Nail Art Supplies for Professionals and Home Artists

Nail art is where the money is on a salon menu and where the interest is at home. A plain gel manicure takes forty minutes and sells at a fixed rate; the same set with a chrome accent or a cat eye finish takes ten minutes longer and sells for a good deal more. This category is every nail art supply in the range, with a way into each kind of work.

Effect gels

Cat eye gels carry magnetic particles that draw into a line under a magnet - the most requested effect of the last two years, and one of the fastest to apply. Mirror cat eye and the chrome powder and mirror top coats give the reflective finish that photographs well, and blooming gel spreads colour into itself for marbled and watercolour work without any brush skill at all. The full range of special-effect gels is in nail art special gel polish.

Glitters and pigments

Glitter gel polish is the quickest way to lift a single accent nail, from soft sparkle to dense platinum glitter. The glitter builder gel does the same inside an extension, so the sparkle sits within the nail rather than on top of it where it can wear off.

Brushes and tools

Detail work is a brush problem before it is a skill problem. The nail art brushes category has liners, ombre brushes and gel, polygel and acrylic brushes; the 12-piece set covers liners, dotters and fans, and the ombre brush is the one that makes a gradient look deliberate rather than muddy. Files, buffers and the rest of the bench are in nail essentials, and a boxed start is in nail kits.

Every gel here cures under UV or LED and soaks off without scraping. New to effect work? Read why gel polish lifts first - art sits on top of a base, and a base that fails takes the art with it. For a method-by-method guide to the effect gels, see nail art gels compared.