Shellac: CND’s gel polish

What CND calls it today

CND sells it as CND Shellac Gel Polish and describes a patented, professional salon service meant to be used as a complete system, CND lamp included. Refinery29 is blunter: it’s “really just a soft gel manicure using CND’s system.” Who What Wear’s 2026 guide names CND Shellac as its first example of a soft gel.

Where Shellac came from

A 2025 nail-technician course book says CND introduced Shellac in May 2010, and that it combined the ease of polish with the durability of gel. In 2021 CND’s co-founder said it took five and a half years of research and development.

How long Shellac lasts

CND’s own number has grown. In 2021 the company called Shellac its 14-plus-day gel polish; now it claims up to 21 days of wear. Both are CND’s claims. Many of Polishpedia’s Shellac pages were written in the 14-day years.

Putting it on and taking it off

CND’s steps call for no filing or buffing of the natural nail, thin layers that are each fully cured, and a top coat. Its current range has an EPIC Smoothing Base, several top coats and Foil Remover Wraps, which hold acetone on the nail when it comes off.

CND says its removal causes no nail damage. That is the brand’s claim; the AAD’s warnings about gel manicures name no brand, so they cover Shellac as well.

The rest of CND’s range

Besides Shellac, CND sells Vinylux long-wear polish, Plexigel (a brush-in-a-bottle gel), a liquid-and-powder acrylic system, the Brisa gel system, SolarOil, and LED and visible-light lamps.

Every Shellac page on Polishpedia

Polishpedia’s older pages are mostly about Shellac, so there is a lot here: what it is, putting it on and taking it off, supplies, nail art and color charts, then every shade reviewed here, A to Z.

Ask the salon whether it uses CND Shellac before you book, or try a Shellac-style look on a drawn hand first.

✦ Try a look on a hand

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