Gel or acrylic? An honest comparison, including the downsides

Both hold. Both look good. The useful difference is not which is "better" — it is how each one behaves when things go wrong.

The short version

Gel is softer, lighter and more flexible. Acrylic is harder and stronger. Gel tends to chip; acrylic tends to lift or crack. Neither of those is worse than the other — it depends on what your hands do all day.

Gel

Good for: shorter, natural-looking nails; anyone who wants the least noticeable weight on the hand; people whose own nails are thin and bend easily.

Downside: less impact resistance. Catch it hard on a door and gel is more likely to chip at the edge.

Acrylic

Good for: length; strong shapes like a proper almond or a square with real corners; anyone who is rough on their hands and needs the set to survive it.

Downside: it is rigid. When something does go wrong it goes wrong more dramatically — a crack rather than a chip. It also announces itself more; you feel it on the hand.

The part nobody explains: refills versus overlays

These get confused constantly.

• Extension — a tip is added and built on, so your nail ends up longer than it grew.
• Overlay — the product goes on your own natural nail with no added length. Strength without the length.
• Refill — you already have a set, and the gap at the base that has grown out gets filled. Cheaper than starting again and better for the nail than removing and rebuilding every time.

Come back for a refill roughly every three weeks and you keep the same set going for months. Leave it too long and the grown-out base makes the nail lever against itself, which is when things lift.

What is included and what is not

At Yana every gel manicure price includes cuticle care, cleaning, filing to shape and colour — and light nail strengthening on top. What is not included is design work. Cat-eye, chrome, french and similar are charged separately, because a plain set and a heavily designed set are not the same amount of work. Ask before we start and you will have the exact figure.

Looking after either one

• Wear gloves for cleaning. Household chemicals are harder on the product than anything else you do.
• Oil the cuticles daily. It keeps the surrounding skin healthy and the edge sealed.
• Do not use your nails as tools — opening cans, scraping labels. That is what causes most cracks.
• Never pull a lifting nail off. You take a layer of your own nail with it. Come in and we will remove it properly.