Is Gel Polish Bad for Your Nails? Gel vs Regular Polish, From the Studies

Is gel polish bad for your nails? Somewhat, and mostly at the end. Gel can leave nails brittle and splitting, but in the largest survey the damage was reported far more often after removal than while the gel was on, and three times as often when people did it themselves. The reviews we found call the UV lamp's cancer risk low or unproven, and none has shown it in people. The risk that lasts is an allergy to the acrylates that make gel set, which is rare but permanent. We are Nghê Prana, a riverside hotel and spa on the Thu Bồn at Cẩm Nam in Hội An, and we paint both kinds, so this page sets out what the studies measured, where they disagree, and how we would choose for a holiday.

Gel vs regular polish: the short answer

The setting times are from a dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic and from a 2024 review by Wang and Lipner; the wear times are OPI's own claims for its lacquer, "up to 7 days" with its three-step system, and its GelColor, "3 weeks of wear", which match the Cleveland Clinic's "two to three weeks" for gel. The dermatologist quoted by Bustle, Dana Stern, says that with ordinary polish "most of the damage" is the removal too.

Does gel damage your nails?

Yes, in some people, and the studies point at removal more than at the gel. The first report, from Chen and colleagues in 2012, described five women with weak, brittle, thinner nails after gel removed with acetone and "manual peeling"; one nail measured 0.063 cm thick before and 0.050 cm after. In a Polish survey of 2,118 women, Putek and colleagues found nail changes "significantly higher after removing the gel nail polish than when applying or wearing it"; after removal 30.3 percent reported weaker nails and 24.7 percent splitting. The split by who did the work is the useful number: changes after removal were reported by 18.13 percent of women whose gel was put on by a professional and 55.95 percent of those who did it themselves. A 3D scan of 20 thumbnails by Zdrada and colleagues found the damage concentrated at the tip and stressed "the technique of removing".

Two cautions keep this in proportion. A 2026 review of 28 studies by Kamińska and colleagues found brittleness and splitting the commonest side effects and concluded that "UV-cured manicures pose limited health risks". And no study we found has measured nail thickness after gel against the same women after ordinary polish, so "gel thins nails more than regular polish" is likely but not measured. The one head-to-head clue is a rare one: Cervantes and colleagues followed 17 women whose skin under the nail tip had grown onto the nail after years of gel, and all but two recovered within weeks of switching to regular polish. The American Academy of Dermatology advises a break of "one to two weeks or longer" between sets, and Vinmec says nails are "mỏng và dễ gãy", thin and easily broken, after removal and should rest a few weeks. The break is for the nail to grow out, not to breathe: nails take their oxygen from the blood, not the air, as Dana Stern puts it.

Does the UV lamp cause skin cancer?

Nobody has shown that it does. The study that made headlines, by Zhivagui and colleagues in 2023, shone a nail dryer on human and mouse cells in a dish: one 20-minute run killed 20 to 30 percent of them and three runs 65 to 70 percent, with DNA damage in the survivors; the authors write that this "does not provide direct evidence for an increased cancer risk in human beings". Lamps vary a lot. Two older studies, both as reported in Wang and Lipner's review, give the range: Shipp and colleagues in 2014 found some lamps reached a DNA-damaging dose in 8 uses and others only after 208, and a 2013 model by Markova and Weinstock put it at no fewer than 13,700 lamp sessions to equal the exposure of narrowband UVB, the light used in medical phototherapy. The reviews are cautious in both directions: Metko and colleagues call the risk low and the evidence weak, and Beylin and colleagues say a link "has not been conclusively established" and that the evidence does not justify making gloves or sunscreen compulsory.

The dermatologists' bodies lean further towards caution than the reviews. The AAD writes that repeated use "can increase the risk for skin cancer and premature skin aging on the hands", asks you to put on a broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen of SPF 30 or more first, and suggests gel "for special occasions only". The Cleveland Clinic's dermatologist calls the risk "low, but it's still there!" and adds that LED lamps "still emit UV radiation". Our reading: the risk from a few sets a year is small and unproven, and the sunscreen costs nothing, so put it on.

Allergy: the risk that lasts

Gel sets because it contains acrylates, and some people become allergic to them. In an audit of 13 UK and Irish dermatology clinics in 2017, reported by the British Association of Dermatologists, 1.5 percent of 4,931 patients tested positive to HEMA, the commonest one, and 2.4 percent to at least one (meth)acrylate. A European study by Gonçalo and colleagues found 136 of 18,228 patients allergic to nail acrylates, 0.75 percent, 43.4 percent of them customers rather than nail technicians, and 92.5 percent reacting to HEMA. These are patients sent for allergy testing, not everyone who has had gel, so the true rate in salon customers is lower. The danger, the BAD says, is uncured gel touching the skin, which is why its warnings are mostly about home kits.

What makes it matter is where else the same chemicals turn up. The BAD's 2023 warning lists "white dental fillings, enamel tooth coatings, orthopaedic bone cement, diabetic glucose sensors and insulin pumps", and a Spanish study by Gatica-Ortega and colleagues found 9 of 58 allergic patients who later needed dental work recalled a reaction to it, although none had to have it removed. Vinmec's page on gel allergy, advised by the immunologist Phạm Thị Hải Yến, warns of "phản ứng chéo", cross-reactions between methacrylates, and that the allergy cannot be cured. "HEMA-free" does not solve it: a Trading Standards factsheet warns that such products "can contain other powerful acrylates". We have not checked whether our gel is HEMA-free, so if gel has ever made the skin around your nails itch, swell or blister, choose ordinary polish with us, and tell your dentist.

TPO: what Europe banned, and what it did not

In 2025 the European Union banned TPO, a chemical that helps gel cure under the lamp, after it was classified as a CMR substance, the EU's category for chemicals that may cause cancer, mutations or harm to reproduction. Under Regulation (EU) 2025/877, the European Commission says, products containing it may not be sold or used on clients in salons from 1 September 2025; until then it was allowed only in artificial nail products, at up to 5 percent, as service-public.fr puts it. Great Britain followed in August 2026, with salons allowed to finish their stock, and ITV News reported that it "can still be used in the US, Australia and Asia". The ban is on one ingredient, not on gel: as Tuổi Trẻ put it, Europe banned only the polishes that contain it. We found no rule on TPO in Vietnam, and we have not checked whether our gel contains it.

Planning a trip around this? See dates at our quiet riverside hotel on the Thu Bồn. Check availability →

Gel or regular polish on a holiday

• Gel if the trip is two weeks or more and you want the colour to last it: gel is rated for two to three weeks, ordinary polish for up to one.
• Regular polish if the trip is short, if you want to take it off yourself at home with ordinary remover, if your nails are already thin, or if gel has ever irritated your skin.
• Do not pick or peel gel off. Have it soaked off in acetone, fingertips only, as the AAD advises; the damage in the studies above followed peeling and rough removal.
• Sunscreen on your hands before the lamp, SPF 30 or more, if you want to follow the AAD.
• A break between sets of one to two weeks, longer if your nails are splitting.

Our manicures and pedicures, and what they cost

Prices per person, read from our live spa menu on 23 October 2026; at the 26,000₫ rate we use across the site, an O.P.I manicure is about US$12 and a gel manicure about US$17, so gel costs about US$6 more per hands or feet. The "cut" is the nails; you decide how short, and whether your cuticles are touched at all, and the Cleveland Clinic's dermatologist calls cutting them "always a no-no". We do not do acrylic nails or extensions. The nails page has the full menu and the lamp, and the pedicure page has how long each takes on feet.

What nobody has measured

No study has compared the same nails under gel and under ordinary polish, so the difference in damage is inferred, not measured. The cancer evidence is cells in a dish, measurements of lamps and calculations, not people. The allergy figures come from patients referred to allergy clinics, which overstates how common it is among salon customers. And for our own table, we have not yet published the brand of our gel, the type of lamp, or whether the gel contains HEMA or TPO; we have asked, and will add them here when we have the answer. We are a hotel spa, not a dermatologist: with a nail that is lifting, discoloured or painful, see one first.

How to book

Nghê Prana Riverside Hotel & Spa, Hẻm 384 Nguyễn Tri Phương, Cẩm Nam, Hội An, on the Thu Bồn, 3.2 km from the Old Town. The spa is open from 9:00 to 21:00 every day and takes visitors as well as hotel guests. Book on the online form or by phone or WhatsApp on +84 896 687 961; an hour's notice is enough, and walk-ins are welcome when the table is free. Tell us if gel has ever irritated your skin. Coming as two? Manicures side by side fit in the private room on the couple spa page.

Sources: Chen AF et al., Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 11(1), 2012; Putek J et al., Acta Dermato-Venereologica 100(18), 2020; Zdrada J et al., Skin Research and Technology 28(3), 2022; Kamińska J et al., Postępy Dermatologii i Alergologii 43(2), 2026; Cervantes J et al., JEADV 32(1), 2018; Wang E and Lipner SR, Skin Appendage Disorders 10(3), 2024; Zhivagui M et al., Nature Communications 14, 2023; Metko D et al., European Journal of Dermatology 34(1), 2024; Beylin D et al., International Journal of Dermatology 64(4), 2025; Gonçalo M et al., Contact Dermatitis 78(4), 2018; Gatica-Ortega ME et al., Contact Dermatitis 89(6), 2023; British Association of Dermatologists, 9 August 2018 and 14 April 2023; Trading Standards; American Academy of Dermatology; Cleveland Clinic, 6 April 2023; European Commission, 7 August 2025; service-public.fr, 4 September 2025; ITV News, 17 August 2026; OPI; Bustle, 25 February 2021; Vinmec, 9 July and 14 August 2024; Tuổi Trẻ, 4 September 2025. All read 23 October 2026; prices from the Nghê Prana spa menu the same day.