Collection: Emboss & Painting Gel

What is the difference between painting gel and emboss gel?

Both are gels made for art rather than for covering the nail, and both cure under the same UV/LED lamp as the manicure they sit on. The difference is body. A painting gel is opaque and smooth: it is picked up on a brush and laid down flat to fill a shape, so a petal, a letter or a cartoon face reads as solid color in one pass. An emboss gel is thick enough to stand up: placed with a dotting tool or a small brush it keeps a rounded edge and cures as a low relief, so the same petal has height and a soft shadow. Painting gel draws the picture; emboss gel raises it.

This page holds both, plus two more art gels that behave differently again: spider gel, which stretches into hair-thin strands, and glitter gel polish for a sparkling fill. The Pat Pat ombre pans are tagged here too and have their own page at Pat Pat Gel.

What is on this page

Which art gel does the job?

• A flat painted design in solid color: LDS draw painting gel. Twelve opaque colors cover the primaries plus black, white and two metallics, which is the palette most character and floral work needs.
• A design that should stand off the nail: Lavis emboss gel. White for petals and French, black for outlines with body, clear as a raised lens over foil or a painted layer, and the metallics for dots and studs. For pieces with real height, the molding gels on 3D Sculpture Gel and Non-Sticky Builder Gel take over.
• Lines that look drawn with a pen: that is a liner, not a painting gel: LDS Line Art Gel.
• Webs, marbling, random fine strands: A'DOR mirror spider gel. The gel stretches, so a dab pulled up with a tool leaves a strand; pull it across the nail and let it fall.
• Sparkle inside a shape: Lavis glitter gel polish, painted into an outline drawn in liner or emboss gel.
• Soft color fades: Pat Pat gel on a sponge, then art on top.

How do you paint with gel?

1. Cure the base color first. Art gels go on a cured color coat. A cream from SNS Gel Only or a HEMA-free cream from A'DOR gives a flat bed; LDS's own order is base, color, draw, top, each cured.
2. Load a small brush, not the bottle brush. A short flat or a fine round from our brush collection holds a painting gel better than a polish brush. Wipe most of it off on a palette; the color is opaque enough to cover in a thin layer.
3. Fill, then cure. Lay the painting gel inside the shape and flash cure before adding a second color next to it, so the two do not bleed.
4. Raise with emboss gel. Pick up a bead on a dotting tool, set it down and let the rounded edge form; do not spread it thin or it stops being emboss. Cure fully; a thick dot takes the whole lamp time.
5. Pull spider strands last. Touch a tool into the spider gel, lift until a strand forms, lay it across the nail, cure. On a black base the A'DOR mirror gel flashes like glitter; on a pastel base it reads as a soft iridescent line.
6. Seal. Top coat over the whole nail, worked around raised pieces with a fine brush. Base and top are under Base & Top Gel; Lavis lamps under Lavis Nail Lamp.

Combinations that sell

• Outline plus fill: a black liner outline, painting gel fill, gloss top. The everyday character and floral nail.
• Painted petal, embossed center: LDS white for the petals, a gold emboss dot in the middle, a rhinestone pressed into the dot before it cures.
• Chrome and web: spider gel strands over a chrome nail, sealed with a no-wipe top.
• Ombre with art: a Pat Pat fade, then a painted design on the lighter half where it shows.
• Glitter French: the free edge outlined in liner, filled with glitter gel polish, edged with clear emboss for a raised smile line.

Stocking and care

• Open with black, white, gold and clear. Black and white painting gel, gold and clear emboss gel, and one spider gel cover most requests; the five-color emboss set and the LDS twelve come next.
• Keep art gels away from the lamp. An open pot next to a running lamp skins over, and a skinned emboss gel will not dome.
• One brush per family. A brush used in spider gel drags strands into the next pot; keep the spider tool separate and wipe with gel cleanser between colors.
• Roll, do not shake, so no air goes into a gel that will be cured thick.
• Emboss sizes: the 5 g pots suit accents; the 15 g and 30 g clear are for a salon that uses clear emboss as a lens over art on every set.

Related collections

• LDS Line Art Gel Liner gels with the brush in the cap for outlines and lettering.
• Pat Pat Gel The ombre pans on their own page.
• 3D Sculpture Gel Glitter molding gels for pieces with real height.
• Rhinestones Stones to set into an emboss dot.
• Nail Art Every nail art product on the site.

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