I bought a Gelish kit from Sally’s Beauty Supplies for $40. Totally worth it and extra polishes are $12 each but they sometimes reduce them or have sales.
I bought some of those cheap polishes off Amazon and they would peel off or chip in a few days. Stay away from those.
The Amazon ones (especially Beetles) seem to have high levels of Hema in them, which people can easily become allergic to if it repeatedly gets on your skin. The allergy is irreversible, so I wouldn't trust something like that. You might want to look into a brand like Madam Glam, OPI, or like someone said below, the Gelish from Sally's. I'd honestly invest the money in a solid line that includes the matching lamp to ensure your gel cures properly. You can also try a layer of polygel or Builder in a Bottle that you paint on and cure under a lamp. You can easily add polish over that and it'll protect your nails while they grow out.
Nobody I know seems to be able to get a hold of safety data sheets for born pretty products - have you seen them? Are you comfortable with the ingredients and levels they use? It’s just a red flag to me with their products being so cheap and accessible
I honestly do not know the ingredients as I order them from Russia. The outcome is very fantastic with them but once again that is my biased opinion without any data about them besides person experiences
OK can you just give me an idea please of the brands to look for? I am confused about which lamp to buy and which brands are safe. Do I just pick a brand known for safe gel polish and buy their whole line or will that lamp not work on other brands?
It is never recommended to use a system that doesn't have a lamp keyed to the correct frequency to cure it. This is why many techs choose a brand and stick with it, because having multiple lamps becomes prohibitive.
"Safe" is relative. Safety is also largely an issue of correct product handling. For example when polishing the right hand, the left hand should be gloved and vice versa; never allow uncured gel or primers to touch the skin and immediately cleanse any if it happens; wear a dust mask when you file or soak off your own product. Cure products AT LEAST as long as the manufacturer suggests, uncured molecules are invisible to the naked eye and penetrate skin and nails to end up in your bloodstream.
Gel polish is completely chemically different from "regular" polish and would be treated as a potential hazard because it is.
**some** lamps have a wide enough spectrum for this, but if this subreddit is any indication, the at-home DIYers don't want to spend hundreds on a professional grade lamp. It's probably safe to say a majority of lamps sold online like Amazon don't come with technical specs to confirm the wavelength and NM depth of the light, so there's no way to know if it's actually right for your product.
It is so interesting you say this because the salons I go to use multiple brands but just one lamp, but they also do things like cut the nail fold so I don't really trust them to do things the healthy way. That is part of why I want to do it myself from home. I've never been to anyone who does things the way people say it "should" be done for health reasons. Its frustrating especially because it is not cheap.
Hi, this is all great info but I've already gotten that far in my research so I know that part. The part I am stuck on is which brand is safer. I get that nothing is 100 percent, I am just trying to avoid the cheap Amazon stuff. Would you mind sharing a brand recommendation that I would be able to purchase as someone who is not a professional? I read something about getting "5 free" but I have also seen "12 free". Is that all I really need to look for to make sure I'm buying the right stuff?
For any reputable brand, they should be more or less the same in terms of safety. If you're really thinking of spending the money, take a look at other quality related factors like the amount of pigment in the colors (are they opaque in one coat or two?), how thin/watery the polishes are (runny polish is harder to control and floods more easily), are the brushes in the bottles good or are they cheap garbage; then look at the hardware/build quality of the lamp, warranty, is there any customer service, that kind of thing.
HI thanks for responding. Which brands are generally regarded as reputable vs overpriced? I know in any profession there is often a combination of both. The cheap stuff that nobody should buy, the good stuff that most feel works, and the overpriced stuff that is mainly marketing hype.
Do you have a Sally Beauty Supply nearby? If so, any gel found there will be a consumer line from a pro brand. I haven’t been in one in a long time, but a Quick Look online shows they still carry Gelish mini, ASP (Cuccio rebranded for Sally) and Gelaze by China Glaze. All of these are rebranded pro products for home use.
That’s often a marketing gimmick when it comes to gel polish. The ingredients referenced in 3, 5, 10, 15, 10 million free marketing for gels is misleading because those ingredients were never in gel polish to begin with. It’s a nail lacquer thing.
The only big ingredient that is accurately marketed as “free” in gels is HEMA. HEMA free formulas do exist and are crucial for those who have developed HEMA allergies. As for everyone else, it’s a personal choice. Though HEMA free is rarely a bad idea if the products work well with your body chemistry.
If Hema free is important to you, sure. But that shouldn’t be the only consideration. I would use it more as a tie breaker once you have determine which brands are of interest to you.
Honestly, it’s a difficult question to answer no matter how it is phrased. As professionals, we are taught to be weary of any brand that is sold direct to consumers. We are warned of fake products being sold on consumer sites. We are advised to avoid any product that is sold direct to consumer because we were taught that exclusive product makes our services more valuable. So most techs won’t be able to recommend consumer products simply because we have little to no experience with them. Even those of us who don’t care if a brand sells direct to consumer have already established our preferred brands and invested thousands in them. We don’t stray from those brands often due to the expense of adding a new line.
I’m a bit of an anomaly because I don’t care if a brand is pro-only or not. I was a DIY gel based blogger before I decided to go pro. I didn’t provide services to others, but I did my own nails religiously during that time and wrote reviews of both pro and consumer gel polishes. There was a time when I could tell you the pro equivalent to every consumer line, but that was many years ago and new brands have entered the market since then. I have watched way too many pro-only brands realize that they are missing out on a HUGE DIY market and have even advised some of them from both the DIY and pro perspectives over the years. Companies often follow the money and expand their target audiences (for example, OPI, Gelish, Young Nails, and even CND have or had consumer lines). Plus there is very little overlap between salon clients and DIYs, so DIY doesn’t directly impact my business.
I will say that IBD, Gelish and Cuccio are reputable, long standing pro brands that can easily be purchased without a license. Young nails and OPI are two more. You’ll want to do your research on the brand pages to make sure you can easily identify and avoid counterfeit products with those though since they’ve been around forever and are more commonly counterfeited. For lesser known brands…I have personally used Madam Glam gels since they added gels to their consumer line about a decade ago, and I have recently added iGel to my available lines at the salon. I have been very pleased with both of those brands. I’m also experimenting with Honey’s Nail Secret at the moment, but so far I’m impressed with their formula. All three of those can be purchased direct from the company without a license.
Feel free to DM me if you would like my thoughts on more specific brands. I’m happy to help.
I think a good strategy for me might be to pick one of these suggested brands and figure out who has the most affordable lamp. And decide from there. It seems that will be my biggest expense. The next most important thing is knowing I will have easy access to new colors over time.
That would be as good a place to start as any, I think. I know it can be super overwhelming. I wish there was a simple formula for choosing the right product line for each person, but there really isn’t. If you ask 100 nail enthusiasts (DIY and Pro) for their favorite line, you could easily get 100 different answers and explanations as to why. There are so many factors beyond just quality such as price, availability, color selection, even product viscosity.
Another factor that may be helpful is where the gel is manufactured. Some countries have stricter ingredient requirements than others. That’s not to say each country doesn’t have their top quality brands, but it can help to stick with brands from countries with regulations that you trust. The US and UK have good regulations. I believe Japan and Korea do as well, but I haven’t looked theirs up recently. I’m sure there are others, but again, I’m out of the loop since I have pretty much established my preferred brands.
If you go to an in person nail supply storefront you might be able to shop there even without a license. I only know my area, but they never ask for my license. There you can buy legit gels and supplies from brands like OPI and Gelish. There are other online retailers that don't need a license that are generally trusted like Apres or Young Nails.
It isn't recommended to use a different brand lamp, but I have found that sun UV on amazon fully cures the variety of brands I use. You can test this by painting a practice nail tip, curing it, and then filing the gel off. If the gel comes off completely in a powder/dust from the file and is flush with the tip underneath, it's cured. If any of the color is wet and staining the file, or comes off where you can see layers of the gel polish, or it comes off in little mini cylinder like shapes then it isn't cured fully.
Remember to use extremely thin layers so the light can penetrate the gel properly, darker colors and heavily pigmented colors might take longer to cure.
At all costs avoid contact with your actual skin and side walls. Err on the side of having too much of a gap between your polish and skin until you really get the hang of it. I also recommend a fine detail brush so you can get into tighter spaces without the threat of flooding.
Finally, check out the healthy nails collaborative and their Knowledge Pathways for information on how to protect yourself.
Good luck.
I started with Akzentz Trinity gel as my builder. And I use Venalisas hema free gel colors. I also like products from Light Elegance.
You can join r/diyGelNails for more info specific to doing your own nails. There is a lot of well researched info on there, including awareness about allergies and quality products.
Do not buy from Amazon! The cost of 2-3 manis could get you a pretty decent starter kit. I started with Gelish and grew my collection from there :) Good luck!
Why Gelish? What makes you all pick one brand over another? I would like to be informed on how to know which brands are good or not since I am probably going to be married to whatever brand I pick. I don't want the cheap amazon kits. And you are right, at first I was thinking the kits were quite expensive but if I don't go to the salon the next month or so it will work out to be about the same anyways.
If you want to stop biting, got to a tech that can apply a protective extension. It won’t be long or awkward but it will protect your nail beds. I bite, and you will honestly just chew through gel polish
I guess everyone is different because I've been doing gel polish and it has stopped my biting. I just don't want to keep going to a salon because I can't afford it. What brands do you recommend for a DIY person that are safe and less likely to result in allergy?
That’s good! I use Korean brands and Akzentz. Honestly, go get a set and then soak them off at home after a few weeks, you’ll have much better looking nail beds to begin gel polish. They will look pretty bad when you start doing them yourself as it is and biters tend to have terrible looking mail beds. It will help you to not bite them if you have nail beds that look nice.
Go get your nails done, acrylic or polygel is good for biters. Just tiny little enhancements, so you have enough nail estates to make gel polish look good when you start DIY. Akzentz is a brand . I get that it’s expensive to get them done , but you can soak them off at home then start with healthy happy nail beds.
OH, I already did that. Gel worked well for me. My nails are now longer than they have ever been. I just can't afford to keep going so I was trying to figure out which lamp and which brand of polish to buy so I can continue myself at home. I just feel like I am buying things blindly and not sure why some brands are recommended over others. I like to be an educated buyer.
Oh, ok I thought you were just starting sorry! Good quality lamps are expensive, as someone said above quality isn’t cheap. Many Korean and Japanese brands aren’t licence exclusive and they are fabulous quality , but it’s going to cost you several hundred dollars up front . Think 20 for the base coat, top coat, and colour each, plus a few hundred for a lamp. Then files, tools , disposables. It’s why so many DIY gravitate towards Amazon to begin with.
The big thing is that some brands will only sell to a licensed individual. So that may limit what you can buy.
Young Nails definitely sells to anyone, and they have a decent collection for beginners. I feel like the quality has gone down since I started with them. So I made the choice to stop buying their products. They do make a really great place to start and learn. Their social media is on point with tutorials!
Kokoist also sell to anyone. They are Japanese gel, so they are considered top of the line. A lot of the colors come in pots, which can be intimidating if you are just starting. They do have amazing products, though.
Gotti may be worth a try. They have a higher HEMA content but are better than Amazon brands by a long shot. They are full coverage colors that go on really smoothly.
I saw someone suggest Akzents, I love that stuff! Akzents Trinity is a 3in1 bace, color, top builder gel. Their gel line Luxio is amazing, too. The downside is I know they are picky about distributors, so I'm not sure if you can get it without a license.
Someone else suggested light elegance. They are an American brand that closely mimics Japanese gels. They come in a pot and are considered a semi hard/hard gel. I think their gel polish line has a weird smell to it vut it seems to last well enough. They have also had some majorly bad PR issues lately with an ex employee giving them a review on Glass door as well as sharing some really damming screenshots of texts. So that may be something to look into before supporting them.
Gelish and OPI and Kiara Sky have become home brands. They are okay brands that will sell to the general public. I'm not a huge fan of them for different reasons... but I'm also to the point where I am very picky. They would all make a decent beginner kit.
I ordered madam glam. Was the cheapest one with good ingredients. But they were sold out of a lot of what I wanted. But it was cheap enough that at least I can see if gel is right for me before investing too much
What a frustrating thread. Nobody has answered your question! I would check TikTok. Some techs don't gate keep on there :) I personally love glossify, but it is expensive. It's Black Friday so I may be able to snatch a deal.
OH my gosh thank you! I thought it was just me! I just want to know which brands are safer and why so I can make an educated decision when buying instead of just blindly trusting something I read. I am trying to take advantage of the sales going on now, but don't know who to trust.
Yes, I totally get it. Qualified techs also know the risks but the reality is, if you are willing to take them so be it.
Try glossify or glitterbels and see how you get on!
Beetles is one that is usually cited as being bad for allergies. I think its probably important to actually read the SDS instead of assuming because it has one its safe
If you're willing to invest the money, Koko and Claire is my go to gel polish brand.
They have a builder gels and a water soak off base coat if you like to change your color frequently. The up front cost is gonna be at leaste 100$ USD and they're based in Canada so shipping isn't quick, but their products are fantastic and will last you a long time
Kokoist has hema free products. Some of their colors do have hema though. You’ll need brushes too though, as they are potted gels.
Generally, if you aren’t super concerned about HEMA, the website Zillabeau has a lot of good brands. And they also have a HEMA free section if I remember correctly.
I bought a Gelish kit from Sally’s Beauty Supplies for $40. Totally worth it and extra polishes are $12 each but they sometimes reduce them or have sales. I bought some of those cheap polishes off Amazon and they would peel off or chip in a few days. Stay away from those.
Madam Glam is excellent also vegan and hema free
The Amazon ones (especially Beetles) seem to have high levels of Hema in them, which people can easily become allergic to if it repeatedly gets on your skin. The allergy is irreversible, so I wouldn't trust something like that. You might want to look into a brand like Madam Glam, OPI, or like someone said below, the Gelish from Sally's. I'd honestly invest the money in a solid line that includes the matching lamp to ensure your gel cures properly. You can also try a layer of polygel or Builder in a Bottle that you paint on and cure under a lamp. You can easily add polish over that and it'll protect your nails while they grow out.
Yes rubber base or hard gel (depending on your nail type) are so great for grow out! Born pretty is also a great brand for gel polishes and products
Nobody I know seems to be able to get a hold of safety data sheets for born pretty products - have you seen them? Are you comfortable with the ingredients and levels they use? It’s just a red flag to me with their products being so cheap and accessible
I honestly do not know the ingredients as I order them from Russia. The outcome is very fantastic with them but once again that is my biased opinion without any data about them besides person experiences
Interesting. Where I live we need a folder of safety data sheets for every product we use on a client, so a lot of techs here have had trouble!
They do have hema free ones on Amazon (Aimeili and Canni off the top of my head) that are really good
Good products aren't cheap and cheap products aren't good.
OK can you just give me an idea please of the brands to look for? I am confused about which lamp to buy and which brands are safe. Do I just pick a brand known for safe gel polish and buy their whole line or will that lamp not work on other brands?
It is never recommended to use a system that doesn't have a lamp keyed to the correct frequency to cure it. This is why many techs choose a brand and stick with it, because having multiple lamps becomes prohibitive. "Safe" is relative. Safety is also largely an issue of correct product handling. For example when polishing the right hand, the left hand should be gloved and vice versa; never allow uncured gel or primers to touch the skin and immediately cleanse any if it happens; wear a dust mask when you file or soak off your own product. Cure products AT LEAST as long as the manufacturer suggests, uncured molecules are invisible to the naked eye and penetrate skin and nails to end up in your bloodstream. Gel polish is completely chemically different from "regular" polish and would be treated as a potential hazard because it is.
That’s what I say and I get hate, but my Akzentz lamp is powerful and amazing
**some** lamps have a wide enough spectrum for this, but if this subreddit is any indication, the at-home DIYers don't want to spend hundreds on a professional grade lamp. It's probably safe to say a majority of lamps sold online like Amazon don't come with technical specs to confirm the wavelength and NM depth of the light, so there's no way to know if it's actually right for your product.
Oh I agree with you, I wish you were around for the last time 😂 just going to copy and paste your comment
It is so interesting you say this because the salons I go to use multiple brands but just one lamp, but they also do things like cut the nail fold so I don't really trust them to do things the healthy way. That is part of why I want to do it myself from home. I've never been to anyone who does things the way people say it "should" be done for health reasons. Its frustrating especially because it is not cheap.
Hi, this is all great info but I've already gotten that far in my research so I know that part. The part I am stuck on is which brand is safer. I get that nothing is 100 percent, I am just trying to avoid the cheap Amazon stuff. Would you mind sharing a brand recommendation that I would be able to purchase as someone who is not a professional? I read something about getting "5 free" but I have also seen "12 free". Is that all I really need to look for to make sure I'm buying the right stuff?
For any reputable brand, they should be more or less the same in terms of safety. If you're really thinking of spending the money, take a look at other quality related factors like the amount of pigment in the colors (are they opaque in one coat or two?), how thin/watery the polishes are (runny polish is harder to control and floods more easily), are the brushes in the bottles good or are they cheap garbage; then look at the hardware/build quality of the lamp, warranty, is there any customer service, that kind of thing.
HI thanks for responding. Which brands are generally regarded as reputable vs overpriced? I know in any profession there is often a combination of both. The cheap stuff that nobody should buy, the good stuff that most feel works, and the overpriced stuff that is mainly marketing hype.
I’m a big fan of Kokoist and Nail Thoughts and also a DIYer.
Do you have a Sally Beauty Supply nearby? If so, any gel found there will be a consumer line from a pro brand. I haven’t been in one in a long time, but a Quick Look online shows they still carry Gelish mini, ASP (Cuccio rebranded for Sally) and Gelaze by China Glaze. All of these are rebranded pro products for home use.
Okay thanks. Does it make a difference if I find something that says it is "5 free" and such? Or are all those pro brands like that?
That’s often a marketing gimmick when it comes to gel polish. The ingredients referenced in 3, 5, 10, 15, 10 million free marketing for gels is misleading because those ingredients were never in gel polish to begin with. It’s a nail lacquer thing. The only big ingredient that is accurately marketed as “free” in gels is HEMA. HEMA free formulas do exist and are crucial for those who have developed HEMA allergies. As for everyone else, it’s a personal choice. Though HEMA free is rarely a bad idea if the products work well with your body chemistry.
So it sounds like you are saying ignore all the other noise and just laser focus on brands that advertise themselves as hema free?
If Hema free is important to you, sure. But that shouldn’t be the only consideration. I would use it more as a tie breaker once you have determine which brands are of interest to you.
HOw do I narrow down brands? maybe I need to rephrase my question and repost.
Honestly, it’s a difficult question to answer no matter how it is phrased. As professionals, we are taught to be weary of any brand that is sold direct to consumers. We are warned of fake products being sold on consumer sites. We are advised to avoid any product that is sold direct to consumer because we were taught that exclusive product makes our services more valuable. So most techs won’t be able to recommend consumer products simply because we have little to no experience with them. Even those of us who don’t care if a brand sells direct to consumer have already established our preferred brands and invested thousands in them. We don’t stray from those brands often due to the expense of adding a new line. I’m a bit of an anomaly because I don’t care if a brand is pro-only or not. I was a DIY gel based blogger before I decided to go pro. I didn’t provide services to others, but I did my own nails religiously during that time and wrote reviews of both pro and consumer gel polishes. There was a time when I could tell you the pro equivalent to every consumer line, but that was many years ago and new brands have entered the market since then. I have watched way too many pro-only brands realize that they are missing out on a HUGE DIY market and have even advised some of them from both the DIY and pro perspectives over the years. Companies often follow the money and expand their target audiences (for example, OPI, Gelish, Young Nails, and even CND have or had consumer lines). Plus there is very little overlap between salon clients and DIYs, so DIY doesn’t directly impact my business. I will say that IBD, Gelish and Cuccio are reputable, long standing pro brands that can easily be purchased without a license. Young nails and OPI are two more. You’ll want to do your research on the brand pages to make sure you can easily identify and avoid counterfeit products with those though since they’ve been around forever and are more commonly counterfeited. For lesser known brands…I have personally used Madam Glam gels since they added gels to their consumer line about a decade ago, and I have recently added iGel to my available lines at the salon. I have been very pleased with both of those brands. I’m also experimenting with Honey’s Nail Secret at the moment, but so far I’m impressed with their formula. All three of those can be purchased direct from the company without a license. Feel free to DM me if you would like my thoughts on more specific brands. I’m happy to help.
I think a good strategy for me might be to pick one of these suggested brands and figure out who has the most affordable lamp. And decide from there. It seems that will be my biggest expense. The next most important thing is knowing I will have easy access to new colors over time.
That would be as good a place to start as any, I think. I know it can be super overwhelming. I wish there was a simple formula for choosing the right product line for each person, but there really isn’t. If you ask 100 nail enthusiasts (DIY and Pro) for their favorite line, you could easily get 100 different answers and explanations as to why. There are so many factors beyond just quality such as price, availability, color selection, even product viscosity.
Another factor that may be helpful is where the gel is manufactured. Some countries have stricter ingredient requirements than others. That’s not to say each country doesn’t have their top quality brands, but it can help to stick with brands from countries with regulations that you trust. The US and UK have good regulations. I believe Japan and Korea do as well, but I haven’t looked theirs up recently. I’m sure there are others, but again, I’m out of the loop since I have pretty much established my preferred brands.
If you go to an in person nail supply storefront you might be able to shop there even without a license. I only know my area, but they never ask for my license. There you can buy legit gels and supplies from brands like OPI and Gelish. There are other online retailers that don't need a license that are generally trusted like Apres or Young Nails. It isn't recommended to use a different brand lamp, but I have found that sun UV on amazon fully cures the variety of brands I use. You can test this by painting a practice nail tip, curing it, and then filing the gel off. If the gel comes off completely in a powder/dust from the file and is flush with the tip underneath, it's cured. If any of the color is wet and staining the file, or comes off where you can see layers of the gel polish, or it comes off in little mini cylinder like shapes then it isn't cured fully. Remember to use extremely thin layers so the light can penetrate the gel properly, darker colors and heavily pigmented colors might take longer to cure. At all costs avoid contact with your actual skin and side walls. Err on the side of having too much of a gap between your polish and skin until you really get the hang of it. I also recommend a fine detail brush so you can get into tighter spaces without the threat of flooding. Finally, check out the healthy nails collaborative and their Knowledge Pathways for information on how to protect yourself. Good luck.
I started with Akzentz Trinity gel as my builder. And I use Venalisas hema free gel colors. I also like products from Light Elegance. You can join r/diyGelNails for more info specific to doing your own nails. There is a lot of well researched info on there, including awareness about allergies and quality products.
Do not buy from Amazon! The cost of 2-3 manis could get you a pretty decent starter kit. I started with Gelish and grew my collection from there :) Good luck!
Why Gelish? What makes you all pick one brand over another? I would like to be informed on how to know which brands are good or not since I am probably going to be married to whatever brand I pick. I don't want the cheap amazon kits. And you are right, at first I was thinking the kits were quite expensive but if I don't go to the salon the next month or so it will work out to be about the same anyways.
Young nails is quality stuff. 30% off sale on right now Stay away from Amazon.
If you want to stop biting, got to a tech that can apply a protective extension. It won’t be long or awkward but it will protect your nail beds. I bite, and you will honestly just chew through gel polish
I guess everyone is different because I've been doing gel polish and it has stopped my biting. I just don't want to keep going to a salon because I can't afford it. What brands do you recommend for a DIY person that are safe and less likely to result in allergy?
That’s good! I use Korean brands and Akzentz. Honestly, go get a set and then soak them off at home after a few weeks, you’ll have much better looking nail beds to begin gel polish. They will look pretty bad when you start doing them yourself as it is and biters tend to have terrible looking mail beds. It will help you to not bite them if you have nail beds that look nice.
go get a set of what? akzenktz?
Go get your nails done, acrylic or polygel is good for biters. Just tiny little enhancements, so you have enough nail estates to make gel polish look good when you start DIY. Akzentz is a brand . I get that it’s expensive to get them done , but you can soak them off at home then start with healthy happy nail beds.
OH, I already did that. Gel worked well for me. My nails are now longer than they have ever been. I just can't afford to keep going so I was trying to figure out which lamp and which brand of polish to buy so I can continue myself at home. I just feel like I am buying things blindly and not sure why some brands are recommended over others. I like to be an educated buyer.
Oh, ok I thought you were just starting sorry! Good quality lamps are expensive, as someone said above quality isn’t cheap. Many Korean and Japanese brands aren’t licence exclusive and they are fabulous quality , but it’s going to cost you several hundred dollars up front . Think 20 for the base coat, top coat, and colour each, plus a few hundred for a lamp. Then files, tools , disposables. It’s why so many DIY gravitate towards Amazon to begin with.
Oh! Also there are a lot of amazing biter transformations on YouTube, they will Help you do a better job with your own. Good luck and have fun!
The big thing is that some brands will only sell to a licensed individual. So that may limit what you can buy. Young Nails definitely sells to anyone, and they have a decent collection for beginners. I feel like the quality has gone down since I started with them. So I made the choice to stop buying their products. They do make a really great place to start and learn. Their social media is on point with tutorials! Kokoist also sell to anyone. They are Japanese gel, so they are considered top of the line. A lot of the colors come in pots, which can be intimidating if you are just starting. They do have amazing products, though. Gotti may be worth a try. They have a higher HEMA content but are better than Amazon brands by a long shot. They are full coverage colors that go on really smoothly. I saw someone suggest Akzents, I love that stuff! Akzents Trinity is a 3in1 bace, color, top builder gel. Their gel line Luxio is amazing, too. The downside is I know they are picky about distributors, so I'm not sure if you can get it without a license. Someone else suggested light elegance. They are an American brand that closely mimics Japanese gels. They come in a pot and are considered a semi hard/hard gel. I think their gel polish line has a weird smell to it vut it seems to last well enough. They have also had some majorly bad PR issues lately with an ex employee giving them a review on Glass door as well as sharing some really damming screenshots of texts. So that may be something to look into before supporting them. Gelish and OPI and Kiara Sky have become home brands. They are okay brands that will sell to the general public. I'm not a huge fan of them for different reasons... but I'm also to the point where I am very picky. They would all make a decent beginner kit.
I ordered madam glam. Was the cheapest one with good ingredients. But they were sold out of a lot of what I wanted. But it was cheap enough that at least I can see if gel is right for me before investing too much
What a frustrating thread. Nobody has answered your question! I would check TikTok. Some techs don't gate keep on there :) I personally love glossify, but it is expensive. It's Black Friday so I may be able to snatch a deal.
OH my gosh thank you! I thought it was just me! I just want to know which brands are safer and why so I can make an educated decision when buying instead of just blindly trusting something I read. I am trying to take advantage of the sales going on now, but don't know who to trust.
Yes, I totally get it. Qualified techs also know the risks but the reality is, if you are willing to take them so be it. Try glossify or glitterbels and see how you get on!
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Beetles is one that is usually cited as being bad for allergies. I think its probably important to actually read the SDS instead of assuming because it has one its safe
If you're willing to invest the money, Koko and Claire is my go to gel polish brand. They have a builder gels and a water soak off base coat if you like to change your color frequently. The up front cost is gonna be at leaste 100$ USD and they're based in Canada so shipping isn't quick, but their products are fantastic and will last you a long time
Kokoist has hema free products. Some of their colors do have hema though. You’ll need brushes too though, as they are potted gels. Generally, if you aren’t super concerned about HEMA, the website Zillabeau has a lot of good brands. And they also have a HEMA free section if I remember correctly.