“Best nail tech in Coral Gables! She always puts the health of your nails first.”
Also sold as Gel-X: the lightest of the extensions, and the kindest to your natural nail. From $70, done by someone who has spent eight years doing almost nothing else.
280 Alhambra Cir, Suite 23, Coral Gables · Around 1h30 · Refills from $50
Soft gel — you'll also hear it called gel-x — uses a full-cover tip that already has the shape built in. I fit it to your nail bed, bond it with gel and cure it. There's no filing down of your natural nail to make something stick, which is the part that does the damage.
Most people forget they're wearing them by the second day. If you've had acrylic before and hated the weight, this is the opposite end.
Soft gel dissolves — it soaks off instead of being drilled off. That's the single biggest reason I recommend it to anyone whose nails are already thin or peeling.
The tip is thin at the base, so there's no ridge where it meets your nail. Under a nude or a French it reads as a very good natural nail, not as an extension.
The honest version, including when soft gel is the wrong answer.
No stock photos anywhere on this site.
A starting point, not a closed price. Length and design move it, and you hear the real number before I start.
Around an hour and a half for a first set.
Optional. A solid colour is already included.
Nobody explains this part, so here it is. What ends a set isn't the gel giving up — it's the millimetre of your own nail that appears at the cuticle. Once that gap opens, the weight of the nail sits too far forward, and that's when sets lift, catch on things and snap.
Fully cured before you stand up. No drying time, nothing to smudge. This is as strong as it's going to be.
I file back the regrowth, rebalance the apex and re-cover. Same set, carries on as if nothing happened. That's a refill, from $50.
Once nails have lifted or broken, there's nothing to refill: it's a removal and a new set, from $70 — and harder on the nail underneath.
One set at $70, then sixteen refills at $50. A whole year of never having bare nails.
A brand new set every three weeks instead. Same year, same nails, $320 more.
So the cheapest way to wear gel is to come back on time. The easiest way to do that is to book your refill before you leave the chair — I'll offer, and it takes ten seconds. If you'd rather sort it later, Booksy shows my live availability.
“Best nail tech in Coral Gables! She always puts the health of your nails first.”
“I've been going to Dagamara for the past 3 years, and I wouldn't trust anyone else with my nails. She is incredibly talented, detail-oriented, and consistently delivers beautiful, high quality work every single time.”
“Always professional, detail oriented, and her work is consistently flawless.”
The set itself holds for weeks. What decides your next visit is regrowth at the cuticle, and that's usually two to three weeks. At that point it's a refill from $50, not a new set.
Not when it goes on and comes off properly. Soft gel bonds without filing your nail down, and it soaks off instead of being drilled off. The damage people describe usually comes from removal, not from wearing it — which is why I'd rather take it off myself than have you pick at it.
Yes. Almond, oval, square, coffin — and short, medium or long. Bring a photo if you have one; it's the fastest way to land on exactly what you pictured. Longer sets cost more than the $70 starting point.
Call me. A single repair is quicker and cheaper than redoing the set, and leaving a broken one on is how the nail underneath gets hurt.
Soft gel is lighter and easier to remove; poly gel is stronger and holds more length. If you want long and dramatic, read the poly gel page. If you're not sure, call and describe your nails and what you do with your hands all day — that answers it faster than any page.
Stronger, sculpted onto the nail, holds serious length. From $80.
On your own nail, no extensions. Around an hour. From $40.
French, chrome and hand-painted design, on top of any set. From $10.
Booksy shows my live availability. The phone gets you me — no receptionist in between.