LED- or UV-lamps for drying nails: the principle of operation, differences, price, reviews

Acrylic nail extensions are no longer in a trend. He was succeeded by a new direction in manicure - covering shellac. The technology of its application is rather complicated and involves the use of a special lamp for drying the gel-varnish.

Ultraviolet (or UV) lamps for drying gel-varnish

A feature of gel-lacquer, or shellac, is that it dries solely in the light of a lamp. They are of three types: ultraviolet (UV), LED (LED) and gas-light (CCF). Each of them has advantages and disadvantages.

UV-lamps appeared before others, but still they are popular among the masters of manicure. An important indicator of this device is power. It depends on how fast the shellac will dry on the nails. Each device contains one or more fluorescent bulbs. The power of each of them is 9 watts. According to this, the 9W UV device consists of a single bulb, 18W - of two, 36W - of four, and so on. By the way, in the last shellac will dry up in just a couple of minutes.

Professional UV (ultraviolet) lamp can be of different sizes, which allows you to dry one hand or two at once. A great advantage is the availability of a timer, which is set for a certain drying time.

Ultraviolet lamps have one significant drawback. They have a harmful effect on the eyes, and also dry the skin of the hands and adversely affect the nail plate.

LED Light Bulbs

More modern lamps are based on ultraviolet light emitting diodes. With their help, shellac dries out in just 10-30 seconds. They are superior in power to UV lamps, Which allows you to save time on manicure.

In general, the operation principle of both devices is identical. After treatment of the nail plate, including special antibacterial agents, a base layer of shellac is applied. Then, within 20 seconds, the nails are dried in a lamp. After that, a color coating is applied. At the next stage, the nails are again dried under the lamp. After that, the last layer of shellac is applied. The nails are again irradiated with a lamp, after which it is necessary to remove the remains of shellac and to treat the cuticle with oil.

The LED-device does not have harmful effects on the eyes, does not dry the skin, has a longer service life. But there is one big minus. The LED lamp does not dry all the gel-lacquers. This must be taken into account when buying the device.

Differences between the lamps. Which one to choose for work?

Each of the lamps has its own work features, advantages and disadvantages. To choose which one is better, you need to know what these devices differ from each other.

• In the UV-device as a source of light is used fluorescent, and in the LED - the LED-lamp. The first type has a shorter service life, quickly burns out, so it takes additional costs to replace the burnt elements.
• Unlike UV, LED-lamp dries lacquer much faster, in a matter of seconds, but not all gel-varnishes freeze under it. Here is its main drawback. This is because the polymer in shellac begins to harden only when it receives ultraviolet radiation. But the range of waves of the LED-lamp is much smaller, therefore the shellac of individual producers dries up unevenly or does not solidify at all.
• UV lamps with low power (up to 18 W) are very slow. Therefore, often the lower layer does not have time to dry completely. As a result, the coating, which should stay on the nails for at least two weeks, cracked after a few days. The optimum option for a professional lamp is a 36 W instrument.

Since UV-lamps are harmful to the body, and LED does not dry all kinds of shellac, experts recommend buying a combination of lamps: LED with gas, "2 in 1". In it, any polymer solidifies well, and the drying time ranges from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. The only drawback of such a device is a high price.

UV lamp: reviews

And now we learn the opinion of beginning masters of manicure and professionals about this device. The testimonies indicate that he drains shellac well. To harden one layer, it takes up to 5 minutes of free time. But this is only if the lamp power is not less than 36 W.

For weak time instruments, for drying, several times more are needed. A lamp with a power of 9 W dried one layer of shellac about 30 minutes. Thus, a manicure at home will have to spend about 3 hours. In this case, one big drawback needs to be taken into account - the device has a negative effect on vision.