Community Corner

Salons, Stylists Upbeat in 'Jerseylicious' Season Finale

There's good news for everyone this week.

The season finale of Style Network's "Jerseylicious" recaps owner Gayle Giacomo's successful "Gallery of Beauty" event in Atlantic City, which turns into a launch pad for graduate Olivia Blois-Sharpe's career plans.

The event draws 12 studios from across the state participating, who will present their interpretation of famous works of art at the Trump Taj Mahal, recreated with live models. The winning studio receives a trip to Dubai, and the runner-up wins a $5,000 shopping spree for salon furniture, courtesy of Minerva Beauty. 

Each of the salons is anxious for the opportunity to showcase their strengths, and Blois-Sharpe plans her own presentation as the Ooh Lalaa Livia Salon.

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"This event is the biggest thing I've ever done on my own," she says. "If I can pull this off, it will give me the confidence I need to go off and start my own business." 

She picks an Egyptian motif, noting Egyptians used make-up and wore animal skins. "It's almost as if, in a sense, they were the original Jersey Girls," she said.

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Her plan is to have her models "Vogue like an Egyptian," with music she composed—but the complicated plans almost derail her presentation. When it's time for her "unveiling," her models aren't ready, but make a hasty staging and pull it off to the crowd's enjoyment.

 more of Watchung-Green Brook Patch's coverage of "Jerseylicious" here.

"I'll be competing a against the best salons in New Jersey—and my two bosses....no pressure whatsoever," Blois-Sharpe says.

Meanwhile, Anthony Lombardi, owner of the Anthony Roberts Salon, is anxious to add another feather in his cap by winning the Gallery of Beauty. His crew chooses to do a "disco" version of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus."

"After the five-star review and the Modern Salon article, we have a target on our back," he says. But he's confident his salon can win the event.

Giacomo opens the event with a brief speech, noting styling is the art of salons, and the Gallery of Beauty would be putting that art on display for Atlantic City to see. The casino's convention room is converted to a gallery layout, wth each salon having a framed window through which to present their recreation.

After judges Joel Warren, of the Warren Jacoby Salon, "TheSalonGuy" Steve Marinaro, and Mary Griffin, of the Trump-Taj Mahal, review the presentations, Anthony Roberts Salon is declared the winner. 

"Our disco version of the 'Birth of Venus' not only shows our talent, but it shows we're willing to think outside the box," Lombardi says.

At the conclusion of the Gallery, Blois-Sharpe announces she's decided to launch her own image consulting business, and she announces her intentions to Giacomo and Lombardi. Both wish her well, and promise to help.

The show's other story line follows Tracey DiMarco's engagement to her live-in boyfriend, Corey Epstein, who proposes to her at a puppy store. 

"I didn't think I would see this day...I'm so happy to be with Corey," she says. Although she says she's worried about telling her parents, who have been upset about her living with Epstein, she says now that they are engaged, it should be fine. "I hope this shows them we really are serious about each other." 

The show may have been the season finale, but that doesn't mean you'll have to go for long without seeing your favorite "Jerseylicious" cast member—a special reunion episode scheduled for 8 p.m. next week promises to be as full of surprises and drama as a regular season episode. 


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