Beauty Awards 2018 - Review
Last month Milton Keynes experienced it's first ever Beauty Awards, hosted by GM Events. Created especially for Hair & Beauty professionals to get recognised for their hard work, talent success and innovation, as well as giving business owners the opportunity to get brand awareness and exposure that they deserve.
Beauty Awards MK consisted of 15 different categories. All shortlisted winners entered the awards through an application form and GM Events selected the shortlisted winners based on their business acumen. For categories that were judged on talent as well as business, the team visited the shortlisted winners at their premises to complete a checklist from customer service, professional standards, hygiene, safety and client reviews.
Our judges selected their winners and runners up and announced them on the evening.
The awards ceremony itself looked so beautiful with all things pink, flower walls, sparkles, sequins and chandelier table centrepieces. Thank you to Jo at Stardust Events for her Event styling.
The event welcomed over 100 people and started off with networking and welcome drinks, followed by an opening with live singer Holly. If you have attended other GM Events, such as the Fashion Show MK, you would have heard Holly's amazing voice before!
Holly then presented the ceremony and called up each judge, who then introduced their category and why they selected their chosen winner.
Up first was judge Katie Godfrey from KG Salon. Katie was asked to be a judge because 9 years ago she set up her own business KG Salon in Bedfordshire. The business took off immediately and Katie built up a reputable salon. The salon is now a franchise brand with 4 locations, has won over 11 awards and been published over 30 times. Katie has been lashing for 9 years and launched her very own training academy in 2012, which is now in several locations around the UK. In 2016, KG Professional was launched with eyelash products and they are now sold in over 950 salons. With many successful businesses under her belt, it was no doubt that Katie was the right person to judge the Best Beauty Salon and Best Lash Tech Categories.
Congratulations to The Dolls House Beauty for being the runner-up and Forever Gorgeous for being the winner of Best Beauty Salon 2018.
Congratulations to The Tranquility Room for being the runner-up of Best Lash Tech and Congratulations Beauty Land for winning the Best Lash Tech 2018 category.
Up next was the best Hair Salon category, judged by Nicola Barlow. Nicola is a qualified hairdresser, teacher, assessor and IQA and has been fitting hair extensions for 24 years. In 2012, she created Hair Extensions Academy, the first VTCT centre exclusively delivering official industry recognised Accredited & NVQ qualifications in hair extensions. Nicola also delivers training with Lauren Pope Hair Rehab London as a technical expert and regularly features in Hairdressers Journal and Hair Magazine. She also has a Hair extension salon in Northampton.
Congratulations to The Dolls House for being the runner-up and Decesare for being the Winner for the Best Hair Salon 2018.
Nicola also judged the Hair Extensions category.
Congratulations to Infinity Hair for being the runner up and Congratulations to Gloss Hair Salon for being the winner of Hair Extensions 2018 category.
Next, we had Judge Amanda Fulton, known as "Ginger Mum" who is a fashion blogger and has featured in L'oreal alongside Fearne Cotton with her famous red locks. Who better to judge the best hair styles from shortlisted winners of the Beauty Awards...
Congratulations to William Lamb from T&L Hairdressing for being the runner-up and Congratulations to Rochelle Raye Anthony from The Dollhouse for being the winner for the Best Hair Stylist 2018.
Next, we had Lindsey Vincent from Simply LV judging the Best Nail Tech Category. Lindsey is the owner of Simply LV Beauty & Skincare and Simply LV Fashion & Lifestyle blog.
Congratulations to Sapphire and Diamonds Beauty for being the runner-up and Congratulations to Souz Nails and Beauty for being the Winner for Best Nail Technician 2018.
Lindsey also judged the Most recommended Freelance Beautician category.
Congratulations to Chloe's Beauty for being the runner-up and Lauren's Beauty for being the winner.
Drinks were flowing, the atmosphere in the room was buzzing and it was time for dinner. We took a short break where our fabulous Holly continued to sing.
With full bellies and merry mood's, the awards ceremony continued. Up next, we had Nafisa Mughal, the owner of Medi Makeup Aesthetics, judging the 'Best Aesthetics Practitioner' and 'Best Skincare' categories.
Congratulations Alisha's Aesthetics for being the runner-up and Congratulations The Aesthetic Box for being the winner of the Most Talented Aesthetics Practitioner 2018.
Congratulations to Manor Farm Spa & Clinic for winning the Best Skincare 2018 category.
Sadly some of our finalists did not attend the event and we didn't get photos of them, however they have been notified and most have collected their trophies and certificates.
Judge Jon, from Magazine Celebrate:MK and lecturer in Journalism researched and selected the winner for Best Beauty Blogger category and announced Debora Tentis as the winner for 2018 because her blog is written in both French and English and articles are released every day, Congratulations Debora!
Congratulations to Honor Hopkins for being the runner-up for this category.
Up next was the Best Eyebrow Technician category. As this category featured all techniques of brows from Semi-permanent eyebrows, Microblading to Henna brows, the event organiser Gemma Burnikell deemed it necessary to judge this based on shape, professionalism and client portfolios.
Congratulations to runner-up Lorie from McCarthy Beauty Clinic.
Congratulations to Winner Sabrina from The iBrow Co.
Then we had MUA Jemma from Dior judge the best MUA category.
Congratulations to Katie Blake for being the runner-up and Sarah Carr for winning the Best MUA 2018.
Our Award Winning Radio Presenter & Writer, Nancy Stevens judged the Customer Service category and carried out a mystery shop to all finalists. Congratulations Forever Gorgeous Beauty for being a runner-up and congratulations to The Perfume Shop for being the winner of Customer Service 2018.
Then to finish the evening we had Nilam Holmes judging the Business Woman category. Nilam is a Beauty industry expert and consultant. She studied at The University of Buckingham and set up Derma Spa MK, where she designed the innovative treatment system and training method HD Brows. Nilam launched this treatment into India and Russia and has been awarded the SME for Barclays UK Business Woman of the year 2016.
Congratulations to Ria Sarrington from Ria-Jaine Accounts for being the runner-up for Business Woman Award and congratulations to Debbie Lewis from Salon Angels for being the winner of Business Woman Award 2018.
It was such an enjoyable evening networking with Beauty professionals and celebrating everyone's success in being a finalist for the MK Beauty Awards 2018.
GM Events are looking forward to announcing the details for the Beauty Awards 2019!
For all enquiries, please email beauty@gemmediaevents.com
Thank you so much to everyone for supporting the event.
A special Thank you to our category sponsors:
and our Headline sponsor:
Your generosity and financial support helps aid our event and with out you this wouldn't have been possible.
Thank you,
Gemma x
