The Best Amazon Gel Nail Products
After my oldest son was born, I quickly realized that waiting around for regular nail polish to dry was far more of an inconvenience, and quick peeling thereafter made the whole effort not worth it. So, I made the switch to gel nails. The polish lasts for 1-4 weeks and, if it does peel it's usually in one solid layer. In 10 minutes or less, my fingernails and toenails have a beautiful fresh coat of paint and I'm ready to tackle whatever these kids throw at me! Literally and figuratively.
All of these products are readily available on Amazon, and can be easily found on my Beauty Product Favorites list, along with other at-home beauty products that I use. While it's a small investment upfront, the amount of money, time and effort that I have saved has more than paid for itself back! In this post, I'll be covering the best Amazon gel nail products to help get you started with a simple nail set with the option to add falsies for when you get more comfortable. And as of writing this post, Prime Day on Amazon is just over a week away, so be sure to follow me on Instagram Stories to see all the products that go on sale from all my lists!
Starting Out with Polish
The best part about Gel Polish is just how forgiving it is. Nothing is set until you cure it under your lamp. I absolutely love my SUNUV Gel LED UV lamp that Mike got me a few years back. It's currently $49.99 with a $10 off coupon. It has an option for 30 second, 60 second, and custom length curing. I always recommend doing a 60 second cure on polish, even if the bottle says 30 seconds. If your swipes end up a little thicker than they should, having that extra time can be really helpful.
I highly recommend grabbing a GAOY gel polish set, like their 23-piece Fall set that I have which comes with a base coat, glossy top coat, and matte base coat. These colors are stunning, the polish has great wearability and their top coats hold strong. Each cure time is 60 seconds. If you're looking for a wider range of colors, they also have this 42-piece set that has the same top coats, but with more color range and glitter options.
Gel Nail Tips
Gel-X nails have become a huge hit this year amongst the at-home nail community, and I was absolutely influenced to grab this BTArtbox Short Almond gel nail tips set. I love this it comes with everything you need, plus a mini lamp to cure part of the nail as you go. This is not a quick endeavor like doing just a polish is, but if you've got extra time in your self-care moment, I highly recommend treating yourself to some tips. I'm crafting and changing diapers all day, so using a short almond set helps me going without getting in the way. I especially love doing this type of set for vacations or special evening out.
Gel nail tips are the best and easiest way to get a full set without really needing a drill or advanced nail art skill set. After you prep your nail (file it down and rough up the surface a little) apply the tip Primer. Then, apply a bit of the gell glue to the tip and place it on your finger nail. Cure under the mini light for about 15-30 seconds, which is just long enough to liet the glue set enough to hold the nail in place. Once all the nails are one hand are done, place the whole hand under the full sized lamp to cure for 60 seconds. Repeat on the other hand, add your base-polish-top layers and you're done! I would say a full set typically takes me about 30 minutes. (Keep in mind I have ADHD and typically watch YouTube while doing my nails! So, it might take you less time than me!)
Full Gel Set
Let's say you fancy yourself more on the advanced level and you're looking to go all out with gel extensions and have a full set of tools. I've got you covered!
The most important tool you'll need before shopping the rest of this section is this USB Nail Drill. While you're not as dependent on a Drill when doing gel nails as you are with acrylic, it still is useful for getting extremely smooth surfaces, build up under your nails tips, and shaping. I love this Drill because I can plug it into my desktop and work on my nails at my desk. It comes with a ton of bits, so no need to stock up on those for a while.
I wish I found this GAOY poly nail extension kit when I was first starting out doing my full sets at home. It's so much easier than using builder gel from scratch, but you'll definitely need a mini lamp to work on individual nails like with the gel extensions I listed above. If you don't grab that kit, GAOY also sells a mini lamp for $7. The tips that come with the kit are actually applicators to give you a super smooth and even nail without needing brushes to really shape and build like a typical acrylic nail. The kit comes with a brush to help spread the gel into the applicator nail. I'll use this kit instead when I want longer almond or coffin nail shapes. You have a lot more shape options with this set plus the use of the drill than using gel tips.
Nail Art Tools
I love being able to turn my nails into mini canvases. I've done everything from celestial baby to pointilism, holidays to Disney, and everything between and around. The GAOY 8-piece nail art set is chef kiss. The bonus part about nail art with gel is that you can just wipe off and start again if you mess up without having to completely redo a nail.
Doing gel nails or gel extensions/tips offers so many more possibilities into your at-home beauty self-care time. It's ability to cure fast truly puts more time back in your day. I definitely recommend the switch to gel and taking advantage of Prime Day sales. I always get alerts on these products and more going on sale, so be sure to follow my Instagram Stories for that!
