On September 19th and 20th, 354 competitors from 24 countries congregated in London, to compete in the Olympics - Not of the sports kind, but the Nailympics - Olympic games for fake nails!

Originally started in the US ten years ago, the event has been hosted in London, for the last six years and is a grueling two-day affair that allows the world's best manicurists to battle it out for the 'gold' in categories like fiberglass tip and overlay and fantasy nail art.

Fake nail art in its most basic form involves gluing artificial nails onto natural ones and then painting over them - The competition of course, is a little more involved than that, with each manicurist painstakingly creating works of art, which may not be very practical, but are certainly stunning.

While the entries in every category are impressive, it is the Fantasy Nail Art, where the manicurists can let their imagination run wild, that is the most popular. This year's entries were no exception. Hunched over with their array of paints, powders and liquids, the competitors created fairies, forests and even Beatrix Potter-like images - some even added flashing lights and revolving pagodas for extra pizzazz!

And, while these may not be the 'real' Olympics, to people who work in the industry, they are as important - And just like the athletes, they train for this event for many many months - sometimes even years to win the gold!

Sources:allvoices.com, dailymail.co.uk