Collection: SNS Luxe Hybrid UV Gel 24 Colors

What is LuxeHybrid UV Gel?

A sculpting gel. Thicker than a gel polish and thicker than a builder in a bottle, it comes in a 60ml squeeze tube, and you place it as a bead and shape it with a brush rather than painting it on. That's the format the trade calls poly gel or hybrid gel: enough body to build an extension over a form, light enough that the finished nail doesn't feel like acrylic, and cured under a UV/LED lamp instead of setting in air.

We built it for control. A tech can push the bead where the apex needs to be, thin it toward the edges, and it stays put until the lamp locks it. The 24 shades run from clear and milky white through sheer pinks and nudes, so the enhancement reads as a natural nail, a French base, or a canvas for art, and the whole line is formulated HEMA-free and TPO-free.

The collection at a glance

The set is the singles added up, for opening the whole line in one order rather than for a discount. A 60ml tube goes a long way in a sculpting gel; most tables run on a clear, a milky white and two or three nudes.

Picking a shade to sculpt with

• Clear (01): extensions that will be colored over, encapsulated art, and repairs. One tube covers every client.
• Milky and soft white (02, 03): a milky full-cover nail, or the tip of a sculpted French.
• Sheer pinks (04 to 08, 15 to 21, 24): the natural-nail look on cool-toned hands; the bed shows through with a healthy tint.
• Peach and nudes (09 to 14): the same job on warmer hands.
• Deeper nudes (22, 23): deeper skin tones, and a client who wants the enhancement to disappear rather than glow pink.

Screens shift color. For a client decision, match the swatch on the listing against the hand, not against a thumbnail.

How do you apply a sculpting gel?

1. Prep and base. Cuticles back, buff the shine off, wipe, then a thin coat of gel base, cured. Base and top are under Base & Top Gel.
2. Form or tip. For an extension, fit a dual form or a paper form under the free edge. For an overlay, skip this.
3. Place the bead. Squeeze a bead from the tube onto the nail (or into the form), sized to the length you want.
4. Shape it. Dampen a flat sculpting brush with slip solution or alcohol and pat and push the bead into place, as with any sculpting gel: apex over the stress point, thin toward the cuticle and the edges. The gel does not run, so take the time to get the shape right before the lamp.
5. Cure. Under a UV/LED lamp for the full cycle. A sculpted layer is thicker than a color coat, so use the low-heat setting on our cordless lamp if the client feels the cure, rather than pulling the hand out early.
6. Refine and finish. Remove the form, file the shape and the sidewalls, wipe the dust, then color if you want it and a top coat, cured.

Removal is a file-and-soak: take the bulk down with a 100 grit, then soak or fill. The builder-in-a-bottle vs dip comparison covers the fill-versus-remove question for gel enhancements.

LuxeHybrid, builder gel or acrylic?

Short version: builder in a bottle for a client who wants her own nails stronger, LuxeHybrid for a client who wants length, acrylic powder for the longest and hardest sets or for a salon that doesn't want a lamp in the workflow.

Fills, care and stocking

• Fills: a sculpted LuxeHybrid nail is filled, not removed, when it grows out. File the old gel down by about two thirds, prep the new growth, place a fresh bead and re-cure. The set stays on for months of fills.
• Lifting: almost always prep. Buff the shine off the whole plate, wipe with alcohol, and keep the gel a hair's width off the cuticle and the sidewalls; gel touching skin is what lifts first.
• Heat: a thick bead cures hot. Thinner layers, or the low-heat mode on the lamp, are the fix. Do not pull the hand out early, which leaves the gel soft underneath.
• The tube: squeeze from the bottom, wipe the nozzle, cap it, and keep it out of the lamp's light and away from a sunny window. Cured gel in the nozzle is what blocks a tube.
• Stocking: a table runs on a clear, a milky white and two or three nudes matched to the clientele's skin tones. The set of 24 is for a salon that sells the sculpted-nude look as a signature and wants every skin tone covered from the first day.

Related collections

• Builder Gel The bottle-and-brush builder for overlays and short extensions.
• PRO Sculpt Poly Gel The 24-color sculpting set in individual bottles.
• Dip & Acrylic Powder Jars that dip or sculpt with monomer.
• SNS Gel Only Gel color to wear over a sculpted nail.
• Base & Top Gel The base under and the top over.
• Nail Tools & Accessories The lamp, files and buffers.

Related reads

• Dip powder vs gel vs acrylic: how to choose
• BIAB vs dip powder: which is right for you?
• How SNS approaches a safer UV gel manicure