In a market teeming with gel polish brands, pinpointing the ones offering the best gel polishes in can be overwhelming.
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That's why we've diligently tested and thoroughly reviewed the top gel polishes available, without sponsorships from any of the brands so that these reviews are as uninfluenced as possible.
We tested these gel polishes in several ways: how true the colors are to their website images, the finish, the number of layers needed for full coverage, the consistency, the curing time, how long the nails look good without chipping, and how strong the chemical smell is.
Here are our picks for the 10 best gel polishes on the market in :
The best gel polish goes to S&L because for its wonderfully vibrant colors, beautiful shine and over 2 weeks of durability. It's these qualities that give your nails that salon-quality glow, which is what you should expect from a premium brand. But it gets better: the premium finish you get from their gel polishes is offered at a reasonable, affordable price, without the premium price tag.
Price: ~$12
Features at a Glance:
With more than 100+ shades of colors to choose from, it would be difficult to not find a shade that fits an occasion or mood. Their gel polishes are for those who are looking for a reliable, high-quality gel polish that excels across the board. The only issue is that their bottles all look the same, so it's hard to tell the color inside at a glance. But, the colored sticker on top of the bottle fixes this.
Nonetheless, it delivers a highly pigmented, glass-like shine you would expect from a premium brand, but at an affordable price. This makes S&L our highest recommended choice for both casual users and professional manicurists alike.
CND Gel Nail Color offers a top-tier, salon-quality finish with a glossy appearance and exceptional durability. Its precise color matching ensures that the color in the bottle is what you get on your nails. Easy to use and providing a professional look, CND appeals to both beginners and seasoned enthusiasts.
Price: ~$14.99
Features at a Glance:
CND Gel Nail Color is a great choice if you want high-quality, durable gel polish with professional results. It is more expensive, but its long-lasting wear and superb finish make it a worthwhile investment for those who prioritize quality.
Bio Seaweed Gel Nail Color is known for their wide range of hues and quality salon finish. It's highly pigmented, so you need fewer layers for full coverage. Just a minor note: the colors may look lighter than advertised online.
Price: ~$18
Features at a Glance:
Pros
Cons
Vibrant, opaque coverage in 2 coats
Colors mismatched between bottle and application
Shiny, glossy finish
Pricey for budget-conscious consumers
Quick 60-seconds curing time
Strong, persistent chemical odorEffortless application
Difficult removal due to strong baseBio Seaweed Gel stands out with its quick-drying, easy-to-apply formula that delivers a glamorous, shiny finish. However, the color accuracy does fall short, and the chemical scent is noticeable.
If you value quick application and lasting wear, Bio Seaweed Gel is a worthy purchase. But if accurate color matching and a mild scent are important considerations for you, consider other options. The high price also means you should weigh its benefits against its limitations before deciding.
DND Gel Nail Color is great for application consistency, with an ideal viscosity that makes it easy for beginners. However, the color on your nails might not match the bottle, which can be disappointing. Despite this, DND impresses with its shiny finish, adding a glamorous touch to any manicure.
Price: ~$17.99
Features at a Glance:
DND Gel Nail Color is easy to apply and cures quickly, thanks to its consistent viscosity. This makes for a smooth application and a beautiful, glossy finish. However, the color often doesn't match the bottle, it has a strong chemical smell, and the removal process is difficult.
If ease of application and quick curing are your main priorities, DND's gel polish could be a good choice despite these drawbacks, especially if you can handle the higher cost and potential odor issues.
Apres Gel Nail Color matches the bottle shade perfectly on your nails, delivering true-to-color results. However, the finish isn't as shiny as expected, dulling the vibrant colors. The thick polish and rich pigmentation make it hard to apply smoothly, and the uneven brush complicates things further.
Price: ~$14.99
Features at a Glance:
Pros
Cons
True-to-bottle color accuracy
Finish lacks expected glossiness
Quick curing time
High pigmentation complicates subtle application
Efficient large brush size
Thick consistency makes application challenging
Strong scent can be off-putting
Durability issues with early chipping
High price point may deter budget-conscious buyers
The Apres Gel Nail Color, while perfect in color accuracy and quick to cure, presents challenges with its consistency, durability, and scent. If you can handle the thickness and are not sensitive to strong smells, its vibrant, true-to-life colors might still make it a worthwhile choice.
OPI is famous for its wide range of colors, and their easy-to-use website helps you find the perfect shade for any occasion. However, despite the variety, the performance has some issues. The finish is smooth but often lacks shine and can stay tacky. Problems with the formula's consistency and slow curing time also detract from the experience.
Price: Price varies by distributor, typically over $20 USD per bottle
Features at a Glance:
Pros
Cons
Extensive color selection
Finish lacks shine and remains sticky
Ease of shade selection online
Overly liquid formula complicates application
High pigmentation in colors
Requires long curing time, may not dry completely High price and not sold directly to personal users Disappointing durability with early chippingStrong chemical odor
While OPI is far-and-away the best with its array of colors, their gel nail polish struggles with several functional aspects. The sticky finish, overly liquid consistency, and lengthy drying times mar the application process.
In 5 days the gel manicure started to chip. At the high price point OPI commands we expected much better durability. These issues, combined with the strong chemical scent and the inconvenience of purchasing through distributors, might make you think twice. If color variety is your main criterion, OPI excels, but if overall quality and ease of use are equally important, other brands might be better.
Manucurist specializes in vegan and cruelty-free gel polishes with clean ingredients, appealing to those who prioritize ethical beauty products. While their color selection is extensive, issues with pigmentation, durability, and curing time add layers of disappointment after manicuring, particularly so considering the higher price point.
Price: ~$21
Features at a Glance:
Pros
Cons
Clean, non-toxic ingredients
Expensive
Vegan and cruelty-free
Chipping, poor durability
Easy removal process
Slow curing proces
Wide color range
Difficult, uneven application
Weak pigmentation
Unpleasant scent
Dull finish, quick to lose shine
Manucurist's gel polish may appeal to those looking for ethical and clean gel polishes, but its performance doesn't justify the high cost. The slow curing time, weak pigmentation, and durability issues, combined with a difficult application process, make this product less favorable for those looking for a long-lasting, high-quality gel manicure.
Gelish impresses with over 100 shades, but it has some drawbacks. The color circle on their website makes choosing the right shade hard, as they don't show the colors on nails. While the colors are vibrant and pigmented, the application process and durability don't live up to the same standard.
Price: $29.99
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Uv Gel Manufacturer. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Features at a Glance:
Gelish has many colors, appealing to those who love variety. But it falls short in how it's applied and how long it lasts. The different brush sizes and very liquid consistency make it hard to apply, especially if you're someone who's meticulous about their manicure. The polish chips after a few days and is hard to remove. Considering its high price, the wide color range may not justify these issues.
Sally Hansen's gel nail polish is easy to remove, making it ideal for those who change their nail color often. However, the range of colors and other aspects of the polish's performance might not meet everyone's expectations. The line offers only three colors, which may feel limiting, especially since they are only available in a starter kit and not sold individually. Sally Hansen's non-gel polishes is where they have extensive color range.
Price: ~$19.99
Features at a Glance:
Sally Hansen's gel nail polish is great for easy removal, perfect if you like changing your nail color often. It applies evenly, cures well, and lasts about a week. However, the color options are limited, you need alcohol for a non-sticky finish, and the bottles are small while the kit is pricey.
Sally Hansen's gel nail polish line offers only three colors, available exclusively in their gel nail starter kit. They don't sell individual gel nail polishes separately. All other colors displayed on their website being non-gel variants.
Beetles lures you in with a stunning range of colors at a friendly price. Yet, the excitement quickly fades when the real deal'the color on your nails'fails to match the vibrant ads. While achieving a salon-quality shiny finish is possible, the journey there is filled with obstacles like color mismatches and UV curing headaches.
Price: ~$19.99
Features at a Glance:
Pros
Cons
Affordable pricing for sets
Disappointing color accuracy
Salon-quality shine when achieved
Brush stiffness affects consistent application
Easy removal process
Quick to peel and form bubbles
Difficulty curing within reasonable number of attemptsRestricted to buying in sets
Strong, intense odorBeetles' gel polish struggles with consistency and curing, and it doesn't last long, making it unreliable for a quality manicure. The strong smell and inaccurate color representation also lessen its appeal. If you're on a budget and can compromise on quality, Beetles might work for you.
Modelones gel polishes are without a doubt budget-friendly, but the low prices come with performance issues that are difficult to overlook. These issues might make it less appealing to anyone wanting a durable, high-quality manicure.
Pricing: Affordable, but varies too much to set a number.
Features at a Glance:
Pros
Cons
Very affordable
Colors not as advertised
Brush provides good coveragePolish tends to clump
Minimal scent during application
Difficult application due to consistency issues
Poor durability, with peeling after 2 daysExtended curing time with sticky results
Low product volume and bottles not filled fully
Curing units, is there a universal one that cures all gels? Should you buy one for every brand, you own?
The answer to those questions and more are coming up in today's Episode #4 of our current Japanese Gel Fundamentals Series.
Let's begin.
So this topic of curing units is slightly controversial. The experts say Yes, you need to use the lamp sold by the brand of products you use. On the other hand, the nail tech is like, well, I use several brands, and the DIYer says I use a ton of different brands, and I also don't want to spend over $50 on one'
So what do you do? Yes, you! Here's what I do and what I recommend those who contact me to do also.
Before our curing unit talk, let me go on this tangent a little bit. It's super beneficial.
First and foremost' please, please, please narrow the number of brands you use. YOU HAVE TO. This will save you money and headaches trying to troubleshoot what went wrong in your application with all the different variables of mixing brands.
If you're a licensed nail tech, you're supposed to keep Safety Data Sheets for all your products. Can you imagine the work putting all those together and then imagine the thick binder of SDS you'll have to collect?
And here is the thing' I think it is fantastic to be selective. When you are, you're also sending a message to brand manufacturers that they need to earn your business. You're saying' Hey, I don't buy into it all so easily. How is your product different? Why should I buy it?
Use no more than three brands! (For some, this may be the easiest thing to do as they only have a brand or 2 they are interested in; for others, it may be a tough decision. (Kind of like choosing a nail color, lol)'
OK, and of those three brands, choose the one whose clear gels you will use regularly.
For instance, say you chose Leafgel as your primary brand for clear gels, then you can use color gels from any of 3 similar brands. Since I stick to soft potted gel, my colors can come from Leafgel, Kokoist, or Vetro.
If you're unsure which brand of clear gel to start with' literally just pick one, and use it for 1 or 3 months. If you're a busy or fully booked nail tech, you can figure out which one worked best for you in a month. But if you're DIY or just filling up your books, feel out your clear gel of choice for about three months and decide if you want to test out a different brand.
You don't want to try a brand once and say, it sucked; I didn't like it. Always give things a fair shot before moving on. It's life, right?
Now, I just want to lightly touch on something in regards to DIY, keep gels and other products off of your skin at all times. Allergies are ever so prevalent because of constant contact or overexposure to effects on the skin. If you need a little help with the application, check out the details of my DIY course and see if it is a good fit for you. I'll link it here for you.
Once you've narrowed the number of product lines to one, two, or maybe three, it is time to choose your curing unit. You will select your curing unit after doing your homework of narrowing down brands, not by price or looks.
I hope it is within your price range and looks gorgeous indeed. Still, the decision on what unit to buy ultimately should come down to the number one product line you use the most, with your plan B being the second brand you use the most. This way, you take out the guesswork of being your electrician trying to figure out the wattage, power input, output, or wavelength range you should look out for.
Say you do your part and buy the unit you're supposed to; you can confidently contact the manufacturer for support if it's not curing correctly. If you mixed brands in your application, do a test cure of each gel separately to ensure it's their product that seems to not be curing. You'll just take a little dollop of gel and ensure that even the underside has cured.
Now let's just say that for whatever reason, you're like' Paola, that way of buying my unit doesn't work out for me.
Either you don't like the unit your leading brand uses, or you've already had a bad experience with it, whatever the case may be.
Then there are three things you should consider before buying a unit. At least, these are the three guidelines I would use right now to buy one if I was going outside of my leading brands.
I'm going to leave this topic of power to the pros to dissect because it is more technical than just, Oh, use a 36-watt instead of a 9-watt curing unit. So I'll put a couple of links here to learn about this topic.
I think, in general, most of us understand that we will not be curing nails in the salon with a little handheld lamp but rather with a full-size, full-power unit. That said, yes, the minimum average power wattage you need is 36 watts when buying a unit. But as I understand it, the quality of parts plays a significant role in that power variable. For example, the quality of the AC adapter, the circuit board, and wires, among other features.
If you think about it, this is the case for all of our electronics. You can only imagine that our television, microwave, cars, etc., all have competitors that source their parts from different places. The same is true with your curing unit.
Nowadays, lamps are created or designed to be UVLED. What does that mean, you may be wondering? It means that it will cure gel whether it has a UV spectrum photoinitiator only, which is in the vicinity of 365-380 nanometers. Or photoinitiator emits deep violet or violet spectrum light higher than 380 up to 420 nanometers. Some gels only have UV spectrum curing photoinitiators, and others only have deep violet spectrum curing photoinitiators. By the way, if deep violet spectrum light sounds foreign, we've mislabeled these gels for years by simply calling them LED gels.
At least for Japanese gels, 405 nm is the photoinitiator used to stop calling gels LED. I'll be using Deep Violet or DV in the rest of this reading.
Now in today's day and age, some gels have both UV and DV. While generally, the correct thing to say is that there is not ONE curing unit that will cure all gels. Having a dual wave unit, so one that cures both photoinitiators UV AND LED will cure most of the gels in the market so long as it is a quality unit. Again you have to assume that the power is there via the quality parts of the unit.
Hopefully makes more sense why a $50 unit online vs. a manufacturer's choice at $200 has such a price discrepancy. It could be that one took the time, money, and energy to high-quality source parts, including the type of LED bulbs, to ensure you're getting a consistent, powerful cure for the next 203 years.
Simply put, I recommend buying from pro brands, especially if you are already a licensed pro or planning on becoming one. Remember your quality unit should come from the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd brand you've chosen to work with.
I work with Leafgel, Kokoist, and Vetro, so I have two units, the Kokoist one and the Leafgel one (btw, you can use PPN10 for a 10% discount on both of them.
And just know, on a bit of side note, that a gel is not cured entirely just because it has hardened.
This is literally a visual inspection of where the bulbs are at. Is there enough at the front and back of the lamp? Is there one by the thumbs? Are there a lot of bulbs? Period. Because LED bulbs are explicitly positioned, you can test that your bulbs are at a prime location where your fingernails will sit. Simply put your hand inside and ensure a bulb is right over the nails.
So after narrowing down my brands, those are my three buying factors power, wavelength range, and amount and position of bulbs.
After these three factors, I would look at the esthetics of the lamp, if they are essential to me, and my budget. Sometimes you buy a unit, and it feels cheap, it doesn't feel durable, it's not acetone resistant, etc., etc'
On another little side note, before wrapping up. Now that we've clarified what we mean by LED gels let me briefly talk about bulbs just so we're fully cleared up on UV, DV, LED, or CFL.
So, LED refers to the bulb emitting the LIGHT, not the type of light that is being emitted. Suppose you've been around the industry for a while and may be familiar with long lamp bulbs. In that case, these kinds of long bulbs are called CFL, and in our curing units, way back when they emitted UV spectrum light. An LED bulb in our modern dual wave units emits both UV & DV light.
I've said this for years, and based on my research, it has some validity. If you have indeed bought a quality unit, either because you trust the manufacturer or paid 'good money' for it. When using it on products that are not the same brand, fully cure each layer for 60 secs.
And unlike when the LED units first came out, we were told they would last about five years. Manufacturers have now learned that, for whatever reason, lamps, the whole unit, in other words, should be switched out every 2-3 years. So if you're a fully booked tech, go for that 2-year mark.
While I'd like to say that choosing a lamp is super easy, I think you need to use a few or all of the factors covered today to make the best decision on a curing unit.
Sometimes you may be able to find a replica of your manufacturer's unit, say on Amazon. Still, just because the shell of the machine is the same, it does not mean the hardware inside is quality or even the same. Just like the parts in your vehicle, your refrigerator, and other electronics vary in quality, so do the ones in your unit.
If you're interested in the Kokoist or Leafgel units I use, I have made separate video reviews on each. I'll also pop those links here for you, along with other videos directly from the pros on this topic of lamps and also any current active product promo codes.
I hope this Episode 04 of our Japanese Gel Nail Series helped you tremendously, and if it did, do me a big favor and give this video a thumbs up.
Find me again next week for Episode 5 of this series, all about nail prep products needed with JG. That's Monday @ 4pm EST. Mark your calendar, or join our club to get a notification as soon as it goes LIVE.
Thank you for watching, and bye for now.
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