Gel nail polish has transformed what we expect from our nail polish. Whether you want to start doing your gel nails at home or you’re looking to improve the gel manicure service you offer as a professional, using the best gel nail polish brands is essential to a flawless, long-lasting manicure. If you’re new to doing your own gel nails, you’ll need an LED or UV nail lamp to cure (dry) or you can pick up a gel nail kit gives you everything you need to get started with one purchase.

There’s a huge jump in quality from cheap gel polish to the trusted names in the industry. The market is flooded with options so let’s go over the pros and cons of the best gel nail polish brands around today.

Gelish was one of the first on the scene when gel polish became popular. With over 151 colors, Gelish has a wide range to choose from including the cremes and glitters. I’m highlighting this rich crimson Tiger Blossom for a classic red nail.

When applied correctly, Gelish polish will last you three weeks before chipping. A Gelish manicure will have that higher profile, thick finish that you expect from gel and a glossy high shine.

The polish colors are highly pigmented and you’ll rarely have to apply more than one coat of your color of choice. I like that Gelish polishes come in standard bottles and mini bottles so you can try out colors without having to purchase the full size.

Gelish plays well with other gels so if you have a top coat you love, you don’t have to swap it out like you do with CND Shellac. Gelish also offers several mini starter kits that hook you up with colors, top, and base coats all at once which is perfect if you’re just starting out with gel.

As far as removal, it’s about for gel. You have to soak for at least 10 minutes in acetone, but it could take more like 20 minutes depending on the application. I’ve featured the Gelish 18G Professional Nail Lamp in my Best UV and LED Nail Lamps article.

The cool thing about buying gel polish from Lechat, you generally also get a second bottle of the same color in a non-gel, traditional nail polish base.

This is perfect for touching up your nails if you have just that one little chip and you don’t have the time to redo your nails that day. It also works to have matching manicures and pedicures if you don’t want to use a gel on your toes. Or you can just wear the color as normal polish. (It’s always nice to have options.)

As far as color choices, Lechat has a good variety of neutrals, bold colors, color-changing shades, and intense holographics like this one.

The Lechat formula is thicker than some of the others on here so you want to make sure you’re putting on thin layers so it will cure properly. This polish will likely pass the 14-day mark and keep going.

OPI Gel Color is OPI’s push into gel territory and they really came in with a bang. Their Gel Color is dreamy to apply, long-lasting, highly pigmented, and removes cleaner than most gel polish. Plus, I love that their bottles are boldly the same color as the polish, making it fast and simple to find the shade you’re looking for in your collection.

Their colors go on smoothly, without streaking, and have nice opacity so you shouldn’t need more than two thin coats. When applied properly, this polish will last you easily two weeks. Check out this YouTube Battle of the Brands video where they pit Shellac against OPI Gel Color in a two-week wear test so you can see the difference in application. (Spoiler, after two weeks both polishes still look great. OPI had lost a little more shine but didn’t have the large chip that happened with the Shellac.)

This nail artist explains that OPI’s gel colors and top coat don’t contain any solvents. This allows them to harden cleaner and not thicken up on you as you’re working with it. Their base coat does contain a solvent and is the reason Gel Color removes cleanly with acetone. 

There isn’t a huge color range just yet but their 2021 Malibu Collection is full of fun bright colors in cream and shimmer finishes. I’ve featured PCH Love Song, as silky orange with a slight shimmer, but the collection also includes Marigolden Hour, a yellow creme, and Strawberry Waves, a sunny pink with micro-glitter.

Gellen is another brand popular with home nail folks. They can be bought individually but I’m really like their 16-color sets that come with a wide range of colors in mini bottles as well as full-size top and base coat. 

These 18-piece sets come in a nice range of themes including the pictured Nude Grays as well as a brighter Summer Rainbow Set, Classic Nudes for everyday wear, and Elegant Darks for events and romantic nights out.

This brand has over 300 colors to choose from and also includes color-changing, magnetic, glitter, and holographic. Their standard colors tend toward neutral options with lots of taupes as well as many gradients of red.

As a thinner polish, you’re looking at two to three coats of color with this brand so just be aware of that. It has decent lasting power and will get you past the 14-day mark, but after that depends on how much you baby your hands.

IBD Just Gel is a lesser-known brand that can compete with some bigger names in polish. The gel has two-week staying power in a wide range of colors.

The formula is thin but easy to control, though you will likely need two or more coats for the colors to really pop. I also like that the bottles are the color of the polish inside so you don’t have to be checking the bottom of your bottles to find the color you want.

They don’t really mess around with the fancy color changing, magnetic shades, so if you’re looking for show-stopping holographics, this isn’t for you. IBD Just Gel does have a few glittery polishes in there to jazz things up a bit like Anything Glows above, but for solid, creme colors with lots of choices for neutrals, this is a great brand to look at.

For those looking for an affordable way to greatly expand your choice of colors, check out Beetles Gel Polish. 

Beetles has a wide range of sets including large bundles like this 23-piece one and smaller, more-specialized sets like their six-piece Halloween Pumpkin Set.

Their sets tend to have a nice range of colors and finishes within their theme and this featured bundle includes a base coat, glossy top coat, and matte top coat which essentially doubles the number of colors you have to work with.

I recently switched to using their top and base coat and I’ve been really impressed at how many days of wear I’m getting out of it considering how much I’ve been abusing my nails. 

Aimeili has over 50 gel polish colors and lots of nice sets like this French nails bundle. Many of their sets are quite bold with color changing finishes. 

Of the lower-priced gels, Aimeili is one of the most durable, easily hitting the 14-day mark before chipping. It can take a beating which is something you want in a gel. It’s a little thin so you may need two to three coats depending on the color.

They’re expanding into more neutral tones, but they’re more known for their bold colors. I’ve bought several of their nude shades and even their more subtle-looking shades end up being a bit more vibrant in person, which is great if that’s what you’re looking for.

Londontown Gel Color takes the soft and stunning colors of Londontown Lakur and translating them into gel. I’ve had the chance to test out media samples of their regular lakur (with no promise of a review) and they’re some of my absolute favorites. Their colors are incredibly vibrant if their regular polish lasts over a week, you know their gel is going to last a long time. 

Their Gel Color is a solvent-free formula that creates an easier, more uniform application because the polish won’t change consistency as you work with it. That also means it won’t have that strong nail polish odor and cures even harder because there’s no solvent stuck in there that couldn’t evaporate.

I really like that they show the polish shade with the color of the flowers on the outside of the bottle. It’s easy to see at a glance and attractive. Plus they’re cruelty-free.

If you’re looking to pamper your hands, Londontown makes my top choices for cuticle care with Kur Nourishing Cuticle Oil and their Kur Two-in-One Serum for Hands and Nails.

If you love the shades of Essie’s regular polish, you can get them as long-lasting gel polish with Essie Gel. They’ve taken their best-loved shades and offering them as gel. I’m featuring their classic Ballet Slippers, a beautiful sand subtle heer pink perfect for wearing alone or as part of a French manicure. 

It has a smooth formula making it easier to apply thin layers to build up the color to your liking. It have average staying power and a lovely shine like you’d expect from anything Essie puts out.

Some of the other favorite shades available in gel are Mint Candy Apple, Wicked, and Topless and Barefoot. 

If you’re looking for lots of colors, Makartt gel might be a good fit for you. Their polish is generally sold in sets of colors like this Bright Colors Pastel Collection featured above which includes 22 pastel tones as well as a base and top coat. 

For the price, it’s a very good deal for that many colors even if they’re mini bottles of polish. These polishes are very densely pigmented and with some colors you could probably get away with only one coat of polish for full opacity, though the color will be truer with two coats. 

They do have slightly longer curing times than some brands but if you’re looking to bulk up your color selection at a bargain, a few extra seconds under the lamp may be worth it for you.

Makartt offers several different collections spanning a range of finishes from their six-piece X Femi Nude Collection to a playful six-piece jelly star glitter collection.

Check out Modelone’s 2021 Fall and Winter Collections sets in Autumn and A-Morandi Limited Edition. Each set includes 20 seasonal colors, a base coat, glossy top coat, matte top coat, and nail primer. Each bottle is seven milliliters which sounds small but will last you longer than you expect. Each set is a combination of cream and glitter shades. 

I’m a fan of Modelone’s top and base coat set and use it often. The brand has a wide range of colors including neutrals, magnetic cat eye, holographic, temperature changing, and glitter. 

When applied according to their instructions, you can get an easy two weeks out of this polish and probably longer. It doesn’t tolerate user-error as much as some other brands so it might not be ideal for first-timers.  

The brushes are small and compact to avoid applying too much product. It’s a nice consistency and easy to apply as well as curing in decent times so you don’t have to sit there and wait forever.

I got a media sample of this line from Modelones and I’m surprised by how much polish you actually get from these small bottles. 

FairyGlo gels are thick, but not so much that they’re unwieldy, but just thick enough that many solid colors are opaque in one coat.

For jelly colors and glitters, you’ll need several coats to get you there.

For a cheaper gel polish, they’ll last you a full two weeks before chipping. FairyGlo has a wide range of colors, though not as many as others, from neutral pastels to glitters and color changing polishes.

It does seem to be a little tenacious though and involves a long soaking time (around 15 minutes) when you want to remove it. It’s on there good, just be patient and gentle when you don’t want it on there anymore.

If your main desire is nailing that rich color of your dreams, check out Perfect Summer. This brand sells in sets so you get six different polishes all within a color theme.

They have a wide range of colors and each one is vibrant and rich.

The polish tends to be a little thin and sheer, so it might take three coats to get that perfect color, but once you get there, that intensity is so worth it. Plus, being slightly more liquidy means that it’s easier to apply those layers nice and thin so the completed look is still professional. The bottles are a little smaller than average so don’t be surprised by the size. 

They have interesting and fun sets including the pictured Shimmer Series as well as their Multichrome Series, Translucent Jellies, and Pastel Set.

If you alternate between gel and regular polish, you’ll love Orly’s Perfect Pair Gel Duo. I hate it when I find the color in my collection that I want to wear but it’s not gel, or vice versa. This duo set solves that problem because you get a bottle of each. 

The regular nail polish bottle is larger than the traditional polish bottle (18 milliliters compared to 15 milliliters) and the gel polish is smaller than average at nine milliliters. I’m featuring this lovely blue shade called Skinny Dip but there’s a whole range from nude shades to metallics.

Lagunamoon besides being really fun to say out loud, is a great brand for beginners because it’s so easy to work with and doesn’t require a lot of coats to become opaque. Fewer coats mean fewer steps and faster manicures.

I like that it’s a slightly thicker consistency as you don’t have to worry as much about it pooling into your cuticles. Gel can be tricky to work with if you’re used to regular polish and Laguna Moon is a nice transition brand that behaves like a thick polish. 

It has average curing times, not too fast and not too slow. The lifespan of the manicure is also average at about two weeks or longer depending on how you’ve applied it so it’s good for mastering your technique. 

If you’re on a budget and want a huge variety of color choices, you need to check out Elite99.

They have 337 colors out right now and the range is staggering. Elite99 has all the standard colors you expect, but they also have loads of deeply pigmented cremes, glitter polishes, magnetic polishes, color-changing polishes that shift with the temperature, and iridescent shimmer polishes.

Elite99 isn’t a professional product like the Gelish or CND and you’re less likely to find it in a salon, but it’s still a great brand that’s very popular with home gel folks because you can get all funky on-trend polish colors available right now.

The formula is fairly thin and easy to work with. Elite99 plays well with other base and top coats so if it’s just that one color you really want, you can integrate it with your other gel collection. The curing times are slightly longer than some others, but not drastically.

Staying power is surprisingly good for the price and heavily depends on proper application. It likely won’t last you much past two weeks, but with all these color choices, by then I’d be itching to put on a new color.

Their polishes are available as sets with many different color palettes as well as individually. 

Born Pretty is a ubiquitous brand for a reason. Their products are affordable and they look great. I’ve tested out media samples of Born Pretty polish as well as bought plenty of their products with my own money. I’m a fan of their glitter and holographic polishes the most and so I’m featuring this Shine Myself collection of six holographic gel toppers. 

These toppers can turn any gel polish into a glitzy holographic look. They aren’t opaque so they will look different over every polish color so you can create tons of new looks with just these six slightly tinted holo gel polishes. 

Born Pretty has a wide range of gel polish sets in different finishes including Magnetic Cat Eye and Cream shades. My only complaints about Born Pretty polishes are that the bottles are fairly small and they label their shades by numbers.

Saviland gel is a good choice for people looking to expand their color options without spending a ton of money. They’re affordable, have good staying power for the price, and have sets from these wild neons above to glow-in-the-dark to a rainbow of neutrals for nude nails.

The gel will last you a good two weeks or more and has fast curing times. It is a little sheer, depending on the color, so you might be looking at three coats for full opacity. 

Each set comes in its own storage box and the bottles have colored stickers on them so it’s easy to find the shade you’re looking for.

I like that this Mefa Coffee Time Romance Starter Set includes 20 shades of polish as well as a base coat, glossy top coat, and matte top coat. With the two different top coats, you can get 40 different looks from this one set.

The formula is pretty easy to work with though it can be a little too thick for some.  The brand even recommends placing the closed bottle of polish in hot water for a couple of minutes to loosen up the polish if you find it too thick for your liking.

Get glitzy with Red Carpet Manicure’s flashy shades from their 2021 Hollywood Walk of Fame Collection. This lesser-known brand is infused with vitamin A and biotin to help keep nails strong and healthy. This is a brand that I’ve featured as one of the best gel nail polish top coats.

This collection has six glittery shades like the silvery Lights, Glitz, and Glamour featured above as well as the ocean blue Counting Stars and Meet Me on the Back Lot–a unique black glitter shade.

I like that the bottles are designed to be really clear on what shade is inside so there’s no guessing or having to open the bottle to check the color. Red Carpet Manicure tends to do better glitters than creme polishes as those seem to be a little too sheer for most people. 

Clavuz offers a lot of fun, trendy colors like color changing polish, glitters, and magnetics at affordable prices.

Clavuz gels are about on par with other non-professional polishes, just make sure you’re using a quality lamp to cure them. While the brand’s polishes are good, skip their lamp and invest in a strong, quality light that will last you.

If you've cured them under a nail lamp a few times but they still feel a little bit sticky, don't panic.

When gel polish cures it leaves behind a tacky film called an inhibition layer. Don't worry about messing with it until you've cured your final top coat layer. Then all you need to do is use a prep wipe (or isopropyl alcohol on a lint-free pad) to wipe this tacky layer off leaving you with a smooth, hardened gel surface. 

If this extra step bothers you, you can also pick up a no-wipe top coat that doesn't have this tacky film at all.

Either will work because they accomplish the same thing. Originally all nail lamps used UV bulbs which work but can get warm and need to be replaced like normal light bulbs. 

As technology advanced, they started using dual-light LEDs which emit both LED and UV light. These bulbs are smaller, last longer, cure faster, and are cheaper.

You can still buy UV lamps, but early all the nail lamps you'll find out there are going to be LED-powered.

It varies depending on your lamp type, strength, and brand of polish. 

In general, you should count on a UV bulb lamp taking around two minutes to cure each layer of polish. 

LED lamps with a power of 35W or less tend to take between 30 seconds to a minute and a half to cure each layer.

Higher powered LED can cure in fifteen to 30 seconds depending on the polish.

I personally tend to cure my gel under LED for a minute just to be safe.

Normal nail polish works just like standard paint does: pigments are dissolved in a solvent and when the solvent is exposed to air, it evaporates leaving behind the hardened lacquer.

But gel nail polish will never evaporate and will only completely dry through a chemical chain reaction that is triggered by UV light. The Toast's Gal Science series sums it up as the curing process essentially turning the liquid polish into a durable plastic.

Gel nail polish is packaged in opaque bottles so that light hitting it won't cause the lacquer to harden in the bottle instead of on your nails. If you ever see a polish advertised as gel but it has a transparent bottle, it's not a true gel.

According to the chemistry site Compound Interest, this chemical reaction begins when UV light hits photoinitiators in the liquid polish which sets off a chain reaction converting the liquid into a polymer. Polymers are tough materials and examples include things like silicone, PVC, amber, and the cellulose in wood.

An issue of the Royal Society of Chemistry's publication The Mole explains this gel polish reaction as taking loose beads (monomers) and stringing them together into a necklace (polymers) creating strength and structure. 

This chemical conversion is called curing. For gel nails to have their desired longevity, the polish has to be cured under special nail lamps designed to emit the appropriate UV light to kickstart this chain reaction.

You can absolutely do your own gel manicure at home. Lots of people are doing their own gel nails these days and it can save you a boatload of money compared to going to the salon every two to three weeks.

All you'll need is gel nail polish (top and base coat please) and a UV or LED nail lamp. 

That said, the gel you get at the salon will likely last you longer than the one you do at home unless you're a professional yourself because how you apply gel polish is as important as the quality of the polish and lamp.

Still though, even if you can only get your at home gel manicures to last you two weeks, it's still a huge improvement over traditional polish.

There are lots of quality UV and LED nail lamp options available in a huge range of prices. Some as cheap as the price of a single salon manicure, like this SUNUV Dryer will get the job done but not as quickly as higher-powered, professional lamps like the Gelish 18G.

On its own, gel is not going to destroy your nails. Gel polish is harder on nails than standard polish but not as harsh as having acrylics. Unless you're using CND Shellac, you need to lightly buff the surface of the nail so the polish has a rougher surface to stick to, so right off the bat, that sort of thing will thin your nails.

Removing gel nail polish is where it can get tricky. Picking your gel manicure off is what will damage your nails. But if you remove the polish properly, the damage to your nails should be minimal.

See my article on the best Gel Polish Remover for more an extended step-by-step guide, but here's a quick rundown.

Gel nails will need to soak in pure acetone for 10 to 20 minutes to loosen their bond on the nail. Filing the surface of the gel polish first, just enough to remove the shine of the top coat) can help to speed up the process. To make soaking easier there are nail clips or steaming bowls so you're not just sitting over an open bowl of acetone.

Once the acetone has weakened the gel, it will look wrinkled and waterlogged. You should be able to push it off with a cuticle pusher tool without much effort. Never pry or pick your gel lacquer off with a sharp tool. It will take the top layers of your nails with it and weaken your nails.

If you take the right steps and are patient, there's no reason gel should do serious damage to your nails.

Always follow up the removal process with cuticle oil to pamper your fingers, especially if they've just sat in acetone for 10 minutes. I personally use Londontown's Kur Cuticle Oil. If you can, use cuticle oil daily to keep your nails hydrated and healthy. 

If you're unsure about this, please go to a nail salon where a professional can properly remove your gels with as little effect on your nails as possible.

Always remove your gels as soon as they start chipping or lifting. Water, from washing your hands for example, can get trapped under your nail and become a breeding ground for bacteria and fungus. No one wants that so don't let your peeling gel nails sit.

For those looking to try doing their own gel nails for the first time, I'd say pick up a bottle of CND Shellac. You don't have to rough up the surface of your nails for Shellac so if you decide you don't love the process, you haven't had to buff your nails which unavoidably does weaken them a small amount. 

If you're more on a  budget or don't have access to professional brands like CND, I'd recommend Beetles because their formula is similar to regular nail polish and easy to work with.

If you're having trouble controlling your gel polish and find that it's always flooding your cuticles, they make pudding gel polish (also called solid cream polish) which is much thicker and won't spread around on you where you don't want it.

If you're not deep in the nail world, these two can seem almost interchangeable other than the way you apply them, but they're actually very different. 

Gel nail polish is polish that is hardened by a chemical reaction triggered by UV light, which we've discussed. 

Acrylic nails use acrylic powder that is mixed with a thick monomer to create a malleable paste and then sculpted into nails. They're tough to get off and last around a month.

Nail dipping powder is acrylic nail powder, usually tinted, that skips the monomer and is instead activated with a clear liquid that is painted on like nail polish. It's basically a way to apply acrylic to nails without sculpting. 

Both gel nail polish and dipping take less practice to apply but dipping powder tends to last longer than gel nails and is much harder to remove since it's still acrylic.

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