Issue 1: Let me introduce you!
28th February 2021
Welcome to the very first edition of The Nail on Sunday. An insightful, creative blog, brought to you every Sunday by Leoko Cre8tive Ltd and its Cre8tive collective team.
This blog invites readers from all walks of life, but is specifically created with the beauty and hair industry in mind. Each week we will be sharing our observations, expertise and knowledge to help you understand, up to the minute happenings within the industry and community. We invite you to join in by asking any questions and commenting to give us feedback so that we can continuously develop our research and therefore our offering each week.
Meet the Team
This blog is brought to you by our Cre8tive Collective team which consists of individuals with their own area of expertise. They share with you their knowledge, guidance and will offer on trend features within this blog and beyond that are linked to their area of skill and interest.
Leo Ko- Nkengmo
I'm Leo Ko-Nkengmo, Managing Director of Leoko Cre8tive Ltd, home of Leoko crea8tive studio and Academy. I have been within the beauty industry for over 16 years and have been a qualified teacher for around the same length of time.
I am a qualified makeup artist, award winning nail technician and beautician. I also have over 10 years experience as a business consultant and lecturer. My role in the team is to provide you with creative knowledge and education and also business knowledge to support your understanding and hopefully allow you to use this to develop yourselves and business's within these areas. ( Oh and I'll also be putting together this blog every week along with the rest of our fabulous team)
Carly Dorman
I am Carly, qualified, award winning nail tech and self motivated creative and supporter of others.
I run a popular Facebook group with Leo and am now part of the Cre8tive collective team. My role as Creative inspiration coach is to provide you with thought provoking creative material to help support your development and knowledge and to keep you up to date with artistic trends and skills.
I have been qualified for 3 years but have been a creative for many and love to share my ability and passion for all things nails with you all.
Samantha Windsor
Hi Everyone, My name is Sam, I am a self employed nail technician working from my home salon. I’m also a Brand Educator for Nailchemy.
Despite running my own nail business, my background is actually in training and compliance within the health and social care sector, which is something I still do along side my nail business! I’m really excited to have been asked to become part of The cre8tive collective team as their compliance blogger, and look forward to sharing the information I have learnt over the years with you all and to support you in this industry.
David Heffernan
Hi I'm Dave Heffernan. Described as a pioneer for Mental Health and Wellness, I have launched programs to support mental health in the workplace and to create positive, forward-thinking environments that employees enjoy working in. My background story is one of a kind; born in Salford, I dealt with extraordinary life issues – death, grief, abuse, homelessness, violence; but this didn’t hold me back, in fact it created the momentum and passion that I hold today. I am an expert in mental health, from the raw, real-life issues that I have has faced, and helped others face. I'm glad to be part of the cre8tive collective team so that i can support as many people as possible with any mental health related issues within this industry and beyond.
This Week.
(Leo and Carly)
We have a Facebook group that is currently called Nails, makeup and beauty tips and tricks with Leona. This title will obviously change as its now not just run by myself (Leo).
Over the months of lockdown I have provided members of my group with free nail art workshops, step by step nail art, sign posts to supportive articles, products and more.
We have over 280 members and now joined by Carly we really enjoy interacting with this positive community. Last week we even got a feature in Scratch Magazine. Alex Fox, wrote about our weekly featured cover competition and our positive space for techs to join, knowing that they can gain creative support from everyone involved. Here's the link so you can take a look: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scratchmagazine.co.uk%2Ffeature%2Fsafari-themed-nail-comp-inspires-techs-in-lockdown%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2oKrhMZ-GZDyF1BrpW8ScKiZdS_mb49BW5gcfPhlrCKUBYu0s636_9BnQ&h=AT1xu8AqCjaqhgxSLnJdpTYxQZfE4NtkX90_-vYBFiBF60Lpgc6vXgA0bVdnWAb8OkfsijORRhCjtCLMoWLtyScdNonQfkT5iqp_UC9OzTWnZ6AZPBBUHuyLIFMSQ-3YzRb51_1N6oCO3_gwtyM
Our cover comp is becoming a very popular feature and each week we are very blessed to have a special guest judge to asses all the entries and pick a winner. This weeks Judge was the fabulous Scarlett Senter who picked the winner of our English country garden themed comp this week.
Our winner this week Amanda Eldred also won last week too with her Safari nail piece. So it just goes to show you how consistent and talented our members are.
Amanda's work was chosen independently by our judges and really showed a clear translation of our chosen theme this week. We love our members sharing their art work and encourage them to do so throughout the week.
Hers's some more of our communities amazing work.
If you wish to see more and get involved in the group then please follow the link below.
Carly
I loved being able to create the English country garden as the theme is so me, I couldn’t take part in the cover Comp but the theme inspired me so much I still wanted to give it a try. I love gardens and flowers and it was good theme to practice my skills with freehand detailed nail art. I used my Nailchemy gel polishes to create the English country garden nail art.
Within my career as a nail tech I have come across many challenges and highs and lows but my first photoshoot was a turning point for me as this was well out of my comfort zone, I have always struggled with photos of myself but due to lockdown and wanting to give the Nailchemy tournament a try I had to use myself as the model. I really enjoyed trying something new and found a new love of creating nail art and bringing a whole image together. It was definitely hard at times as I do suffer joint problems but when I can I try not to let this beat me, I struggled for three days after the photoshoot, but I look back at the pictures and see what I achieved which makes it all worth it. I enjoyed putting all the makeup, outfit and everything together to see the end results especially as I had to be a nail tech plus do hair, make up, outfit and model to. Due to lock down I roped in my best friend to take the photos as at this point we were only allowed garden visits at home. Pushing myself to do this resulted in my getting through to the Nailchemy tournament final. Products I used were from nailchemy and Bellissa uk. I am so glad to be able to share my experiences and inspiration with others within our group and now as part of our new team and am excited about future plans.
Brand Spotlight
Each week we share products and services provided by companies and individuals within the industry that have caught our eye.
This week we take a look at Raven Cosmetics Ltd and Nail Beauty Excellence Ltd.
Raven cosmetics: Headed up by MD Becca Porter is a very new but vibrant company specialising in fine cosmetic glitter collections and beautiful crystals for your nail and beauty needs. Becca has her customers creativity in mind when she creates her collections and ensures that she is keeping them updated with Live launches on her Facebook pages and creative content to add inspiration.
Their crystal mixes are certainly stunning and they have a mix for every colour combination and future plans to develop their crystal offering even more. The Iceland glitter collection highlights beautiful blues, greens and stunning purples and holo silvers. This amazing set only costs £32 and will give you enough to create for months. They also sell these amazing magnetic lashes that come in various different styles either in s set with magnetic liner and oil based remover or as singular lash packs. Check out all of Ravens amazing products here: Raven Cosmetics Limited (raven-cosmetics.com)
Nail Beauty Excellence
NBE headed up by award winning nail artist and educator Jade barber is a one stop shop for all your nail tech staple needs and creative extras. NBE sell beautiful products from whole acrylic systems, gel systems and gel polishes to creative nail art extras. Jade is also in the process of adding even more new innovative products to her offering which is pretty exciting.
There are a beautiful range of brushes for acrylic, gel and nail art application along with amazing products to use for your services and help enhance you salon or mobile business. Jade also has an amazing training offer on her online courses at the moment of 40% off all courses on the website but only until the 8th March 2021, so be quick. You don't want to miss out on this fabulous offer to help you develop your skills.
Check out all of thier products and courses here: Nail & Beauty Excellence (nailandbeautyexcellence.com)
Preparing to reopen.
Sam Windsor
So, last week we got the news that we MAY be allowed to open on the 12th April, and I’ve seen some very mixed reactions to this news, which ever camp you fall in to there is some important things to check and put in place before the big day comes! I’m sure most have you are aware that we fall under the “close contact” guidelines, these can be found on the .gov website, and they get updated quite often so it’s important that you check for any changes regularly. For example the use of safety specs has recently been removed. Whilst the information provided in the guidance is the minimum requirements, you should also check if your insurers have made any additional stipulations.
You don’t want to risk invalidating your insurance! It’s also a good time to check that your insurance is up to date, along with membership to any trade bodies.
I think for most of us, we use products without fear of them going out of date, however when you consider how much of the last year we have spent closed, and the reduction in the amount of product we have used, there is a good chance some products will now have reached their expiry date. It’s a good idea to check these in preparation.
You will be able to find a symbol on the product which tells you how long it can be used for after opening. It would also be a good time to check your stock of PPE and cleaning/disinfecting products. If you work in a salon, make sure you run the water for awhile to clear out the system prior to reopening (this is to do with Legionnaires Disease). Finally, if your services involve patch testing, then you should check if any need repeating.
Marketing yourself
Leo Ko-Nkengmo
Preparing to open your existing business or embarking on a new venture can be daunting for many reasons. Our uncertainty may at times consume us as we journey into the unknown really! Do we know what the future is actually going to look like yet? No not really in my opinion, however one thing i am sure about is that we have to do our best to get back and resume normal practice, whatever that is for you as individuals or organisations.
Here's a few tips to get you started in planning your return.
Assess where you are. Asses your finances, needs, wants and opportunities. Write this all down so you have something tangible to refer to.
Look at any adaptations that need to be made in order for you to be able to run your business within the new normal! Think about compliance and what Sam has shared. How are you going to adapt to ensure you follow safe guidelines and therefore show competency and confident working practices.
Look at your target market. Try and understand if your customer base has changed. This may be because of changing consumer attitudes or also because you have added, taken away or changed the services or products you provide.
Try not to focus to much on the 12th April date as this may change. Instead prepare now as if you were opening back up next week. This will ensure that you are ready even if the goal posts change.
Think about marketing. How will you let people know that your back in business? How will you do this? What platforms will you use?
I guarantee following these steps to get you started will support your understanding of how to move forward. Each week ill share more activities that you can do to get you back on the road to business recovery.
10 TOP TIPS TO KEEP PERSPECTIVE AND SAIL THROUGH LIFE.
Dave Heffernan
How well do you handle challenges? Let’s face it – Chances are you will have faced quite a few over the last 12 months. Read on and implement these 10 ways – your future self will thank you for it 😊
A positive mindset gives you the best chance of finding solutions. Let’s face it – if you’re facing some adversity – you may as well smile through it.
Use these strategies to keep a level head when everything is going wrong:
1. There is ALWAYS a learning curve. No matter what experience we go through, I guarantee there is a positive and a learning curve. We just seem to enjoy focusing on the negative. Start seeking out the learning curves sooner rather than later and you will find that you come through the other end with solutions and growth.
2.Fact’s NOT Emotion. When we hit an adverse situation, we tend to jump ten steps ahead and create an alternative reality and storyboard.
Avoid letting your emotions get the best of you. Be objective and stick to the facts – you won’t go far wrong.
3. Ask yourself what is within my control? Anxiety and stress live where there is resistance to what is! Ask yourself ‘What is within my control’ and set about doing what it takes to influence that stuff. Do not waste any energy on stuff that you can’t change.
Stay focused on solutions it would benefit you more if you spend 90% of your time solving the situation rather than spending 90% of your time worrying?
4. Exercise. If you’re feeling stressed, some vigorous exercise
will help especially during stressful times it’s important to eat properly and to get enough sleep.
5.Maintain a positive attitude. Focus on the positive aspects of your life. One
challenging situation doesn’t negate all the good things in life.
By focusing on the positive, the negative will hold less power over you. Look into Gratitude Journaling - it is an excellent way to maintain focus and manifest more of the stuff you want in your life.
6. Only death is permanent. You’ve had many challenging times in
your life. Of that – I have no doubt! but you survived all of them. It’s often surprising how much things can change in a blink of an eye. Just hang in there- follow steps 1,3, and 5 and you’ll come out on the other side before you know it.
7. Help others. Helping others is an effective way to maintain a healthy
perspective. Put your attention on helping someone else. You’ll feel so
much better – Find a purpose much bigger than yourself and you will find that things aren’t really that bad.
8. Seek Help. There are many people in your life that would be happy to provide a helping hand. All you have to do is ask. Wouldn’t you help someone if asked?
9. Take advantage. Their will be a silver lining to your situation. If you look
hard enough, the challenging situation might provide a huge advantage. You’re
unlikely to find it if you don’t look.
10. Visualize a positive outcome. There is a specific part of the brain that stores all the vital information – the only way it knows what is important is what you consistently think and feel. You may well have heard of the law of attraction? Or the Secret? So many people try it and then say it doesn’t work. The fact is this stuff is based in Science – It does work – you Just have to be emotionally attached to the outcome take a few minutes each day and visualize a highly positive outcome. Expecting the worst can have negative consequences.
Even if you implement just a few of the above strategies – your life will improve – If you implement ALL of them then Life will be completely unrecognisable and adversity will be viewed as a game and you are the champion gamer
Until Next time?
Until next week
We hope you have found our first issue enjoyable and look forward next weeks addition
bye for now, The cre8tive collective team xx