners: Scratch and ProfNail. Samuel Sweet (known back then as ‘The Nail Geek’), was invited to emcee the awards. One floor judge was assigned to the arena: Marian Newman BEM, and the competition was supported by an international panel of booth judges that comprised Lena White (UK), Gigi Rouse (Spain), Terri Malon (Germany), Lysa Comfort (USA), Sue Marsh (UK), Jacqui Jefford (UK), Ketan Patel (UK), Clare Walford (UK), Eriko Kurasaki (Japan), Tina Werle (Germany), Kaoru Suzuki (Japan) and Rachel Myatt (UK). This group of experts was named ‘The Incredibles’, since a panel this prestigious was a first on UK shores.

The Nailympia Competitions 2026 global campaign imagery is courtesy of: Nails: Elena Maltseva @elena_maltseva_nail

Coordinator: Elena Popova @popovaelena_nfp

Photographer: Elena Gelberg @pena_litrova

Make-up artist: Varvara Tabutarova @varvara_tabu

Hair stylist: Ksenia Golubeva @kcenja_golubeva

Model: Elizaveta Plotnikova @plotnikova_elizabet

For information about Nailympia Competitions, including how to enter, visit www.nailympia.com

/Nailympia @nailympiacompetitions @nailympia.comps

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EXTREME NAIL STYLING POSTER

Division 1 1st – Sezy Tran – USA Division 2 1st – Olha Khlomova – USA 2nd – Anna Vasilyeva – Russian Federation Division 3 1st – Oksana Viriutina – USA

FLAT ART BOXED Division 1 1st – Tuan Vo – USA 2nd – Sezy Tran – USA 3rd – Alexandra Garcia – USA Division 2 1st – Olha Demchyk – USA 2nd – Larry Ngo – USA 3rd – Sofia Pena – USA Division 3 1st – Halyna Kaliugina – USA 2nd – Vira Bushta – USA 3rd – Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland

TO STILETTO & BEYOND

Division 1 1st – Sezy Tran – USA 2nd – Lam Do – USA

Division 2 1st – Viktoriia Fedorovykh – USA 2nd – Olha Khlomova – USA 3rd – Larry Ngo – USA

Division 3 1st – Maryna Kozhevnikova – USA 2nd – Halyna Kaliugina – USA 3rd – Vira Bushta – USA

SALON NAILS Division 1 1st – Sezy Tran – USA Division 2 1st – Larry Ngo – USA Division 3 1st – Wiktoria Kozlowska – Poland 2nd – Ryuji Nakayama – China 3rd – Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland

THE JOY OF NAILS

Division 1 1st – Clara Banuelas – USA 2nd – Sezy Tran – USA Division 2 1st – Larry Ngo – USA 2nd – Viktoriia Fedorovykh – USA Division 3 1st – Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland 2nd – Halyna Kaliugina – USA 3rd – Wiktoria Kozlowska – Poland

L&P ACRYLIC COMPETITION STYLE NAILS

Division 1 2nd – Sezy Tran – USA

Division 2 1st – Larry Ngo – USA

Division 3 1st – Ryuji Nakayama – China 2nd – Wiktoria Kozlowska – Poland 3rd – Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland

UV GEL COMPETITION STYLE NAILS

Division 2 2nd – Larry Ngo – USA Division 3 1st – Ryuji Nakayama – China 2nd – Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland 3rd – Wiktoria Kozlowska – Poland

STILETTO NAILS Division 1 1st – Sezy Tran – USA Division 2 1st – Larry Ngo – USA 2nd – Viktoriia Fedorovykh – USA Division 3 1st – Ryuji Nakayama – China 2nd – Maksymilian Borowy – Ireland 3rd – Wiktoria Kozlowska – Poland