The 12 Best Nail Products of 2026, Tested by 101 Beauty Experts

This Gel Mani System from Olive June is not only a time-saver, but a smart financial decision. We’ve tried plenty of at-home kits over the years, but this one is by far the most convenient and provides the closest to in-salon results. The compact lamp can fit all five of your fingers at once, so you don’t have to do multiple cures on each hand. The kit packs a salon’s worth of tools into the box, including a cuticle pusher, nail clippers, file, remover, buffer, and clean-up brush. There’s a gel base coat and top coat, as well as a peel-off coat that takes away the hassle of gel removal by literally peeling the color off your nail—with no damage to the nail itself. “I love this kit,” says Marie Claire contributor Danielle James. “It's the perfect kit for beginners who want to DIY a gel manicure at home. You do have to give yourself a chance to adjust to a learning curve—because the polish is thick, you have to apply an extremely thin layer or it won't dry. I used the QR codes to optimize my use, and it was informative and helped for a better application.”

Cuticles have always been one of the trickier aspects of at-home nail care attempts. It's why we appreciate this hybrid exfoliating and softening formula from celeb manicurist Jin Soon Choi. The silky balm is infused with eight types of hyaluronic acid to hydrate, allantoin and arginine to soothe, camellia flower petal extract to brighten, and natural cellulose to lift away dry, dead skin. It’s gentle enough not to irritate sensitive skin, but powerful enough to keep those rogue cuticles in check. “Innovative to have both exfoliation and hydrating benefits in one,” says Marie Claire Beauty Director Hannah Baxter. “It leaves my hands super soft and my cuticles look great.”

Your base coat can make or break your entire manicure. You need something that is going to give your color something to grip so it has longevity, but also protects your nails from the damage that can come with your love of gel manicures. The LED-cured formula helps lock your color of choice in place and ensures it goes on smoothly for a professional-level look. It’s also 10-free, HEMA-free, and has a high-shine finish if you just want to go for the bare-but-glossy look.

Sometimes the things we love don’t love us back. If you’ve parted ways with gel manicures because they’re just too much for your nails, this LED-cured gel top coat can give you a glossy finish, plump look, and long-wear performance without sacrificing your nail health. Removal takes 10 minutes with an acetone-free remover; it simply peels off, leaving your nails ready for your next color application. “I stopped using gel polish because the removal process was damaging my nails,” says James. “This polish is longwear, but because there is no drilling or 100% acetone removal process, it feels healthier for my nails. This takes a bit to get the hang of it—you must apply a thin layer for easy removal or else you will have to soak longer to remove.”

Honestly, we’d put OPI at the top of any list of nail polishes based on the creativity of the names alone. Fortunately, the shades are just as inventive as their names—it makes it easy to vote them to the top. OPI’m a Bubble Bunny is a sheer, milky pink—a creamy pastel perfection. It was created as a response to OPI stans layering Funny Bunny over Bubble Bath (hence the name) to get the same creamy look, and they really nailed it with this one. It gives you a week of wear, goes on smooth and glossy, and has the brand’s signature Pro-Wide brush to make application (even when painting with your non-dominant hand) a cinch.

You know it, you love it, you may already own it. Essie's Ballet Slippers is the ultimate barely-there sheer nude—it’s been a nail staple for over 40 years, it’s a favorite of everyone from Kate Middleton to Emma Stone, and it’s the brand’s bestselling shade. The hue works with all skin tones and nail shapes and is endlessly versatile—wear it alone, mix it with chrome, use it as a base for your nude nail art. As far as manicures go, balletcore will never go out of style as long as Essie keeps making this beauty.

Like lipstick, a red mani is a bold statement. It’s classic and trendy, bold and feminine. Finding your perfect crimson can mean spending way too much time staring at the polish wall at your nail salon—or you can just grab this poppy red from SSONE and call it a day. The bright hue is universally flattering and extremely hot—it has the sex appeal of sitting behind the wheel of a bright red sports car. We’re partial to this polish not just for the bold shade, but because the polish itself is vegan, 21-free, and cruelty-free, and glides like liquid silk across the nails. “While the packaging certainly sets this polish apart, it's what's in the bottle that really wowed me,” says Marie Claire contributor Lisa DeSantis. “Not only is it the perfect, poppy red shade, but the polish applied smoothly and left behind an impressive high-shine finish that lasted on my chip-prone nails. A feat—especially for a 21-free formula! The brush was also the perfect width, and the top felt ergonomic and the perfect weight, even when painting with my non-dominant hand.”

A lot of attention goes to what you put on your nails—but not how you get it off. The wrong remover can leave your nails stranded with streaks that just won’t wipe away or make them dry and brittle. Fortunately, we haven’t had to deal with those pitfalls since we added the Zoya Remove+ to our manicure toolkit. It works on everything from moody navy nails to weeks-old glitter polish to fully remove every last trace without taking your nail’s moisture with it. In fact, it actually hydrates the nail with a concentrated dose of glycerin to pamper and prep your digits with each swipe. “I'm a long-time fan of this formula and the fact that it comes in a pump,” says DeSantis. “It makes the otherwise mundane and chore-like task of removing nail polish feel a little more legit, like I'm at a salon. It gets my stamp of approval for ease of use and multitasking—it not only removes polish, but hydrates the nail, too, prepping it for what comes next, whether that's fresh polish or a lacquer-free buff job."

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, nail damage happens. This is especially true if you are a frequent gel mani user. Still, your nails are not doomed to suffer the dryness, weakness, and splitting that can come with frequent gel applications. This repair serum from Sally Hansen lives up to its name by providing rehab for gel lovers with a blend of vegan keratin and samphire extract (a type of salt-tolerant sea vegetable, go figure). Applied twice daily to nails and cuticles for six days, it'll improve breakage, splitting, and cracking to revive your tips and reverse the effects of your gel mani habit.

For how much we use our feet, we really don’t give them enough attention. Unless, of course, something goes wrong and suddenly you’re up at two in the morning frantically Googling what to do about cracked heels. Save yourself the trauma and pick up a tube of this ointment from Kerasal. It has a potent blend of urea and salicylic acid to smooth, exfoliate, and moisturize even the most hopeless of heels and toughest of calluses. “I admittedly suffer from extremely rough, cracked heels and soles, and I'm always on the hunt for products to soften the skin on the bottoms of my feet,” says Marie Claire contributor Isabella Sarlija. “This really did that for me—in less than a week, I went from having a white cast of dryness on my heels to looking like I just had an intense foot exfoliating treatment.”

Finding the right press-on nails can be like Cinderella’s glass slipper—you’ve got to try on a lot that don’t quite fit before finding one that looks like it was made for you. Or, you can just skip all that and grab this sparkling option from Glamnetic. Not only does it provide a salon-quality look that lasts for up to two weeks, it provides 30 nail options in 15 different sizes to guarantee you find the right press-on for each and every nail. With its oval shape and short length, these iridescent lilac tips are so mesmerizing, don’t blame us when strangers stop you on the street to ask who your manicurist is. “I have been doing my own manicures for over a decade now, during which time I've also tried on my fair share of press-ons,” says Sarlija. “These are the best I've ever tried, period. They stayed on for two weeks, did not fade AT ALL, and came in sizes that actually fit my very tiny fingernails. I've received many compliments on these nails, and whenever I'd answer, ‘Thanks, they're press-ons,’ people wouldn't believe me.”

Dazzle Dry helps take the pain out of painting your nails with its synergistic five-step system. Designed to be used together to create stronger, healthier nails, it features a nail prep to clean and balance your digits in preparation for polish application; a base coat to protect the nail and bond the color; a quick-drying lacquer; and a top coat to lock your look in place and provide a glassy shine. It has a clean formula, is easy to remove with non-acetone remover (no soaking required), and your nails actually look and feel stronger after application. It also saves you time that’s typically spent waiting for coats to dry so you avoid the dreaded smudging—Dazzle Dry takes legit under a minute to fully apply, so you can do your whole mani in 15 minutes flat. Plus, unlike other fast-drying formulas, it doesn’t leave behind bubbles or chip minutes after it goes on.