What used to feel like a minor indulgence has started feeling more like a heavy price to pay, pun intended, for getting all dolled up. Pun intended.
Stepping away for an hour to drop $20 on some gel nails used to make sense. What’s $20 for looking like a million bucks?
But with inflation, the cost of nails has nearly tripled, while the gel nail polish feels thinner, lighter and doesn’t seem to have the lasting power it used to.
Now that trip to the salon is starting to feel like a burden.
Tidying yourself up to leave the house. Spending $6 on gas. Finding parking in the overcrowded lot. Making your way through the blaring heat into the salon, which lately has been feeling like a very long walk from the car to the inside.
Then sitting down only to have someone practically scream at you to take a seat and wait your turn, which you’re told will come in 15 minutes, but often turns into 45.
Then you finally get in the chair, only to be put on hold over and over again as your manicurist shuffles between you and some little girl who’s never dropped a dime in her life and doesn’t understand how much it hurts to eke out $60 for something I’m realizing I can do at home for about $12 a pop.
And apparently, I’m not the only one doing the math.
How Did My $20 Manicure Become a $55 Manicure?
I first got my nails done way back in the day, dare I add, you were probably in diapers.
That’s my go-to when I get carded for a bottle of wine being sold to me by someone I feel like I need to card to ensure they’re at least 21, but I digress.
I used to get my nails done on a pretty regular basis. I had my favorite manicurist, Jenny, and dropping $20 and kicking Jenny a $10 felt okay, normal, expected, and I had done it at least a hundred times.
Then COVID happened and it all scaled back.
We started slowly going back, one mani at a time, and at first there was a little bit of a hike. I remember she had raised her prices to $25 because she was hurting from the loss in revenue and, no biggie. I totally get it.
And salons really were hurting. Research from the UCLA Labor Center documented the devastating impact COVID had on California nail salons, including extended shutdowns, dramatic losses in customers and workers struggling to return to full-time employment.
But that number has slowly been going up in $5 increments for the last few years.
And it was literally about a month ago when I realized how fucking ridiculous it was that I was now forking out $55 for a manicure.
That mani had more than doubled, but I was still giving Jenny a $10 at the end. Not because I’m cheap, because I’m not. That $10 still works out to almost 20%.
But my math brain would throb at the thought of $65 for a mani.
WTF?
And slowly but surely I’ve realized the absurdity of paying such an exorbitant amount for gel, dye and glue.
Okay, nope.
And that’s when I started poking around online to find some better, more cost-effective alternatives.
My $65 Manicure Is Actually a $1,000-Plus-a-Year Habit
This is the part I somehow managed not to think about for years.
A $65 manicure doesn’t sound that outrageous when you look at it as $65.
But I did the math.
If I get my nails done every three weeks, that’s about 17 manicures a year.
$65 × 17 = $1,105 a year.
If I go every two weeks?
$65 × 26 = $1,690 a year.
And that’s before the gas. Before any parking. Before a repair. Before adding anything fancy. And certainly before putting any value on the couple of hours it can take to get out of the house, drive there, wait and actually have the manicure done.
Suddenly the $20 manicure I never thought twice about has turned into a potentially $1,690-a-year beauty habit.
MY $20 MANICURE BECAME A $1,690-A-YEAR HABIT
$55 manicure
+ $10 tip
= $65 per visit
Every 2 weeks = $1,690/year
Before gas, parking and extras.
While Salon Manicures Got More Expensive, At-Home Nails Got Better
This was the other thing I hadn’t really been paying attention to.
Doing your nails at home doesn’t necessarily mean a bottle of drugstore polish, a wad of cotton balls and sitting around blowing on your fingers anymore.
You can buy the LED lamp.
You can buy actual gel systems.
There are one-step gel formulas, semi-cured gel strips, soft gel extensions and complete kits with nearly everything you need in one box.
So I started researching what was actually out there and what might reasonably replace some of those visits to Jenny.
Some of the kits cost $60, $80 or even more, which sounds expensive until you remember that I’m currently spending $65 every time I walk into the salon.
And then there are kits like the Beetles system below that cost less than half of one salon visit and include the lamp, 12 colors and the tools.
That got my attention.
7 At-Home Nail Kits Worth Considering
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1. Best Salon Replacement: Olive & June Gel Mani System
I’ll admit that when I first saw $85 on Amazon, I thought, wait a minute. Aren’t I doing this because $65 manicures have gotten ridiculous?
But there’s an important distinction.
I spend $65 at Jenny’s and walk out with one manicure.
The $85 here buys the reusable system.
The Olive & June kit includes the LED lamp along with the base and top coats, peel-off base coat and a pretty substantial collection of manicure and removal tools. You keep the equipment and replenish the polish and other consumables as you need them.
So the initial investment is only about $20 more than one of my salon visits.
For someone who wants a fairly comprehensive setup rather than cobbling together a lamp, polish, remover and tools separately, this is probably the closest thing on this list to setting up your own little manicure station at home.
Best for: Someone seriously trying to replace regular salon manicures.
Price when I checked: About $85
2. Best for Beginners: Le Mini Macaron Gel Manicure Kit
If all the bottles, base coats and curing steps are already making you reconsider this entire experiment, this is where I’d start.
Le Mini Macaron has managed to simplify the process considerably.
Its polish combines the base coat, color and top coat into one formula. The kit also comes with that adorable little macaron-shaped LED lamp, along with a file, cuticle stick and removal wraps.
Instead of buying a giant system and then figuring out what everything does, you have the essentials to try an actual gel manicure at home without turning your bathroom into a nail salon.
Best for: First-time at-home gel users.
Price when I checked: Around $35 to $40
3. Best Bang for Your Buck: Beetles Mini Mani Studio Kit
Okay, now this is where the math gets interesting.
The Beetles Mini Mani Studio Kit is a 23-piece system with 12 gel colors, a UV/LED lamp, base coat, glossy top coat, matte top coat, cuticle oil and six manicure tools. The brand currently lists the complete kit at $29.99.
Twelve colors.
A lamp.
The base and top coats.
Tools.
For less than half of what I’m spending on one manicure.
I obviously haven’t personally worked my way through 12 bottles of Beetles polish, so I’m not going to pretend I have. But in terms of what you actually get for the money, this is easily one of the most interesting kits I found.
Best for: Someone who wants a complete setup and lots of color choices without spending $80.
Price when I checked: About $30
4. Best Tried-and-True System: Sally Hansen Salon Gel Polish Starter Kit
There’s something reassuring about Sally Hansen here.
It’s a nail brand most of us already know, and this is a more traditional gel manicure system rather than a shortcut or completely different nail technology.
The kit includes an LED lamp along with the products and basic tools needed to do the gel process at home.
This is the option I’d look at if I wanted something that feels closest to the familiar base, color, top-coat gel manicure process without jumping straight into one of the bigger systems.
And again, a complete starter kit costs roughly what I’m currently paying Jenny for one visit.
Best for: Someone who wants a traditional gel manicure from a familiar nail brand.
Price when I checked: Around $60
5. Best Extensions on a Budget: KISS Salon X-tend LED Soft Gel System
This one is different from the first four.
KISS Salon X-tend isn’t simply gel polish. It’s a soft gel extension system, so it’s aimed at the person who wants that longer, shaped nail look rather than just color on her natural nails.
The starter kit includes full-cover nails, gel adhesive and its own LED lamp.
That makes it particularly interesting if what keeps you going to the salon isn’t simply the polish. It’s the length, shape and more finished look.
Best for: Getting the extension look without paying for a salon set.
Price: Check current Amazon price because the kits and nail shapes vary.
6. Best If You Hate Painting Your Nails: Ohora Semi-Cured Gel Nails
This category may have been designed for me.
Ohora doesn’t ask you to perfectly paint ten nails with two different hands.
They’re semi-cured gel strips. You apply them to the nail, trim and shape them, then finish curing them under an LED lamp.
So you still get an actual gel product without trying to suddenly develop professional-level polish skills with your non-dominant hand.
It also opens up a ridiculous number of colors and designs without having to learn nail art.
Best for: Anyone who wants gel nails but really doesn’t want to paint them.
Price: Varies by starter kit and design.
7. Best Splurge for Extensions: Aprés Gel-X
And then we have the advanced class.
Aprés Gel-X isn’t the kit I’d recommend to someone who just wants to paint her nails while watching Netflix.
It’s a full soft-gel nail extension system.
The kit you found includes Gel-X tips in multiple sizes, pH bonder, Gel-X prep, extend gel, top coat, file, buffer and the curing light.
This makes much more sense for someone who routinely pays for extensions and wants to learn how to recreate that look herself.
It’s more expensive and more involved than something like Le Mini Macaron, but it’s also replacing a completely different kind of salon service.
Best for: The serious DIY nail person who wants salon-style extensions.
Price: Check the current price because Gel-X configurations vary.
One Thing to Know Before You Start Doing Gel Nails at Home
There is one part of the DIY gel trend worth taking seriously: technique matters.
Follow the curing instructions that come with your particular system and try to keep nail products off the surrounding skin. Artificial nail products can cause allergic reactions in some people. And when it’s time to take your gel off, don’t start peeling or scraping it because you’re impatient.
The American Academy of Dermatology specifically warns that picking or filing gel polish off can significantly damage the nail and recommends careful acetone removal instead.
Basically, saving $1,000 a year on manicures loses some of its appeal if I destroy my nails in the process.
So, Am I Done With the Nail Salon?
For now, I’ve scaled back my regular visits, and I’m not sure when or if I’ll ever get back to frequenting Jenny the way I used to.
I’m sure I’ll get in there for a big occasion here or there. Besides, I’d miss Jenny too much to never see her again.
But, and that’s a very big but, rationalizing $55 before tip just feels impossible and a little outrageous.
To be honest with you, I’ve splurged so much in life I’m getting to like this new me that’s more thoughtful and mindful about how I spend my money.
A $60 dinner and a must-catch-up with my girlfriend at Sienna Bella, including a glass of wine and tip, sounds better and better all the time.
Not to mention, Lord knows I’m a major multitasker, so binging a little docuseries on Netflix and getting my nails done at the same time sounds like a pretty good way to spend the night in.
