Nail Salons in Korea: Gel, Art, Prices and Booking

Getting your nails done is one of the few things that is straightforwardly better in Korea than wherever you came from — more design, more skill, and usually less money. It is also one of the few appointments where not knowing how the pricing works costs you real money, because the headline price is rarely the price.

Here is how a Korean nail salon actually works.

Gel is the default

In most of the English-speaking world, “nails” means a choice between polish and acrylic. In Korea the baseline is 젤네일 (gel) — cured under a lamp, lasting three to four weeks, and the thing almost everyone means when they say they are getting their nails done.

Korean	What it is
젤네일 (gel nail)	The default. Gel on your own nail, cured under a lamp
연장 (yeonjang)	Extensions — length added. Rarely printed on the menu; quoted in the chair
아트 (art)	Design work. Hand painting, stones, chrome, 3D. A higher tier on the menu, or an unpriced extra
케어 (care)	Cuticle work and shaping. Inside the gel price at some shops, ₩18,000–25,000 at others
제거 (jegeo)	Removal of existing gel. Free if it is theirs, around ₩20,000 if it is not
페디 (pedi)	Pedicure — but see below, it splits into 발케어 and 발젤

The word to look for is 원컬러 (won-keolleo, “one colour”). Nearly every Korean nail menu leads with it, and that is what the headline price buys: one flat shade on ten nails. Everything in the photograph you are holding — french tips, a gradient, chrome, stones, anything hand-painted — sits further down the same menu at a higher number, or is not on the menu at all.

Nobody is hiding this. It is simply that the price you saw and the picture you brought are describing two different services.

What it costs

Korean nail salons publish their prices on their Naver listings. Here are ten real Seoul shops, read on 15 October 2026, sorted by what a single-colour gel manicure costs:

Shop	Hand gel, one colour	Toe gel	Care only	Design tier
네일랄라	₩30,000 ᵐ	₩40,000 ᵐ	—	French or gradation ₩45,000 ᵐ
네일더빛나길	₩35,000	₩50,000	₩20,000 (men ₩25,000)	French, gradation, powder, magnetic ₩55,000
찌부네일	₩40,000	₩50,000	₩18,000	—
네일에 스며들다	₩40,000	₩45,000	₩20,000 (men ₩25,000)	French or gradation ₩50,000
금붕어네일 여의도점	₩40,000 ᵐ ᶜ	₩50,000 ᵐ ᶜ	—	—
스튜디오네일	₩45,000 ᶜ ᶠ	₩55,000 ᶜ ᶠ	₩20,000	—
뷰티크 네일 속눈썹	₩50,000	₩60,000	—	Art of the month ₩79,000
늘, 솜 네일 여의도	₩50,000	₩60,000	₩25,000	—

ᵐ member price · ᶜ care included · ᶠ cash price

Last verified: 15 October 2026, as published on each shop’s own Naver listing. Nail prices move with design trends; treat this as the shape of the market rather than a quote.

A single-colour gel manicure in Seoul runs ₩30,000–50,000. Toes are almost always exactly ₩10,000 more — that held at six of the eight shops above, and the two exceptions were ₩5,000 and ₩15,000. It is the most reliable number on this page.

Design is a tier, not a per-nail charge

This is the thing worth correcting, because the internet says otherwise. On these menus, design is priced as a named step up from 원컬러, not by counting nails:

• 프렌치 (french) · 그라데이션 (gradient) · 파우더 · 자석젤 (magnetic) — one price, whichever you pick. ₩45,000–55,000 at the shops that list them, against ₩30,000–35,000 for one colour at the same shop.
• 이달의 아트 (art of the month) — a set design the shop is running that month, at a flat rate. ₩49,000 at one shop, ₩79,000 at another.

Per-nail pricing does exist. It is for repairs, not art. 네일더빛나길 fixes a chipped nail free within three days and charges ₩5,000 a nail after that. That is the only per-unit number on any of the ten menus.

Where the open-ended money actually is: 글리터, 파츠, 스티커 — glitter, 3D parts and stickers. Menus list those as 추가비용 발생 (extra charge applies) with no figure at all. So does 연장 (extensions). If your reference photo has anything sitting on top of the nail rather than painted into it, that is the moment to ask the total.

회원가 — the price on the menu may not be your price

Four of the ten listings quote 회원가 (member price) as the headline, and one shop prints both: ₩40,000 for members, ₩50,000 for everybody else. A ₩10,000 gap, or twenty-five per cent, on the same single-colour gel.

Membership here usually means a prepaid package — you put money on account and draw it down at the member rate. It is the same machinery as the ten-session salon package, and the same warning applies: it is normal, it is not a scam, and you should not buy one on your first visit to a shop whose work you have not seen on your own hands yet.

Two smaller versions of the same thing. 현금가 (cash price) — one shop’s ₩45,000 is explicitly the cash figure, so a card may cost more. And 회원 젤 연속 시술 시 젤제거 무료 — free removal for members who keep coming back.

Whose gel is on your nails right now

The cheapest question to get wrong. 네일더빛나길 charges ₩30,000 to remove its own gel and do your care, ₩40,000 if the gel came from another shop, and lists a standalone 타샵 제거비 (other-shop removal fee) of ₩20,000. 뷰티크 removes gel free when you are having new gel done, and charges when removal is all you want.

So the rule, which is worth carrying: removal is free when it is their gel and you are buying more; it costs around ₩20,000 when it is somebody else’s.

If you had gel done at home before flying, or at a different shop last month, say so when you book — not when you sit down. It changes both the price and the length of the slot they need to give you.

Care is sometimes inside the price and sometimes not

케어 (cuticle work and shaping) is a separate ₩18,000–25,000 line at some shops and quietly folded into the gel price at others — 스튜디오네일 and 금붕어네일 both say 케어포함 on the gel line.

That makes a ₩40,000 menu and a ₩45,000 menu impossible to compare directly. The question that settles it is 케어 포함이에요? — is care included?

Men are on the menu, and it costs a bit more

Two of these shops price 맨즈케어 (men’s care) as its own line, and both charge more than the women’s equivalent: ₩25,000 against ₩20,000 for hands, and one charges ₩50,000 against ₩40,000 for foot callus work.

If you are a man who has never considered this: a men’s manicure is an entirely ordinary thing to book in Korea, it is on the printed menu, and nobody will find the request unusual.

Many nail shops are lash shops too

Three of the ten also do 속눈썹 (eyelashes), and it is common enough that the shop name often says so. Published rates: a lash perm ₩40,000–50,000, a tint perm ₩65,000, and extensions priced by how many lashes go on — ₩50,000 for 40, ₩65,000 for 60, ₩80,000 for 100. One shop includes two weekly retouches at ₩10,000 each and removal at ₩5,000.

Worth knowing mostly because it means one booking can cover both, and because a shop advertising 네일·속눈썹 is not a shop that does nails badly.

The pedicure word problem

“Pedicure” in English covers two different Korean menu items, and they are priced a long way apart:

• 발케어 (foot care) — soaking, cuticles, shaping, sometimes a spa step. ₩23,000–35,000.
• 발젤 (toe gel) — colour on top of that. ₩40,000–60,000.

Ask for 발케어 and you will not be getting colour. One shop also lists 문제성 케어 at ₩60,000 for problem nails, and 발각질 (callus work) at ₩40,000–50,000 as separate lines again.

Three questions that fix the bill

Ask these in this order, before anyone opens a bottle:

1. 전부 다 해서 얼마예요? — How much in total? The single most useful sentence on this page.
2. 케어 포함이에요? — Is care included?
3. 이 가격이 회원가예요? — Is this the member price?

Some shops also run a 무한 아트 deal — unlimited art for one flat price. It did not appear on any of the ten menus above, so treat it as a question worth asking rather than something to expect.

It takes longer than you think

A flat colour is about an hour. Detailed art is commonly two to three hours, sometimes more, and it is not a thing that can be hurried — the curing between layers takes what it takes.

Do not book a nail appointment ninety minutes before a dinner reservation. It is the single most common scheduling mistake visitors make here, and the result is either a rushed design or a missed table.

How to book

Walk-ins exist at the cheap end, and almost nowhere good. Expect to book.

1. Instagram is where the artists are. Search a neighbourhood plus 네일 — 홍대네일, 강남네일, 연남동네일 — and look at the actual work. This matters more than reviews, because you are buying a specific person’s hand. DMs get answered, and often in English.

2. Naver is where the booking button is. Most salons take reservations through Naver, which also shows the menu, the price list and the free slots — the Naver Map guide covers how to work it in English, and Kakao Map does the same job if that is the app you already have.

3. Bring a photograph. Same rule as any Korean hair appointment: a picture settles in two seconds what a conversation cannot settle at all. Save three or four to your phone before you go in, including one you would be happy with if the first is not possible on your nail length.

4. Say how long you have. If you are on a trip with a schedule, tell them when you need to leave. They will design to the time rather than discover it at the end.

For visitors on a short trip

It has quietly become a thing people fly in and do, and the reasoning holds up: the work is more adventurous than most places, the price is lower, and gel lasts long enough to go home with you.

Two practical notes if that is you. Book before you land — good shops in Hongdae, Gangnam and Seongsu fill a week or two ahead, especially at weekends. And think about removal before you commit to extensions, because taking them off is a salon job wherever you are, and you will be paying someone at home to do it.

The words that change the outcome

English	Korean
How much in total?	전부 다 해서 얼마예요?
Is care included?	케어 포함이에요?
Is this the member price?	이 가격이 회원가예요?
I have gel on from another shop	다른 곳에서 한 젤이 있어요
Just one colour, no parts or glitter	파츠나 글리터 없이 원컬러로 해주세요
Please remove it	제거해 주세요
Single colour, no art	단색으로 해주세요
Like this photo	이 사진처럼 해주세요
Shorter, please	조금 더 짧게 해주세요
How long will it take?	시간이 얼마나 걸려요?
I have to leave by three	3시까지 가야 해요

A note on hygiene

Nail work in Korea is a licensed trade — the same 미용업 licence that covers hair — and a registered salon will have it displayed. The things worth glancing at are the ordinary ones anywhere: tools coming out of a steriliser or a sealed pouch rather than a drawer, and a workstation wiped between customers. If a shop is busy, well reviewed and visibly set up for it, you are fine.

Get it sorted

Found an artist on Instagram and the booking is all in Korean? Send us the account or the Naver link on KakaoTalk and we will book the slot, describe what you want, ask what the total comes to, and tell you what they said. We take no commission from any salon, and we do not recommend one we have not seen the work of — the Korean is the part we are good for.

The summary, if you take one line: ask for the total before they start, and tell them when you have to leave. Those two sentences prevent almost every bad nail appointment anyone has here.