Le Travail Nail Studio

Kleenex is a brand, facial tissues are the product, right? Same thing applies with Luminary; it’s a brand, and builder gel is the product. A lot of people know about structure gel manicures purely because of Luminary Nail Systems’ popularity, and I wanted to see what the hype was about. I bought a bottle of their clear gel about a year ago and used it mostly on myself with very lazy prep (because I’m usually too tired to do things right when it comes to my own nails – nail techs get it) and was shocked when it didn’t last very well on me. I decided to learn a bit more about it and invested in a certification course from Luminary, and I’m so glad I did! The manicures done with this product have been lasting with little to no lifting for 4-5 weeks at a time! 

From a client’s perspective, this certification and product are valuable in helping your nails last longer and look better!

So what is so special about Luminary gel? It is marketed as a multi-flex gel that has the strength of acrylic while having the lightness and flexibility of gels. I don’t work with acrylic, so I’m not familiar enough with what products and techniques make it last the longest, but I have worked with a significant amount of different gel bases. Flexible textures work better for some, and more rigid textures work for others. It can be difficult and take time to find the perfect texture for a new client, but I’ve been switching many over to Luminary and finding a lot of success in it holding up really well. 

Here’s some of my top favorite reasons to use it:

This might sound weird, but Luminary’s clear base gel, “Clarity”, is the clearest clear I’ve ever used. Maybe it’s a placebo effect, but I swear, in pictures and in real life, this gel looks so glassy and perfect! 

The retention, as previously mentioned, has been incredible for me! I’ve been using it on clients who work in hospitals, food service, maintenance, hairstyling, massaging, and more, and have been finding it to grip onto their nails much better than other base gels. The caveat is that any gel will last much better when proper aftercare instructions are followed, but even when not, Luminary seems to last better than others. 

The company’s education is really useful in learning how to prep, refill, structure, and care for this nail enhancement. 

The few things I don’t love about the gel aren’t enough of a deterrent to keep me away:

There tends to be a bit higher of a heat spike on nails that have been damaged by improper removal of gels or for those more sensitive to heat spikes. I’ve found success in using a mini flash cure light held a little farther away and “bouncing” it off and on the nail so it doesn’t get too hot before the full cure. 

The shelf life is an estimated 9 months from ordering. They recommend not ordering too much back stock – but at the rate I’m using it, I don’t think the expiration date will be an issue.

The bottles all look identical and are easy to mix up… my top coat and base+builder bottles still aren’t on speaking terms. 

Le Travail Nail Studio in Sioux Falls, South Dakota offers structure gel manicures and is certified in using Luminary Nail Systems Multi-Flex Gel!

All in all, I’m a big fan and would absolutely recommend Luminary to other nail techs (Use this link if you enjoyed this post, it helps me out a lot ❤️: Luminary Affiliate Link). If you’re a client and interested in learning more or having Luminary used for your manicure, let me know at your next appointment! 

So much love ❤️