Undoubtedly an indispensable object for hand and foot treatment, UV lamp, which is more commonly known as a nail machine, is a vital work accessory for hardening and polymerizing gels or liquid products in the various stages of nail reconstruction.
However, the UV lamp is also used for nail art, for example, for nail decoration or for fixing artistic forms on nails. Its operation is effortless. In practice, UV rays from the lamps harden and cure the gel used to reconstruct the nails.
Here we had selected the best nail machines that are given below.
Buyer Guide to Choose Nail Machine
How to Choose a Nail Machine?
If you have just finished the nail technician course and want to buy one, but you don’t know which one to choose, follow our advice. Remember that they are not only for professionals, but you can buy it even if you are a simple self-taught.
The first thing you need to know is that on the market, UV lamps differ from each other, especially for the power of their bulbs. The most suitable one, besides being the most used one, has a power of 36 W. This means that inside there are four UV bulbs of 9 W each.
Avoid choosing a lamp that has less than four bulbs, since these straightforward models do not cure the gel well, especially they are not able to do it for more than one finger at a time, significantly lengthening the exposure time to ultraviolet rays.
Also, the advice is always to choose one that has a timer, at least 120 seconds. You should know if you are not already aware of it, that most UV gels cure in about 2 minutes. This way, you can cure the gel without too many worries.
A lamp without a timer forces you to watch the clock continually and can distract you from other things. The hassle of timing every time with your cell phone is incredible, especially if you are doing something else with it!
Finally, there must always be an on / off button, a manual switch to be clear, primarily if you use the professional UV lamp for longer exposure times than those only indicated.
For example, some semi-permanent products require more significant exposure to ultraviolet rays; in this case, the timer and the manual switch come in handy. Last but not least, it is to choose a safe and CE certified lamp. Unfortunately, this market is saturated with Chinese products of dubious quality.
On the market, there are hundreds of models of UV lamps, different in both model and colour. Some models are simple reproductions of models of better brands.
Attention, therefore to the imitations, which offer no guarantee in case of failure and are not as effective as the originals. Some “pieces” do not even include ultraviolet lamps, but dull blue colored bulbs!
How Does It Work?
How the UV lamp works professional type, both for use in the workplace and hobbies, generally have four UV bulbs of 9 Watt each, for a total lamp power of 36 Watt. This can cure the gel in a few minutes.
Depending on your needs, you can also buy lamps with lower wattage and fewer bulbs. UV rays are those that activate the chemical process to harden and cure the gel. Liquid products or gels are used to rebuild the nails and give them a more exceptional thickness.
But they also allow us to lengthen them or form the famous camber, which is aesthetically very beautiful to see (if it is done correctly). The gel or these liquid products are of the photo-hardening type, that is, sensitive to the light that makes them dry and hardens.
However, it is not possible to use regular white light (of those we use in chandeliers, for example) since it does not emit ultraviolet rays, so UV bulbs are necessary. But what are UV (ultraviolet) rays?
It is useless to go too far into the technical and scientific aspects of the thing. This article does not deal with it and does not want to be a scientific guide. We will, therefore, explain it in straightforward words.
Light is electromagnetic radiation, which is characterized by a wavelength and a frequency, which for certain intervals gives rise to the visible spectrum of light, which includes colours ranging from red to violet.
Those with frequencies that go before red are called infrared rays, while those that exceed violet frequencies are called ultraviolet. To give some examples, infrared rays are those that we find in beauty salons for hair, while ultraviolet rays are those used for the sterilization of instruments. The ultraviolet rays harmful to our skin and from which we must protect ourselves are Uv-A, Uv-B, and Uv-C.
Work Safely
The thing many people ask is: but if for years they have been telling us to protect ourselves against ultraviolet rays, then will UV lamps not hurt? When summer arrives, many commercials remind us to buy this or that other protective cream against harmful UV rays. So do UV lamps also need hand protection?
The answer is yes. On the market, there are special beautician gloves, which serve precisely to protect our hands or customers from UV rays, leaving only the nails uncovered. In this way, the reconstructive treatment to which we undergo our nails or those of our clients can never be harmful to health.
A further precaution to take is not to look directly at the light that is emitted by the bulbs inside it since the rays are also harmful to our sight.
Furthermore, it is essential to respect the curing times of the various gels, since if they remain under the lamp for too long, they could harden excessively and not adhere perfectly to the nail bed, with consequent detachment.
Each liquid or hardening gel, whether for reconstruction or semi-permanent, from different manufacturers, has a different polymerization time from the other, for this reason, it is good to read the instructions on the package carefully and strictly adhere to them.
The bulbs that are commonly used in UV lamps have an average life of 1000 hours. When these “discharge” we must replace them with new bulbs of the same power. A bit like what happens with neon lamps that are used in offices.
Generally, those who use the UV lamp for work replace the bulbs every 600 hours and therefore about twice a year. It works correctly only if the bulbs are charged and fully functional; this serves to ensure the complete hardening of the gel or liquids used for reconstruction or nail art.
Finally, the reflective surface inside the UV lamps serves to spread the UV rays homogeneously and therefore to reduce the polymerization times.
To Conclude
We have now reached the end of this long article. By now, you should have understood how to choose the model of a UV lamp that best suits your needs. If you follow our advice, you can not go wrong on the choice of your next UV lamp.
But if there are still doubts that plague your head, then we advise you to take a look at our in-depth articles that have been written just to try to do further clarity in a world that is still relatively new, but one that fascinates more and more girls day after day.
