THE SKIN GAMES 2016-17
(April 8, 2017, San Ramon, California, USA) – Skincare professionals from around the world gathered at the San Ramon Marriott for the final round of THE SKIN GAMES second annual esthetics competition. The two day event included a professional skincare tradeshow, expert ingredient panel forum, and ended with an elegant awards show where the winners were announced and presented live on stage.
The event, in its second year, gives practicing estheticians an online platform to compete with their actual client results. They submit an 8-week case study online with video diaries and before and after pictures. Finalists are invited to the year-end show where they are interviewed and scored individually by a panel of industry expert judges. The event includes an all-day professional only tradeshow that showcases the finest beauty products and allows the best of the best estheticians to interact with biggest product names in the industry.
THE SKIN GAMES is changing the way the industry markets itself and conducts tradeshows. The tradeshow is actually the finale to a year-long online marketing campaign and competition, where the individual estheticians are the stars.
“Such an amazing event for skin care professionals. I really had the time of my life and learned a lot plus I got to meet so many awesome industry leaders”, posted Katelyn Rose Firchau who travelled from Minnesota to compete.
“Nothing quite like a bit of healthy competition to fuel your passion for this industry”, remarked Danielle Lawrence, this year’s winner in the hyperpigmentation category.
A People’s Choice award is given to the contestants that obtain the most online votes from the general public. These votes are cast on THE SKIN GAMES web site prior to the year-end show. The web site, www.theskingames.com, is the portal to the GAMES and where all the contestants’ work can be seen. This year’s top vote getter and People’s Choice first place winner was Kimberlyn Benton of California.
The Expert Category involved six event sponsors who competed by soliciting online voting and conducting expert treatment demonstrations at their tradeshow booths. Each were awarded prize money to charities of their choice. The top vote-getting expert was Danne Montague King of DMK, who proudly donated his prize money to The Harvey Milk Foundation.
This year saw several participants from outside the USA, take the competition internationally for the first time and truly raising the bar. These new international competitors came to win, with the three member Team Ukraine winning the Open Medical category, Susanne Williams of England winning the Open Non-medical category, and Carmen Anuriw (aka The Skin Fairy) winning the Acne/Problematic skin category and the illustrious Skin Games Player of the Year award.
“It feels like we are getting Oscars coming to United States from Ukraine”, said Andrey Sotnik of Team Ukraine as they were handed one of the Game Changer awards presented to each of the new international competitors.
The evening’s two hour live award show was a red carpet black-tie gala hosted by TV celebrities, The Ex-Wives of Rock. There were song and dance performances by Kat Robichaud of “The Voice” and the Maison Aurora Dance Company.
Two minute video shorts submitted by the five compassion category contestants were shown intermittently throughout the show. These inspiring displays of charitable acts proved to be some of the favorite moments of the show. Lora Condon of New Jersey took first prize for her generous volunteer work with military veterans of the Freedom Alliance.
THE SKIN GAMES is already signing up players for the 2017-18 season. Jennifer Rosenblum, Founder and Executive Director of THE SKIN GAMES says, “The competitive spirit of the skincare industry has been ignited and we are expecting more players and sponsors to be involved in this coming year’s SKIN GAMES than we had the first two years . . . combined . . . Game on!”
Here is a complete list of awards and winners of THE SKIN GAMES 2016-17:
Acne Problematic Skin Category
1st Place – Carmen Anuriw
2nd Place – Nondy Llewellyn
3rd Place – Jenny Tryon
Age Management Category
1st Place – Stephanie Andersen
2nd Place – Crystal Anderson
3rd Place – Natalia Armonik
Hyperpigmentation Category
1st Place – Danielle Lawrence
2nd Place – Tamara Petrucci
3rd Place – Katrina Yokoyama
Best New Esthetician
1st Place – Char Fontanills
Holistic Award
1st Place – Corinna Joy Kavanagh
Compassionate Award
1st Place – Lora Condon
Open / Medical
1st Place – Team Ukraine
Open / Non-Medical
1st Place – Susanne Williams
People’s Choice Award
1st Place – Kimberlyn Benton
2nd Place – Katrina Yokoyama
3rd Place – Stephanie Andersen
4th Place – Khala Young
Expert Awards
Danne M. King – Harvey Milk Foundation
Metaxia Dalikas – Shepherd’s Gate
Ben Johnson – Team Kids
Michael Pugliese – Fisher House Foundation
Lori Nestore – Planned Parenthood
Terri Wojak – American Brain Tumor Assoc.
Product Buzz of the Year
Lira Clinical – Mystiq Illuminating Beauty Oil
Universal Co. Business Award
Richard Merrill-Rivas
The Skin Games Player of the Year
Carmen Anuriw