Collection: A'DOR, All Products

What is A'DOR?

A gel polish brand built around one decision: leave HEMA and TPO out of the formula. HEMA is the small monomer that most gel colors rely on to bond and cure, and it is the ingredient named most often when the skin around the nail reacts to gel. Sensitivity to it builds with exposure, which is why the people most likely to develop it are not clients but techs, who handle gel every working day. TPO is the photoinitiator that turns lamp light into a cure.

A'DOR replaces both rather than simply omitting them, and the line is a full catalog rather than a token three shades. We describe this as what the formula excludes, not as a promise that nobody can react to a cosmetic; that is the honest version, and it is the one a tech can repeat to a client.

Who buys A'DOR?

• Clients with a reaction history: the ones who have had redness or itching around the nail after a gel service and were told to stop wearing gel.
• Techs whose own hands have started to complain: your exposure is per bottle handled, not per client, so switching the shades you use most matters more than switching the whole wall.
• Salons positioning on what is left out: a clean-beauty menu needs a catalog deep enough that the client never has to compromise on color, which is exactly what Signature 144 is for.
• Nail artists: the mirror spider gels do something no ordinary gel does, and they are HEMA-free too.

The two gel polish lines

Both apply the same way: two thin coats, 60 seconds under an LED lamp per coat, over a cured base and under a top. Both are made in the USA. A salon can run the two together under one base and top, which is why the shade numbering is kept separate rather than overlapping.

How do you choose between them?

Ask what the wall is for. If the point of carrying A'DOR is that a sensitive client never hears "we don't have that color", the answer is Signature 144, because a partial wall undercuts the whole position. If A'DOR is one option beside a conventional gel range, Gel-Ons is the sharper buy: 72 creams cover the requests that actually repeat, in a smaller bottle that gets used up before it ages. Techs who do a lot of art tend to keep Signature for the shimmers and glitters, which Gel-Ons does not carry.

The art gels

Nine products in the A'DOR range are nail art rather than color. The Mirror Spider Gels come in gold, bronze, teal, purple, silver and rose pink, singly or as a set of six. They are elastic: touch a tool in, lift, and a strand forms that can be laid across the nail for webs, filigree, marbled lines or graffiti-style detail. The pigment gives a soft iridescent line over a light base and a flash of glitter over a dark one, so the same bottle reads two ways depending on what is underneath it.

The two A'DOR Pat Pat Gel pans, Soft Nude and Soft Pink, are the ombre end of the range: dense gel in a flat pan, patted on with a sponge for a fade or picked up on a brush to paint. More art gels, including emboss and painting gels from other brands, are under Emboss & Painting Gel.

Applying A'DOR, step by step

1. Prep. Push back the cuticle, take the shine off the plate with a fine buffer, dust and wipe. Prep decides wear far more than the brand does.
2. Base, 60 seconds. A thin coat, cured. A'DOR pairs its color with its own base and top; anything that cures under the same lamp works, and our range is under Base & Top Gel.
3. Two thin color coats. Thin enough to see the nail through the first one. Cure 60 seconds between them. One thick coat wrinkles and cures unevenly.
4. Art, if any. Spider gel strands or a Pat Pat fade go on before the top coat, with a flash cure between elements.
5. Top, 60 seconds. Cap the free edge and cure. Lamps are under Nail Lamps.

Removal is a standard soak-off: file the top to break the seal, wrap in acetone for ten to fifteen minutes, push the softened gel away with a wooden stick rather than forcing it.

Where A'DOR sits beside the other brands we carry

Our own SNS gel is matched to the SNS dip color books, so it is the line to reach for when a client wants fingers in gel and toes in dip in the same shade. Lavis brings the seasonal drops and the builder and cat eye ranges. A'DOR is the one we point to when the conversation is about what is in the bottle rather than about matching a powder, and it is worth knowing that our SNS cat eye and builder gel lines are also formulated without HEMA and TPO, so a HEMA-free menu is not limited to one brand. Everything in one grid is on Gel Polish, All Brands.

Stocking and care

• Start with the colors that already repeat. Twelve shades mirroring your best-selling conventional gels will serve more clients than twelve shades chosen for novelty.
• Swatch on sticks, not screens. Every listing carries a swatch and a color family, but a painted stick is what a client should be choosing from.
• Store upright, capped, away from the lamp. Light is what thickens gel in the bottle.
• Check the base and top too. If the reason for choosing A'DOR is the formula, a conventional base coat sitting directly on the nail undercuts it.
• Reorder by number. Both lines are numbered, so a wall restocks one bottle at a time.

Related collections

• A'DOR Signature 144 The full catalog, 144 shades in 0.6 oz.
• A'DOR Gel-Ons 72 The curated cream line in 0.4 oz.
• Gel Polish, All Brands SNS, A'DOR and Lavis color in one grid.
• Base & Top Gel Base under and top over every gel color.
• Cat Eye Gel Our own HEMA-free and TPO-free magnetic gels.

Related reads

• How SNS approaches a safer UV gel manicure
• Gel or dip powder manicure: which is right for you?
• Nail colors for every skin tone
• Easy nail art trends you can do at home