I tried OPI’s at-home gel system to recreate Hailey Bieber’s signature glazed donut nails.
I’ve done my nails at home plenty of times, but gel is a different story. For this OPI GELement review, I wanted to see whether the brand’s at-home system could help me recreate Hailey Bieber’s signature glazed donut nails without a salon appointment.
Add in a lamp, chrome powder and curing times, and suddenly there are a few more ways for things to go sideways. So, when I got my hands on OPI’s at-home GELement system, there was one manicure I wanted to try first: Hailey Bieber’s glazed donut nails.
The look has been everywhere since celebrity nail artist Zola Ganzorigt created it for Bieber in 2022. A sheer, milky base finished with chrome gave the nails that glossy, pearlescent effect that quickly became one of her signatures.
Years later, glazed nails are still going strong, and I wanted to see how easy it actually was to recreate the look at home with OPI’s system.
Turns out, it’s easier than I expected, and as soon as I got my hands on OPI’s GELement Gel Essentials Kit, I decided this was the manicure I wanted to attempt first.
And, somewhat surprisingly, I actually pulled it off.
First, the OPI GELement Kit
GELement is OPI’s at-home gel system, designed to give you the basics of a salon gel manicure without actually going to the salon.
The GELement Gel Essentials Kit comes with the Base Coat, No-Wipe Top Coat, LED gel lamp, prep pads, cuticle pushers and file/buffers. The gel colour itself is sold separately, so you can choose whichever shade you actually want to wear.
For the glazed donut look, I used Let Me Bayou a Mani, a sheer nude-pink shade from the GELement line, and Tin Man Can Glaze, the silvery-white chrome powder created with Ganzorigt.
That combination is OPI’s at-home version of Zola’s signature glazed donut manicure.
The entire setup is also refreshingly compact. I don’t have an at-home nail salon hidden somewhere in my house, nor do I want one. The little lamp and a handful of bottles are about as much commitment as I’m willing to make.
Is OPI GELement Actually Easy to Use?
This was my biggest question.
The answer: yes.
You still have to pay attention to what you’re doing, but the process feels much closer to painting your nails than performing some sort of advanced nail-tech procedure.
The GELement polish goes on like regular polish, except you cure each coat under the LED lamp instead of waiting around for it to dry.
If anything, this might be my favourite part of doing gel at home. Once a layer is cured, it’s done. There’s no sitting perfectly still for 45 minutes only to reach into your purse and immediately destroy a nail.
The biggest lesson I learned was to go thin with the polish. You really do not need much product. Keeping the coats thin helps everything cure properly and keeps the finished manicure from looking bulky.
How I Got the Hailey Bieber Glazed Donut Nails
The manicure itself looks much more complicated than it actually is.
I started by shaping my nails, pushing back my cuticles and lightly buffing the surface. Then I cleansed each nail so there was no oil or residue left behind.
Next came a thin layer of the Base Coat from the GELement Gel Essentials Kit, followed by curing under the lamp.
Then I applied Let Me Bayou a Mani.
The colour is intentionally sheer, which is exactly what you want here. Two thin coats gave me that soft, milky base without completely covering the natural nail underneath.
Then came the fun part.
After the colour was cured, I applied the No-Wipe Top Coat and gave it a shorter cure before rubbing Tin Man Can Glaze over each nail with the applicator.
This is the moment where you get that glazed donut vibe.
The powder looks fairly unassuming until you start buffing it into the nail. Within seconds, that basic milky manicure turns glossy and pearlescent and suddenly looks very, very Hailey Bieber.
Once the chrome was on, I sealed everything with another layer of the No-Wipe Top Coat and cured it.
Done.
But Did It Actually Last?
This is where OPI GELement really won me over.
I kept the manicure on for two full weeks, and it still looked glossy with no noticeable chipping.
And I was not being particularly precious with my hands. There was constant typing, washing dishes, opening packages and all of the random everyday things that tend to make a regular at-home manicure start looking questionable within days.
The GELement manicure held up.
There’s also something extremely satisfying about finishing your nails, pulling your hand out of the lamp and knowing they are actually dry. No smudges. No sheet marks. No sacrificing the next hour of your life because you decided to paint your nails at 10 p.m.
So, Is the OPI GELement Kit Worth It?
If you already get regular gel manicures, like doing your own nails or simply want them to last longer than traditional polish, I think it is.
There is a bit more involved than opening a bottle of regular nail polish, particularly when it comes to proper prep and removal, but I was expecting the whole thing to be much harder than it was.
The GELement Gel Essentials Kit can also be reused with different GELement shades, so you’re not buying an entire setup solely to recreate one manicure.
After two weeks of wear, though, the glazed finish wasn’t the only thing that impressed me. The system was easier to use than I expected, the manicure stayed glossy, and I didn’t spend the entire process wondering what I was doing wrong.
More importantly, it actually feels like something I’ll use again. The lamp is small enough to tuck away, the process doesn’t take over your entire evening, and once you have the basics, you can swap in whatever GELement shade you’re in the mood for next.
Will I still occasionally pay someone else to do my nails? Maybe, for special occasions.
But for a Hailey Bieber-level manicure without leaving the house, OPI GELement made a very convincing case for doing it myself.
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