Hello lovelies,

As I've mentioned last week, I have attended Olympia Beauty exhibition in London on Sunday and I'd like to share my experience with you. I go every year so the pictures of stands full of polishes are pretty much the same. If you would like to see some previous photo reports full of pictures, click here and here.

This year I was a woman on a mission so there isn't as many pictures as I would like. But I have met some amazing people! Firstly let's have a look at few snaps I took around the venue...

Surprisingly, I didn't buy anything from China Glaze this year but I couldn't resist taking some bottle shots for you ;)

As always, there seminars throughout the day on different subjects. Of course I always pick the Creativity of Nails stage. Well this year I had the pleasure of seeing Doug Schoon (and snatch an autograph) speak on top three concerns of nail pros. I found it very enlightening and interesting and Doug was so captivating I could listen to him for hours. For those of you who don't know him, he is the world leading scientific expert who has researched nails and nail products for more than 25 years. I would definitely recommend you to visit his website and follow him on Facebook because you could learn A LOT about your nails.

I also had the pleasure of meeting some other great names. One of the first ones was Sophie Harris Greenslade aka The Illustrated Nail whom I first met 2 years ago at the very same show. I couldn't believe she remembered me and complimented me on my work! I was well chuffed! Thank you Sophie, you're a huge inspiration!

Another great name you might recognize is Tom Bachik! It was quite funny - I am new to the professional nail industry so I know Tom and his work just from following him on his Instagram account. He sat two rows in front of me in seminar (his friends were presenting and demoing) and I knew I recognized him but wasn't 100% sure. So I asked him if his name is Tom and when he said yes I was absolutely shocked. I sat next to him, had a short chat. What a nice surprise! Later I've learned he was one of the judges at the Nailympia competition so I must have looked very silly being so surprised he was there :D Anyway it was lovely to meet him!

After the seminars I went to watch Gemma Lambert and Denise Wright at the Nsi stand doing nails. They are both multiple award winners so it was a pleasure to be able to watch them work. I took a quick snap of Gemma's stunning nails which she did herself...on both of her hands!!!

This year I wasn't really going there for nail polish. I went for some education and to meet people plus I finally subscribed to Scratch Magazine. They've had a special exhibition offer so I got some extra gifts with my subscription.

In the end I did get some gel polish for experimenting with gel nail art, few OPI polishes from the Nordic and Gwen Stefani Christmas collection and some Nsi supplies for my nail tech adventure.

I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition but I didn't even get a chance to see 70% of the stands. So much to see and so little time (I was there 6 hours already). I'm looking forward to another exhibition in February/March which is closer to me (thankfully!). This time journey home was terrible and exhausting because of high traffic and accident on the way. So the journey that should have taken 2 hours took 3,5 hours :( But I did it and 3,5 hours later I've arrived home in one piece.

Hope you've enjoyed my report even without many photos ;) Have a lovely day! Lucie x

Let's check out the new addition to the nail polish brands!

All That Jazz is a completely new line of nail polish named after Jazz Smedley by Gelish brand. The whole All That Jazz stand was transformed into chic boutique but unfortunately I found it to be very dark inside, not ideal for exploring new nail polish colours. Hence the bad quality pictures :-/

They offer quite extensive line of nail colours so I'm sure next time I'll pick up few colours. In the pictures below you can see the stand and Jazz herself, very pretty and lucky girl :)

I also wanted to show you these cute Marc Jacobs designer Diet Coke bottles that were available in the press lounge. You can also get a peek at the watercolour nails I wore to the exhibition. The post about them is coming soon ;)

I've also visited a Bohem stand for the first time. Bohem produces silver and gold nail jewellery and there are some stunning pieces! I wanted to report on these because they are ideal for special occasion even though some of them are quite pricey. I wanted to have a look at some, considering a silver filigree accent nail for my wedding but as it turned out my nails are way too narrow :( But hey, it saved me some money! :D

So that's it for the exhibition, now let's check out the goodies! First up are polishes I've picked up at the China Glaze stand. I wanted some of the this year's neons and I've also bought Howl You Doin’ from the Monster's Ball Halloween collection and Your Present Required and Be Merry, Be Bright, both from the upcoming Holiday 2013 collection.

Next up are OPI treatments and polishes. I bought some Ridge Filler base coat and spare bottle of Matte Top Coat. Then I've got some new Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 polishes:

Ski Slope Sweetie

My Favorite Ornament

All I Want For Christmas (Is OPI)

In My Santa Suit

Cute Little Vixen

Silent Stars Go By (Liquid Sand)

Baby Please Come Home (Liquid Sand)

I've also bought two Morgan Taylor polishes to test them out. I had to get the Under The Stars shade, a gorgeous deep blue jelly with silver holographic glitter. Then also Berry Contrary caught my eye as it was a colour I don't have in my collection.

I never get much at the Essie stand as their polishes just don't excite me. They are good quality but quite boring. I've picked up For The Twill Of It and Apricot cuticle oil. Everybody was raving about it so I wanted to try it and also add it to a cuticle oils comparison I plan to do in the future.

My next stop was SpaRitual and Nsi stand where I've picked up acetone, a bottle of Cuti-Coctail cuticle oil I just love and two bottles from the new Iluminate collection (they are for my friend but I will show you swatches). The shades are Intuition and Intention.

Next I got tempted by Nubar goodies. I've resisted to nail polishes but I wanted to try their cuticle oil because it's main ingredient is jojoba oil. The cuticle oil comes in several scents and I've picked up yummy Passion Fruit.

The cuticle oil below by Gelish was in a press goodie bag and I intend to test it properly and let you know what I think ;)

The following Alessandro haul is not from the exhibition but I've included it because it was an amazing deal! All the polishes were just for £1 at halfpriceperfumes.co.uk! Additionally you can get 10% by using discount code uhpp10off.

I liked this year's Olympia Beauty exhibition but I find that I didn't bought as much as I wanted to. Also I have been missing there brands like Jessica, The Ultimate Fix (fast-drying spray for manicures), Alessandro, Nails Supreme, Cetuem and some others.

But overall it was great as I've met with the girls and I've met Sophie (The Illustrated Nail) which was awesome! I will definitely come to the 2014 exhibition :)

Have a nice day everyone!