LED lamps better than UV?

[akol]

Hi Geeks,
Does anyone use LED lamps for gel nails and gel polish? I know that they save time and money but I checked prices and they are a bit expensive.
Do you know where I could buy it cheaper? Is it worth investing in a good lamp?
Pls help.

 

[Emma Marie]

Hi!! Im using LED with Jessica Geleration where I work and they really do save time, they are pricey tho so it may only be worth it if u do alot of them. I have seen some on eBay before which were cheaper, Some of them were the lamps Jessica sell and some unbranded so not sure of the quality and life span but see what you think .

 

[TipLiCiouS]

Check out capital hair & beauty salon systems is doing a LED LAMP for low price

 

[shedunlop]

Not better, just faster!

 

[akol]

Thank you for help. I will check e-bay but Iam not sure about the quality of these lamps.

 

[geeg]

Not every gel polish that cures with UV will cure with LED so make sure that whatever you are using will.

No one has yet convinced me that curing with LED saves any time on a normal service. They have tried, but I have worked it out mathmatically, and what really saves the time during a service is a lamp that cures 5 fingers all at once even if it is doing it for two minutes per coat.

Using my 5 finger lamp saves me ten whole minutes on what would have been a 40-45 minute appointment.

Using and LED would not save me that time and anything I would gain by it I would loose in prep time, adding bonder, and dry brushing the surface etc if I used a gel polish.

Give me my Shellac. No prep, no bonder, no dry brushing, no breaking the seal when removing ... Just like applying polish :

Every gel polish user I know tells me their service time is approximately an hour. My service time with Shellac is 40 minutes but I normally complete it in 30 and only take the 40 minutes if removing as well as re-applying.

Now speed may not be your thing, but it is important in our salon. We do every enhancement service in an hour. So if we can make 50.00euros an hour with other services, we do not want to only be making 25.00 an hour with our colour service (Shellac) particularly as we are doing more and more natural nail Shellac clients. So we charge 28.00 for Shellac and take between 30-40 minutes to do it and we are not really rushing.

The only time we have to push it a bit is when there is removal included in the service. We get round that by being super organised. Wraps all laid out, ready to go and get them on in just a couple of minutes. There are a few technicians so one tech can get the client wrapped up while the others are working to finish their clients. By the time the ten minutes is up, there is a desk ready to go to for removal.

 

[fozzyo]

An LED lamp isn't better then a UV bulb lamp. The best lamp to use is the one that works with the system you are offering.

Mat

 

[Missmel]

Hi Geeks,
Does anyone use LED lamps for gel nails and gel polish? I know that they save time and money but I checked prices and they are a bit expensive.
Do you know where I could buy it cheaper? Is it worth investing in a good lamp?
Pls help.

Hi Akol,

Just wondered which lamp you decided on in the end? I am pondering over the same thing with the GELeration system - UV lamp or LED. The Jessica area manager has told me that the LED lamp for curing the gel polish is much quicker and the bulbs don't need replacing etc, but it is obviously significantly more expensive. I am quite confused after reading other posts that say that having an LED lamp doesn't make much difference to the overall treatment time, especially as I have no idea how the new gel system is going to take off.
Therefore I don't want to invest approx £400 for the LED lamp if it's not going to make much difference.

I apologise if I'm going over the same thing again but I can't seem to find the answer I am looking for. Any advice would be gratefully received, thank you

 

[xAnnaBannAx]

To benefit from the speed of an led lamp you would need to be able to apply product to one hand within 30 seconds.... I personally can't however speed is not my thing... It takes me 2 minutes. I'm not sure there would be many that could paint a hand in 30 seconds but I could be wrong. I do think led would be great for single repairs though....unfortunately the cost of the odd repair doesnt really justify the cost if the lamp! :-( oh well lol x

 

[xAnnaBannAx]

Not every gel polish that cures with UV will cure with LED so make sure that whatever you are using will.

No one has yet convinced me that curing with LED saves any time on a normal service. They have tried, but I have worked it out mathmatically, and what really saves the time during a service is a lamp that cures 5 fingers all at once even if it is doing it for two minutes per coat.

Using my 5 finger lamp saves me ten whole minutes on what would have been a 40-45 minute appointment.

Using and LED would not save me that time and anything I would gain by it I would loose in prep time, adding bonder, and dry brushing the surface etc if I used a gel polish.

Give me my Shellac. No prep, no bonder, no dry brushing, no breaking the seal when removing ... Just like applying polish :

Every gel polish user I know tells me their service time is approximately an hour. My service time with Shellac is 40 minutes but I normally complete it in 30 and only take the 40 minutes if removing as well as re-applying.

Now speed may not be your thing, but it is important in our salon. We do every enhancement service in an hour. So if we can make 50.00euros an hour with other services, we do not want to only be making 25.00 an hour with our colour service (Shellac) particularly as we are doing more and more natural nail Shellac clients. So we charge 28.00 for Shellac and take between 30-40 minutes to do it and we are not really rushing.

The only time we have to push it a bit is when there is removal included in the service. We get round that by being super organised. Wraps all laid out, ready to go and get them on in just a couple of minutes. There are a few technicians so one tech can get the client wrapped up while the others are working to finish their clients. By the time the ten minutes is up, there is a desk ready to go to for removal.

I wish I could work in your salon for a while.. I'm sure you would get me ship shape and bring my timings down ! :-/ x

 

[JuicyLucy]

Personally, I love my LED lamp. It is nice and small on the desk and it comes into its own when you are doing pedicures. I do one foot at a time and the gel polish I use only requires 10 seconds for each colour coat, so it really speeds things up.

 

[Love Nails]

Led lamp all the way even my clients love how quick it is!! It is expensive to buy but such a great investment in the long run x

 

[Missmel]

Thank you xAnnaBannAx, JuicyLucy and Love Nails for your views on LED v UV lamps. I will be introducing the gel nails alongside other beauty treatment so know that I won't continually be doing them so maybe the speed of the LED lamp isn't so essential. However I like the idea of being able to use the LED lamp for feet too. I would always opt for paying slightly more as long as the quality of the product is good.

I'll have another think

 

[geeg]

The salon I consult for is a REALLY busy salon. Fully booked all the time. It is well established and only offers nail treatments .. All of them. Manicure, pedicure, enhancements (all types) Minx and Shellac. And an LED lamp is not even on our wish list! Because we know, that although it may cure faster it does not lessen the appointment time at all. So why spend the money when we have brilliant lamps already that cure product on all five fingers and toes at one go? We have other things that we would rather spend our money on for the salon.

 

[Up To Scratch]

The salon I consult for is a REALLY busy salon. Fully booked all the time. It is well established and only offers nail treatments .. All of them. Manicure, pedicure, enhancements (all types) Minx and Shellac. And an LED lamp is not even on our wish list! Because we know, that although it may cure faster it does not lessen the appointment time at all. So why spend the money when we have brilliant lamps already that cure product on all five fingers and toes at one go? We have other things that we would rather spend our money on for the salon.

I agree. I decided to have 2 UV lamps to make my client more comfortable (one each side of the desk, so no crossing over of the arms needed), I have 5-finger cure, and having 2 lamps also speeds things up brilliantly - yet STILL this is cheaper than most LED lamps I've seen! Not to mention that if one of my lamps broke down suddenly in the middle of my working day, I could carry on working with the other one...

 

[Daisy_Hill]

To benefit from the speed of an led lamp you would need to be able to apply product to one hand within 30 seconds....

That's not quite true. To extract maximum benefit then yes, you need to be able to apply at least as fast as the other hand cures, but any speed increase compared to a UV lamp is a benefit if you can apply fast enough. If it takes you 90 seconds to apply product and 2 minutes to cure under UV then an LED lamp would still save time.

If it takes you longer to apply product than to cure under UV then there probably isn't any benefit except when doing your own nails, unless you have some sort of production line going where several people apply product and clients can then cure quickly one after the other, BAM BAM BAM. Not that that's very likely, I suppose

 

[Susie H]

An LED lamp isn't better then a UV bulb lamp. The best lamp to use is the one that works with the system you are offering.

Mat

So very true Mat.
However:lol: if you do use a system that supports a led lamp then I would go with it, the out lay is pricey but the bulbs last years rather then months.
The lamp itself is super light but as with everything you get what you pay for.
I have looked at some of these cheap led lamps, who the blurb assure me are just the right thing to cure my Shellac nail
Well I assure you, do not go there!!
Shellac will cure correctly with one brand of uv lamp only and that's the CND lamp anything else will just end in tears:smack:

 

[Martin Duffy]

LED lamps are also invaluable when you want to cure just one finger, perhaps having just applied strengthen gel to one or two nails or should one nail only be broken.

 

[geeg]

I agree. I decided to have 2 UV lamps to make my client more comfortable (one each side of the desk, so no crossing over of the arms needed), I have 5-finger cure, and having 2 lamps also speeds things up brilliantly - yet STILL this is cheaper than most LED lamps I've seen! Not to mention that if one of my lamps broke down suddenly in the middle of my working day, I could carry on working with the other one...

Very good points Mrs P-T ... I can also buy one he'll of allot of bulbs for the same money as an LED lamp (which is also a uv lamp by the way). The money for bulbs is a moot point as far as I'm concerned. My bulbs are paid for hundreds of times over through the services done with them.

I can also do a nail repair if needed in under 10 minutes using my uv lamp, so even though for a single nail repair it might be useful, that is not a big enough reason for me to get excited about buying one at the ridiculous price they are. To me 10 minutes is a perfectly reasonable time for a client to be in the chair for a nail polish repair. It's not something I get asked to do very often with Shellac.

Might be interested to know that the first UV lamp I bought more than 20 years ago cost me about 400 British pounds!! There was no alternative choice. The price of a good uv lamp now is 'peanuts' compared to that ! I've no doubt that the price of LED will come down massively when they are more commonly used and suppliers will not be able to take advantage so easily.

 

[Missmel]

Very good points Mrs P-T ... I can also buy one he'll of allot of bulbs for the same money as an LED lamp (which is also a uv lamp by the way). The money for bulbs is a moot point as far as I'm concerned. My bulbs are paid for hundreds of times over through the services done with them.

I can also do a nail repair if needed in under 10 minutes with my uv lamp, so even though for a single nail repair it might be useful, that is not a big enough reason for me to get excited about buying one at the ridiculous price they are. To me 10 minutes is a perfectly reasonable time for a client to be in the chair for a nail polish repair. It's not something I get asked to do very often with Shellac.

Might be interested to know that the first UV lamp I bought more than 20 years ago cost me about 400 British pounds!! There was no alternative choice. The price of a good uv lamp now is 'peanuts' compared to that ! I've no doubt that the price of LED will come down massively when they are more commonly used and suppliers will not be able to take advantage so easily.

I agree with your points Geeg, about the price of the bulbs compared to the price of the LED lamp. I was wondering if it was worth me trying to calculate how much it would cost buying a UV lamp instead of an LED by taking into consideration the price of the bulbs and how often they would need replacing etc.

I don't think I can justify spending 4x the price on an LED lamp if what you are saying, in your experience is that the lamp does exactly the same thing and that the curing time doesn't really make much of a difference to the overall treatment.

Before I read your post I was swaying towards buying the LED lamp but I'm reconsidering and thinking that the UV would suit me better atm. Also I want to start doing MINX at the same time so I will be in for a lot of expense all at once!

Thank you for your feedback :wink2: