To price press-on nails, add up a set's tips, gel and polish, decorations, the application kit and the box, then the minutes it takes to shape, prep, paint, cure, decorate and pack it, and price for the margin you want after platform and card fees. The materials are a few dollars; the time is the price. In the example below, a solid-color set costs $13.06 and sells for $27, a French and chrome set costs $23.76 and sells for $48, and a full art set with charms and hand painting costs $45.96 and sells for $92. Ready-made sets in standard sizes, made several at a time, cost less than custom-fit ones. Below is what a set costs, prices by design, custom and ready-made sets, sizing, the rules, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost a set: tips, gel and polish, decorations, the kit, the box and card.
- Time each design level: solid, French and chrome, full art.
- Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees), rounded up to a dollar.
- The time is most of the cost: an hour of painting is $20 before anything else.
- Make ready-made sets in standard sizes in batches; price custom-fit sets higher.
- Charge shipping on its own, and offer a sizing kit before custom sets.
- TaroStack keeps gel colors, tips and kits counted and every set costed. More below.
What a set costs
Short North Nail Co., a made-up press-on nail maker in Columbus, Ohio, I use in these examples, sells sets of 10 nails online:
| A set | Solid color | French and chrome | Full art |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 tips, from a box of 500 at $8 | $0.16 | $0.16 | $0.16 |
| Gel, builder and top coat | $0.80 | $1.00 | $1.20 |
| Chrome, rhinestones, charms | $0.50 | $2.50 | |
| Kit: glue, adhesive tabs, file, cuticle stick, prep pad | $0.90 | $0.90 | $0.90 |
| Box, insert and care card | $1.20 | $1.20 | $1.20 |
| Materials | $3.06 | $3.76 | $5.96 |
| Time, at $20 an hour | 30 min, $10.00 | 60 min, $20.00 | 120 min, $40.00 |
| Cost a set | $13.06 | $23.76 | $45.96 |
The kit and the box cost more than the nails and the gel together. The minutes cover the whole set: matching tip sizes, shaping and prepping, each coat of gel and its cure under the lamp, decorating, the top coat, and packing the kit. Time a few sets of each design and use your own numbers. How to cost the box and card properly is in packaging cost per unit.
Prices by design
| A set | Cost | Price, 40% margin after 10% fees | Left after fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid color | $13.06 | $27 | $11.24 |
| French and chrome | $23.76 | $48 | $19.44 |
| Full art | $45.96 | $92 | $36.84 |
Each price is the cost divided by (1 − 0.40 − 0.10), rounded up to a dollar; 10% covers the platform's and the card processor's fees. A full art set leaves the most a set but a little less an hour than a solid one, $18.42 against $22.48, because the margin is on the time; what changes is how many sets you can make in a week. How to put your own time into a price is in how to price handmade items.
Custom and ready-made sets
A custom set is made to one customer's nail sizes, so it's made one at a time. A ready-made set comes in standard sizes, small, medium and large, and can be made ten at a time: shaping, painting and curing run in batches, and a solid-color set drops from 30 minutes to about 20. At 20 minutes, it costs $9.73 and could sell for $20, so ready-made sets are the lower-priced line that sells without a wait, and custom sets carry the higher price for the fit. Ready-made stock is also stock to count: colors and sizes that don't sell are money on a shelf; how much to keep is in how much inventory to keep on hand.
Custom sets need the customer's sizes first. A sizing kit, a set of tips in every size the customer tries on and reports back, is sold at a small price and credited against the set, so a set doesn't come back for a refund because it doesn't fit.
The rules
Nail products are generally regulated as cosmetics, and cosmetics sold at retail, in stores or online, need a list of ingredients and any warning needed to prevent a health hazard (FDA), which is why nail glue carries one. A kit that includes glue bought from a supplier should keep the supplier's label and warnings with it. Under MoCRA, a small business is excused from facility registration and product listing but not from reporting serious reactions or keeping safety records; what counts as small is in MoCRA for small businesses. This is general information, not legal advice.
Get the calculator
Download the press-on nail pricing calculator. Type the tips in a set and what a box costs, the gel and polish, decorations, the kit, the box and card, the minutes a set takes, your hourly rate, platform fees and the margin you want. It works out the materials, your time, the cost of a set, its price rounded up to a dollar, and what's left. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Sixty gel colors, tips in ten sizes and four shapes, charms by the bag, kits assembled by the hundred, and ready-made sets in three sizes alongside custom orders. A sheet can't say whether the milky pink is running low, how many medium coffin sets are ready to ship, or which designs earn their hours.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps gel colors, tips and kits counted and every set costed.
Supplies in stock. Each gel color, tip size, charm and kit part is an item, counted on a phone and kept at what you paid, and units convert: tips bought by the box of 500, used by the set.
Sets and kits as recipes. Each design is a recipe of its tips, gel, decorations, kit and box, and the kit is a sub-recipe of its own. Recording a batch of ready-made sets takes everything off stock at what you paid and gives the cost of each, and custom orders are sales orders that show whether the colors are on the shelf while you're still typing.
And what each design earns. The reorder list works in days of cover so the glue and the popular colors don't run out, and margins are reported by product and by customer.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Milky pink running low? | Check the bottles | Stock by item, counted on a phone |
| Ready-made medium sets on the shelf | Count the drawer | Stock by item |
| Kits assembled and their cost | A guess | A sub-recipe, at what it used |
| Which designs earn their hours? | A feeling | Margins by product |
Recipes, batches, sales orders and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.