HONA, a professional-only nail brand founded in Wales in 2021, has been named a finalist in The Dext Innovation Award at the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards 2026, with the winners to be revealed in London this November.
The brand, short for Home of Nail Art, supplies nail technicians, salons, educators and aspiring professionals across the UK with hypoallergenic gel systems and professional education. Its place among the finalists, confirmed in July 2026, recognises innovation the company says was born out of a growing crisis in its own industry.
Answering an allergy crisis
According to the business, poor formulations, weak ingredient standards and a lack of education had fuelled an allergy epidemic that was putting careers at risk in a fast-growing, female-led sector. HONA’s response was what it describes as the UK’s first home-grown hypoallergenic gel system, created to prove that safety and performance can coexist. Its current range centres on hypoallergenic, HEMA free builder gels and gel polishes, sold through the pro-only channel via its own website.
The company argues that its impact has gone well beyond product development. Before HONA, it says, allergies, ingredient transparency and safety were too often treated as secondary to aesthetics. Since its launch, the business reports, those concerns have moved to the centre of how the professional nail market thinks, communicates and buys, with technicians asking harder questions and expecting more from the brands they trust with their livelihoods.
Built in Wales, not bought in
Rather than relying on white labelling or imported shortcuts, HONA chose the harder route of building product capability at home. From a purpose-built laboratory in Wales, the company develops, tests and refines its systems in-house, an approach it says proves that world-class beauty innovation can be built in the UK and used to protect careers in a sector that supports female self-employment, entrepreneurship and independent high streets. Its innovation work has been formally recognised through a successful HMRC research and development claim, according to the company.
The sector it serves is a substantial one. The British Beauty Council’s Value of Beauty 2026 report found that beauty and personal care contributed £28.3 billion to the UK economy in 2025 and supported more than 595,000 jobs, a workforce comparable in size to UK construction.
A voice beyond the business
HONA reports that it is a Patron of the British Beauty Council, a position it uses to contribute to conversations and think tanks aimed at improving standards, transparency and safety at both industry and policy level. The company frames its wider mission as protecting a crucial female-led industry through innovation that helps shape a safer, stronger future for everyone working within it.
HONA now joins the other shortlisted businesses in The Dext Innovation Award 2026 category and will learn the outcome when the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards ceremony takes place at Grosvenor House, London, on 10 November 2026.
