steven rhys wells writes in pole position
This issue Steven Rhys Wells’ travels take him to Poland, a destination renowned across the world for producing technically advanced nail artists.
Happy August GN readers! Wait, did I just use the August word? I really do not know where this year is going. It only seems like two minutes ago that I was talking to you all about icy rooftops and here we are at the back end of the great British Summertime.
On to more pressing topics, my latest trip to Lodz (pronounced ‘WU-tsh’), which is Poland’s third largest city, took place just last month. It was only my second time in the city with my maiden trip being over two years ago, so I was quite excited to see how the Polish industry had matured since my last visit.
sharing the nail news
The main focus for the trip was to share with the Polish nail technicians, distributors and educators the news from my travels; news being techniques, fashion and what is trending in the industry all over the world, as well as company news and technical training. Now this is completely my bag because I love to explore the different and extremely diverse industry/cultural differences; it’s an awesome perk of my career that I am lucky enough to see with my own two Welsh eyes just what’s going on in those other countries and these people couldn’t wait to hear all about it!
The first day was pretty much a travel day; once we arrived at the hotel it was time to get changed and then head straight into an afternoon seminar for the distributors of Poland. Most of these people I had met during my previous visit, so it was just a case of getting reacquainted and then spending an hour or so of sharing my news from across the globe. It really is amazing how even though the internet is our primary source of information and we can see things from anywhere at any time, the interest and sheer focus that was exuded by these people whilst I was chatting is nothing more than
brilliant. I put together a PowerPoint presentation of pictures collected by myself whilst on my travels in order to add some visual effect for explanatory purposes. The hot topics were most definitely trends in Asia and other countries in Europe.
educating the educators
Day Two was a huge task for me – to train the educators! Now as much as I love training all types of people, my work is really cut out for me when it comes to educating the educators. On these types of technical workshops your tech reputation is really on the line here if you don’t deliver a high enough standard of technicality and also if you don’t show something that is both challenging to the educators and also something that is completely new to them as well. Being in Eastern Europe where the technical ability is amongst the nail world’s most advanced stages, those criteria are certainly challenging to say the least.
For this workshop, I focused on product application of new product lines (yet to be released) 4D design using Gel Polish and T3 Gel and reverse method application of Gel with form application for extreme nails. The day was an absolute dream thanks to my awesome helpers and translators, Gosia and Martyna, who made sure every single step was explained.
The educators were thrilled to bits and I was relieved that I had achieved what I set out to do.
My biggest challenge occurred on Day Three – the Salon Tech Workshop. A selection of branded salons were invited to take part in a workshop where they had the chance to learn all of the techniques that the educators had learned the day before. This was the educators’ chance to show me that they’d been listening on the previous day as they would help me run the workshop. The room was filled with 50 amazing salon techs from all over Poland and as you can imagine we had an absolute ball. For me, this day was my favourite because I was able to make a difference to their application techniques and also able to solve some grey areas too. There was a huge buzz and excitement for upcoming products and events; judging by my social media reaction everyone loved it!
It doesn’t matter how often you visit a place, you should never become over-familiar or over-comfortable, always look for something new and try to do something that no one else is doing. Try to think outside the box and definitely don’t follow the crowd – think innovation guys!
Have a great month, until next time…
Steven Rhys Wells is Creative Director for Cuccio, and travels the world educating Cuccio nail techs.
t: 0115 975 3656
w:
ww.cuccio.co.uk @cucciouk
92 GUILD NEWS
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