The cure to the manicure

You'll (hopefully) recognise us as the stick-on gel nail brand featured on Dragons' Den UK season 21 episode 13!

Tune in to BBC One at 8pm on Thursday 28 March to see how our pink suit-clad founder Gina Farran fared in the Den!

The Glaize journey

You might have seen us on TV, but our story starts during the pandemic when Gina quit her job at Goldman Sachs to build her nail care brand, Glaize.

Growing up in Lebanon, Gina was inspired by her super glam mum who always had beautifully painted nails. She loved that "put together" feeling of having your nails done, however, during her finance career, she rarely had time to paint them herself or to make it to a salon, and decided there had to be a better, more convenient way.

We invented Glaize to bring you gorgeous nails that are:

• Convenient
• Look great
• Easy to apply & remove
• Don't damage your nails
• More sustainable than your average salon mani
• & of course, fit through your letterbox

The problem(s) with nail care

After learning more about nail care, Gina realised that the nail industry hadn't seen much innovation since the 1950s, when a dentist discovered a way to make the first ever gel nails.

There were clearly issues with sustainability as well, that desperately needed addressing.

Historically, nail care hasn't been very environmentally friendly, for example, did you know that nail varnish bottles can't be recycled?

Gina and the Glaize team are on a mission to change this, although it won't happen overnight. Creating a truly sustainable product that also performs well will take thousands more iterations and significant investment until we 'nail' the formulation.

Our current formulation is 30-40% bio-based (depending on the shade), and the only way is UP - we want to increase this % as much as possible!

UV lamp controversy

There has recently been controversy surrounding the health impact of UV lamps, and while more research is required to reach definite conclusions, we wanted to design a product that allayed any of these concerns, therefore you can rest assured that our gels arrive fully UV-cured, so you don't need to invest in a UV lamp.

Many of our customers have experienced allergic reactions to other nail products in the past, so we’re delighted that we can offer a safe alternative. Glaize gels are cruelty-free, toxin-free and vegan. Our gels can also be removed without any acetone.

Creative collaboration

We love working with nail techs and nail artists - we hope to champion their creativity and enable them to reach new customers who might not be able to visit their salons in-person, but would still love to try their incredible designs. That's why we collaborate with like-minded brands and nail artists to design our stick-on nail art gels.

Where else have we spotted Glaize?

You might have seen Gina Farran being interviewed in Business Insider & Courier, we've also been featured in Get the Gloss, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour & Stylist (to name drop a few!).

How did we find the whole Dragons' Den experience?

We absolutely loved it and we are SO grateful for the opportunity! “Dragons' Den reaches millions of users and to have this exposure as a small business is incredible!” says Gina.

So, what has happened since Dragons' Den?

We filmed the episode of Dragons' Den back in May 2023, so almost a year has gone by since that date, and it's safe to say a lot has changed in a year at Glaize. Since that time, we've grown a lot, launched new nail art collaborations, lots of new colours and sized made-to-measure gels for thousands of new customers. We also expanded our product range to stick-on gel pedicures and standard-sized stick-on gel manicures.

Do Glaize nails actually work?

Yes, they do! We have lots of lovely 5-star reviews from our customers, and you can even see our gels IRL in our Instagram highlight.

In order to get the best out of your gels, we recommend checking out our application videos first.