Kirkcaldy nail technician scoops top beauty industry award

Sarah Abbott won the accolade in the category for paint and polish technician and she was also a finalist in the category for Mixed Media Artist of the Year at the Scratch Stars Awards run by Scratch Magazine.

The event took place last month at London cabaret club, Proud Embankment.

The hotly-contested competition recognises UK-based nail techs, bloggers, teams, salons and spas across 18 categories.

Sarah, who is already an international award winning nail artist, set up S K Nails & Training Academy a few years ago when she had her own salon in Mitchelston Industrial Estate in Kirkcaldy.

But around two and a half years ago she began working from a log cabin at her home in the town so she could be there for her four children. It also allows her to offer more training as she can work longer hours.

The 38-year-old said: “I started my career as a nail technician during studying beauty therapy at Fife College. In my last year of training in 2014 I did nail training and I really loved this more than the other subjects we were studying. I then went onto doing more courses outwith my studies.

"I have held my educator certification since 2014. I first started out by working for a big brand in the nail industry and went to Budapest to gain my educator certification from that brand. During lockdown I had my own courses accredited so I am now an independent educator.

"I can teach many courses including beginner to advanced nail courses, i.e., manicure, gel polish, gel, acrylic and nail art. I also offer some beauty courses.”

Sarah put herself forward for the awards: “I wasn’t planning on entering it for a few more years but when I saw it advertised I had to go for it.

"I applied for two different categories and was so lucky to be selected for both of these categories in the first time of entering. There were five finalists in each of the categories and it was overwhelming to see my name beside the other techs as they are all crazy talented.”

She had to take part in a judging event to showcase her work based on a theme all finalists were given and this was followed by an interview.

“The theme we were giving for paint and polish was ‘I have a dream’ . We were supplied with a packet of nail tips and you picked three of the tips to use. We had one hour to hand-paint a design to go with the theme. We could only use nail polish and nail art paints which were air dry.”

She added: “It is a big achievement to be recognised as the paint and polish tech of the year! It means I carried out my work in a good manner and that the work I had done, within the hour we had for judging, impressed the judges enough to give me good scores. I heard tone of the judges had scored me all 10’s throughout the board. That in itself is an achievement.

"I want to thank my partner Michael, my children and best friend Claire for all their support.”

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