The NAILS team got to sneak backstage with other members of the press to see the nails before they were applied to the models’ nails. We instantly fell in love with many of the designs.

On Sunday evening, CND took over one of the main hair stages to present its second Shellac & Fashion Fusion event. The event in Orlando was an amped up version of the show that took place in March in Chicago. The latest version had 19 different nail looks and the models walked the runways in actual designer fashions loaned to CND from the designers themselves.

(Left) CND co-founder and style director wowed the crowd with her own unique fashion sense and her passion and enthusiasm for the nail looks she shared with the crowd.

CND co-founder and style director Jan Arnold greeted us backstage and couldn’t contain her excitement about the fashion, the nails — and the fashion nails! The company is celebrating 15 years of being backstage at Fashion Week, where over the years they’ve created relationships with top designers to add a unique nail element to the shows (rather than the simple nude nail in the days of old). CND helped to push “nails as accessories” to the designers and they’re still going strong, having created thousands of nails for more than 22 designers at the most recent 2011 Fall Fashion Week.

This year marks the first that a nail company has brought the fashion shows — and the amazing fashion nails — directly to the beauty industry. Attendees at the event got to see models strut their stuff (and their nails) as Jan described the looks and the nail styles. Onstage, Kristina Estabrooks and Roxanne Valinoti did step-by-step demos of the nail looks that were projected on two large screens on either side of the stage.

Nails senior editor Tim Crowley and I toast with other VIPs before the show got started.

The models put their best nails forward and attendees got up-close views of the nails on two large projection screens. This nail look was titled “Firestorm,” featuring the Shellac color Wildfire with red glitter and crystals.

CND president John Heffner joined in the fun when the models started vamping it up on-stage after the show.

Taking the nails from runway to reality and showing nail techs how they can do the designs seen on the catwalks helps to reinforce CND’s message of fashion-forward nails using Shellac and Colour & Effects.

— Hannah