Hard gel nails

Hard gel and soft gel

Ordinary gel polish is a soft gel, and it soaks off in acetone. Hard gel doesn’t; one guide puts it bluntly: “you can’t soak these off at all.” So it is filed off, and kept up with fills the way acrylic is.

How hard gel is done

It is brushed on and cured. For length it is built on a paper form, then shaped and filed. At each fill the gap that grows in at the cuticle is filled.

How long hard gel lasts

Makeup.com gives two to four weeks.

Hard gel or acrylic?

• No smell, no mixing: Makeup.com notes hard gel is odorless and has no liquid and powder to mix, unlike acrylic.
• Some give: Who What Wear says its relative flexibility helps prevent the cracking acrylic can get.
• The catch is removal: Makeup.com warns that over-buffing or filing hard gel can degrade nails.
• A lamp: every layer is cured under UV or LED light, and our compare page sets out what doctors say about that.

A salon service

Who What Wear calls hard gel one you’ll need to book a salon visit for. Polishpedia has no older pages on it yet.

Hard gel needs a salon visit, so start with the nail salons near you, or try a length and shape on a drawn hand first.

✦ Try a look on a hand

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