Choosing a Gel Polish Nail Lamp for Home Use

A UV/LED nail lamp is essential for drying aka curing of gel polish. So lets dive into what a good nail lamp looks like and one that can grow and evolve and adapt to an at home user testing out various brands of polish product.

Features to look for in a nail lamp are…

  • Varying Timer settings
  • Wattage
  • LED UV lamps
  • Reduced Power Setting
  • Whole Hand Lamp
  • Motion Sensor
  • Bulb Placement
  • Timer
  • Warranty

A) Look for a lamp that offers multiple timer settings. This is important as different nail manufacturers design their Gel Polishes and top coats to work with their proprietary lamps. I found it impossible to discover tech information on the lamps listed on company web sites as this information seems to be non existent. The best option is to look at the gel polish it’s self to determine the curing times.

B) Wattage is sometimes listed in the nail lamp description but it is a bit miss leading. Wattage is a term to indicate the measurement of electrical power. What consumers really should know regarding a nail lamp is the Kelvins of the bulbs aka the brightness and intensity rating of the bulbs.

Knowing the Kelvins would help consumers better understand the amount and intensity of exposure their skin is enduring in these lamps. Ex: a 20watt powered lamp can use 5 6000 kelvin bulbs. A 6,000 kelvin bulb is the highest rated bulb for domestic home residential use, these are the bright white light bulbs found in utility rooms. I have no idea what the bulb rating is on my nail lamp because this is not required to be disclosed to public consumers.

C) If the Nail lamp says “LED/UV” this means that the lamp uses a combination of Ultra violet and LED lighting and thus means that the consumer is being exposed to unknown levels of UV radiation. Therefore it’s a good idea to use sun block lotion cream if you find your skin to be sensitive to the lamps.

D) Another good quality check feature to look for is a reduced power setting feature which reduces the power output and extends the curing time. This is another feature helpful to those sensitive to the lamps.

E) A whole hand lamp is a lamp that allows for all 5 fingers to be dried at once. This is a highly convenient and optimal choice for anyone looking to speed along the process. For instance a decent lamp and Gel can cure or dry all five nails in 30 seconds vs smaller or lower end lamps that dry fingers individually or the pinky and thumb separate from the three middle fingers at 30- 60 seconds each.

F) Having a motion sensor is another convenience feature to look for in a lamp. Ex: apply Gel and cure for 30 seconds, apply next coat of Gel and insert hand to cure for another 30 seconds. The motion sensor makes the entire process hands free and it automatically turns on.

G) Having a nail lamp with a wide angle of Bulb placement is important to curing nails. This means looking for an enclosed nail lamp with side placement bulbs. When placing ones hand flat it becomes visibly apparent that our nails may splay out in awkward directions that are not straight upwards. The thumb is a prime example of needing angled bulbs as it sits in an opposite direction from the rest of our nails.

H) The timer count down can sometimes be very important and some lamps typically fail in this feature category. The timer and motion sensor work in tandem so that if you accidentally fidget or adjust your hand and the motion sensor glitches and loses track of your hand for even a split second than the count down timer will reset itself. A higher quality lamps timer will have a memory glitch recall feature that saves the count down timer so that when the motion sensor picks up your hand again it will resume count down from the time it stopped at.

I) Any decent manufacturer will offer at least a 1-2 year product warranty. The companies that don’t offer this should be avoided.

With all of these features in mind I recommend buying the Madam Glam Sun5+ Lamp.

LED/UV Sun5+ Nail Lamp

This lamp offers all of the features mentioned above as well as offering ample room for people with larger or wider hands or those also using the lamps for their pedicures. After watching a review video of the lamp I can say that it can adequately fit one adult size larger/thick hand.

The lamp Can be purchased from Either Madamglam for $75.00 or the SUNUV online store for $60.00. The madam glam is currently the most update feature convenient of the two lamps and most cost effective for the mid range lamps. I appreciate the Madam Glam touch sensing buttons location being closer to the front of the lamp for personal home use.

I bought and use the Madam Glam Holi Lamp which is slightly deficient in convenience factors and lacks the built in memory timer feature. Overall it does a good job and I love the art work.

I also recommend the mini portable LED lamp for touch up usage and traveling such as the Le mini Macaron that I just scored $25.00 with free S&H from Nordstrom’s! I am super excited to test out their pseudo permanent version of gel polish that claims to be less destructive on nail beds.

I personally use the madam glam Holi lamp and Le mini Macaron mini lamp.