Gel nail lamps: UV vs LED?

Do you often get a lot of questions about the lamps used in manicure? After all we have talked about the gel application, we should also be clarified with the lamps. Because if you don’t have curing down it doesn’t matter how awesome your application and your nail are, it’s all going to come off. And we definitely don’t want that for ourselves or our clients.

• The first question is: What's the difference?

Here is a picture of a traditional UV lamp. It’s probably the most common that you’ll see especially if you’re just starting out or if you’re looking for a cheap type of lamp. This is the very original one. What a traditional UV lamp really is, is a CFL UV lamp CFL means compact fluorescent. And there is also CCFL which means cool cathode or cool compact. And the fluorescent bulbs in it are what makes it work. This fluorescent light bulb emits a portion of the spectrum of UV light. So with this, you can cure the gels. This lamp was usually used about ten years ago.

But now days, LED has completely taken over. It has a different type of light bulb inside. And LED stands for light emitting diode. You may find some of the LED bulbs have different colors, some are yellow some are transparent. That’s because they have different style of dome over the bulb to spread the light and also to protect the bulbs.

And what important is this is also UV lamp. So you can see the difference, CFL lamps and LED lamps are both UV lamps but with different bulbs. And they both cure gel polish.

• So why are CFL lamps are replaced by LED lamps?

1. LED UV lamps are able to emit the full spectrum of light needed to cure both traditional gels and the newer LED formulas and so they can cure all the gels. So you don’t need to replace the bulbs to cure specific gels. And you can expect it to last five years or more and it almost never lose power.

2. You don’t need to replace the bulbs in LED lamps.

The bulbs in CFL lamps usually need to be changed after six months, because they lose their ability to cure. And LED lamps don’t have that problem.

  3. LED lamps take less time to cure the gels.

How do we choose the right UV nail lamp:

In the past CFL lamps could take up to five minutes to cure traditional gels. But LED lamps with that focus very high penetrating type of light that’s going into the gel, they only need up to 1 minute to cure the gels. So LED lamps not only do faster but also better job.

But because LED lamps doesn’t glow as much as CFL lamps. It’s very focused. So you have to ensure that the number of LED bulbs to be more but also arranged properly, even on the sides. 

• what wattage led lamp do i need for gel nails?

About 36 watts.

the wattage of lamps is divided into 9 watts, 18 watts, 36 watts, 42 watts, the higher the wattage nail hardening speed is faster, but you need to check the relevant information before using.

The light of the nail lamp belongs to the long-wave ultraviolet light, generally does not produce serious damage to the skin, but it does make the skin tanned, aging.

Although it is harmless to take a short time to cure, you should always pay attention to the maintenance of your hands. It is best to apply sunscreen and then do your manicure