CND non pro giveaway

[Stook]

I'm a relatively new tech majority of my training has been CND. Beginner class, spa manicure conversion, spa pedicure conversion, Art and Style, Lecente Look, Perfect Polish and currently studying the L&P beginners course. I've also spoken to my EA about doing the Master Painter this year as she considers me ready to do so.

I've loved my training and loved the ethos of all the professional brands - being that they are for professionals only. My training has felt like a worthwhile investment as its opened a whole new career to me, safe in the knowledge that getting hold of genuine CND Shellac and associated products is limited to persons who have spent time, energy and money learning how to use these brands and have the qualifications to prove it.

I've read on here many times about non professional products - we all know the names of them and I don't want to rehash all of that - and I've sat in my smug CND world, safe in the knowledge that I've studied hard and all my products are genuine, professional. I don't doubt he authenticity of any of my CND products as they've been bought from Sweet Squared. I've not minded the cost because I have total peace of mind.

Imagine my utter bewilderment when I saw this come up on Facebook this morning.



I genuinely didn't believe it to be true at first. CND giving a full compliment of colours, prep materials, foil removers, LED lamp etc to non professional bloggers.

Before this gets completely out of hand (as its starting to on some Pages), is there any way of getting clarification from CND.

I also think it's worth clarifying at this point that this is a US decision and from what I've see, nothing to do with Sweet Squared who distribute CND in the Uk although I'd welcome thoughts from the UK contingent.

Does anyone have any insight as to what's happened here or is it as it looks? Professional products given for free to non pros? If this is the case, I may need to have a brand rethink. I'm that disappointed.

 

[CFBS]

Wow that is a forceful 30 minute message!
I hope cnd come back with a response rapidly.
Unfortunately I still remember when st tropez, after promising to be salon only, started selling in Boots and now supermarkets. From the day it was on sale in Boots we sold zero st tropez retail products.
[emoji23]

 

[Trinity]

My favourite quote '...companies need to know we take this **** seriously!...' she's fab and never a truer word spoken!

She has a very valid point, I can understand CND wanting their products to be talked about by Bloggers, lets face it Social Media IS the way to advertise these days, however, if the Bloggers are not Pros CND are seriously undermining their own 'professional only' ethos.

Media spin gone wrong me thinks

 

[Helward87]

My favourite quote '...companies need to know we take this **** seriously!...' she's fab and never a truer word spoken!

She has a very valid point, I can understand CND wanting their products to be talked about by Bloggers, lets face it Social Media IS the way to advertise these days, however, if the Bloggers are not Pros CND are seriously undermining their own 'professional only' ethos.

Media spin gone wrong me thinks

Definitely !

I wonder if CND were aware they'd dish then out to any old Tom, dick and Harry?!
Jans quote sounded like she thought they'd be given to 'professionals'....

We think this is bad, Imagine how pissed we be if we were in the US right now [emoji15][emoji30]

 

[CocoAllure]

That was such a long video. Her coffee got cold. Erm I'm not sure what to make of it if I'm honest. I think they know what they're doing. The love I have for the products is enough for me to stay put. I don't think they have deliberately gone out of their way to make this a consumer product. It's not a consumer product, they haven't started selling in boots etc. I will carry on producing lovely nails with lovely products

 

[attitude]

• I disagree. Jan Arnold has always said pro only availability. Then they give away the lamp and products to non-pros? Not cool. There are lots of equally good pro only products that I can throw my money behind. So, that's what I'll be doing.

 

[Mrs Geek]

Good Morning @Stook I was also shocked to view this. The first thing we did was forward to the VP of International Sales and she had no idea about it either which leads me to think that this is a 'domestic' initiative. I have known Jan Arnold for 28 years (eek) and I know that she has ALWAYS been on the side of the Nail Pro.

May I also say that we have never sent professional products to bloggers nor would we, but I do know that CND do Blogger Hang Outs where they educate the bloggers properly in how CND products work. It is a fun insight to see what the nail professional goes through every day. Sweet Squared are 100% behind the nail pro and we have never deviated from that in our 10 year history. Until we know more, and understand more details CND needs to address this and right now everyone is asleep in California. Hope this Helps.

 

[noreenoconnor]

I think Jan Arnold's quotes have been taken out of context, I do believe this was the statement she released when CND collaborated at London and New York Fashion Week!

Even her other quote states that Nail Professionals will showcase their nail art for use in SALONS! Not at home by

I find it very hard to believe that CND will sell to consumers! of even give out kits to bloggers as this just goes against their entire ethos.

Edited: Hmm only watched a few mins of the video before making this comment , I see what everyone is saying now ... Media spin gone wrong is right yikes !

 

[Charlie D]

I can't think that they realised these sets were going to non pro's as this was Jan Arnold's reply to someone who asked why CND was pro only...

"Judith, we are dedicated exclusively to the Nail Professional so our products are used safely and correctly on clients during salon service. This commitment is what makes us the leader in the professional nail industry. xo, Jan"

I can see the Internet is already blowing up about this & I understand why, but I think we should see what they say.

 

[iamaleximus]

Really don't have a massive issue with the give away personally. The way I look at it is yes they now own a kit with a few colours etc but they still can't buy more from a shop or from CND without qualifications etc and it's not like the products are being put into your local asda!

 

[Stook]

@mrsgeek

Samantha, I've seen the thread going off on Facebook and thought it important to say that regardless of what has or hasn't happened, I and everybody else know this isn't a Sweet Squared cock up. This is most definitely a CND US 'thing'.

I follow a couple of the bloggers who have received these kits who openly state they have no qualifications in nails but are publicly thanking @cndworld for their hundreds of pounds worth of free goodies.

I think it may have gone a little askew to be honest having seen this

http://m.nailsmag.com/news/114153/cnd-announces-shellacmasterpiece-digital-campaign-with-preenme

Jan Arnold clearly meant for it to be a professional experiment but it isn't.

This is a lady I follow from time to time on Instagram. She's very honest about being an amateur and not having a licence as you can see from the home page but she's just received this.

It doesn't discredit my training as is being said by other pros. My training has been invaluable but it surely must discredit CND's professional only brand status. What in the hell are the US powers that be doing?

Thank you for looking into it. I've already had two clients in this morning asking if they can now buy CND in the shops. Argh!

 

[Jen889]

@mrsgeek

Samantha, I've seen the thread going off on Facebook and thought it important to say that regardless of what has or hasn't happened, I and everybody else know this isn't a Sweet Squared cock up. This is most definitely a CND US 'thing'.

I follow a couple of the bloggers who have received these kits who openly state they have no qualifications in nails but are publicly thanking @cndworld for their hundreds of pounds worth of free goodies.

I think it may have gone a little askew to be honest having seen this

http://m.nailsmag.com/news/114153/cnd-announces-shellacmasterpiece-digital-campaign-with-preenme

Jan Arnold clearly meant for it to be a professional experiment but it isn't.

This is a lady I follow from time to time on Instagram. She's very honest about being an amateur and not having a licence as you can see from the home page but she's just received this.

It doesn't discredit my training as is being said by other pros. My training has been invaluable but it surely must discredit CND's professional only brand status. What in the hell are the US powers that be doing?

Thank you for looking into it. I've already had two clients in this morning asking if they can now buy CND in the shops. Argh!


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I saw this too!! Annoyed me because we (professionals) usually have to save all our hard earned money for kits like this and some bloggers are getting them for free

 

[JuicyLucy]

 

[ThePinkiePixie]

This is just my 2 cents but-

These bloggers have 10k+ followers who look to them for inspiration, see the products they use and buy in the hopes of recreating the result, if these followers are unable to buy from the official distributors then their next stop is going to be eBay, Amazon etc.

And god knows what they will end up with buying from those places, which then leads to non-pros with no education into h+s, proper use of equipment and products attempting this on themselves, friends, family!

This sends the message that anyone can "have a go" and why bother paying out on professionals who have spent hundreds/thousands on training/equipment when they can do it themselves, this really is a smack in the face to the pros and really discredits their hard work!

And when all those knock off products and poor application ruin their nails they will place the blame on the product and not the fact that they don't know what they're doing with shoddy products, which will bring down the reputation of the brand and put people off going to professionals who use the brand because "so and so said that its bad for your nails and will ruin them"!

And the thing is, these followers are from all around the globe, so even if it's CND US giving out these products to bloggers, UK followers will still see and want to "have a go"

But that's just my opinion!

 

[Trinity]

Good to see a clear cut response from CND about their continuing committment to Pros only and the fact that they are retrieving the kits is a resassuring touch. It would be easy for them to spin it as being pro only but just this once we're going outside of that remit, but Jan has clearly stated their position and I for one am very pleased. So thank you Jan, not that my opinion bears much weight to her I'm sure