Collection: Nail Brushes

Which brush for which job?

A nail brush is a tool for one material. An acrylic brush is shaped and haired to pick up a bead of powder and liquid and press it out; a gel brush is shorter and stiffer so a viscous gel can be pushed rather than dragged; a liner is long and thin so a line comes out in one pull; a dust brush is soft and wide so it clears powder without touching product. Use a gel brush in acrylic and the monomer wrecks it; use an acrylic brush in gel and the hair floods. This page sorts our brushes by the material they were made for, so a salon can build a station one job at a time.

The brushes on this page

How do you choose an acrylic brush size?

• #10 to #12: a small belly for a controlled bead; the size to learn on, and the size for short natural-nail overlays and pink-and-white smile lines with dip/acrylic powder.
• #14: the everyday salon brush. One bead covers most of a nail, and the point is still fine enough for the cuticle area.
• #16 to #20: a large belly for long extensions and speed; two beads finish a nail. These brushes need a firm hand and a tech who already controls liquid ratio, because the belly holds a lot of monomer.
• French brush: not a size but a shape: the angled edge lays the white free edge in one stroke instead of filing the line in afterwards.

Gel brushes: oval, liner and spatula

Builder gel from a pot has no brush of its own, so the brush is the whole technique. A short oval such as the Lavis Kolinsky Oval or the 9 mm and 15 mm brushes picks up a bead and floats it into an apex without dragging; the double-ended brushes add a second head so you do not swap tools mid-nail: the 10 mm or 20 mm liner draws the gel out to the sidewalls and tidies the cuticle line, the spatula scoops a bead from a thick jar. That is the pairing we recommend for Lavis Builder Gel in the Jar and the non-sticky sculpting gels, and the flat poly gel brush does the pressing for Lavis Poly Gel. Brush-on bottles such as Lavis Builder Gel in the Bottle carry their own brush; a separate oval is optional there.

Liners for art

A liner is chosen by hair length. The 10 mm liners suit short strokes, lettering and outlines; the 20 mm liners hold enough gel for a long unbroken line, a French edge or a swirl. Both work with the cap-brush liner gels on LDS Line Art Gel, and with the painting gels on Emboss & Painting Gel, where a mini flat or triangle tip fills a shape and a fine round paints the detail. The retractable liner is the one for a kit bag: it locks open for work and closes over the hair afterwards. For ombre with Pat Pat Gel, the smudge brush or a sponge does the blending; for dip ombre, the LDS fan.

How do you clean and store nail brushes?

1. Acrylic brushes: monomer only. Wipe the hair on a lint-free pad after each bead, and at the end of the day swish it in clean monomer, shape the point, and lay it flat or hang it hair-down. Never use acetone on a kolinsky; it strips the hair and the ferrule glue.
2. Gel brushes: cleanser, not the lamp. Wipe with gel cleanser between coats and cap the brush; a gel brush left in the light of a running lamp cures in the hair. Keep gel brushes out of direct sun for the same reason.
3. Liners: shape the point wet. After cleaning, draw the hair to a point between two fingers and let it dry that way. A liner stored splayed never draws a fine line again.
4. Dust brushes: wash and dry. Warm water and soap, rinse, dry hair-down. They pick up dip powder that hardens if it meets moisture.
5. Silicone tools: gel cleanser, then a dry wipe. Cured gel peels off silicone; do not scrape it with a blade.
6. Brush cleaner gel: for a brush with product dried in the hair, immerse in the Lavis cleaner for under a minute, work the hair with your fingers, rinse and reshape.

Stocking a station

• Acrylic tech: one #12 and one #14 kolinsky, one French brush, a dust brush, brush cleaner.
• Gel and builder tech: one double-ended oval-and-liner, one poly gel brush if you build in forms, a 10 mm and a 20 mm liner, a dust brush.
• Nail art station: a 6-piece art set to find the shapes you use, then singles of the two you reach for; a silicone pen set for 3D; a smudge brush for fades.
• Dip station: a dust brush per tech and the LDS ombre fan; the files, buffers and prep tools are under Nail Tools & Accessories, the liquids under Dip Essentials.

Related collections

• Nail Tools, All Brands Every tool on the site, SNS, Lavis and LDS.
• Nail Drills Cordless e-files from Lavis and LDS.
• Lavis Builder Gel in the Jar The pot builder these ovals were made for.
• LDS Line Art Gel Liner gels for the liner brushes.
• Air Ombre Nails Our spray-on dip powder for gradients without a brush.

Related reads

• How to do ombre nails with dip powder
• How to apply builder gel step by step
• Common mistakes when applying dip powder
• Easy nail art trends you can do at home