Battle of the Nail Lamps

So, what's superior? An LED or UV Lamp? Let's check out the competition and do some comparisons.

Longevity

There's a lot of talk about how many "hours" a particular lamp's LED or UV bulbs last before it needs to be replaced. UV bulbs are claimed to work for for around 2,000 hour (although most companies recommend changing your bulbs every 6 months to a year depending on how much you use it).

LED lights, on the other hand, last 50,000 hours! That's quite a whopping difference.

Price

A professional UV lamp of 36 watts from a beauty supplier will run around $70 with bulbs and their replacement bulbs another $25. A professional quality LED, on the other hand, will cost about $300 if you don't get it on sale-but it doesn't need replacement bulbs.

So, if we look at a five year stretch-a UV lamp costs $295 if you replace the bulbs every 6 months ($70 for the original lamp with bulbs and then nine more sets for the rest of the five years), or if you aren't using the lamp excessively, $170.

The LED lamp still cost $300 after five years, because it did not need bulbs replaced.

So, obviously, at ten years the LED lamp would be the winner right? Well... maybe.

Actual Price

If you do the math for LED bulbs it looks like this: 4 minutes of LED light usage per manicure (no nail art or clients helping themselves to another round in the lamp), at eight manicures a day, is 32 minutes of bulb usage a day. With 365 days in a year... well, that's WAY over a hundred years of lamp usage.

But here's the problem.

The only thing rated for 50,000 hours is the LED output of the lamp. The average LED lamp has a manufacturer's warranty of a year, maybe two tops. Electronics are quite obviously not meant to last for a hundred years, especially those made today. This is why companies tell you the bulbs will last the entire life of your lamp-which is usually about 5 years before something else breaks, wires or computer chips stop working, the lamp is dropped, etc.

So, figuring the LED lamp lasts five years, with moderate usage a UV lamp would cost $170 less than an LED and $5 less if replaced twice a year. If you luck out and your lamp actually manages to last you a decade then the UV with bulbs changed once a year would STILL win for cost with moderate usage, but the LED would beat out the UV if bulbs are replaced 6 months.

But considering the "accident" rate in salons where things are knocked over, power surges happen, bulbs get full of gel polish or get foggy from cleaning, a fancier NEW LED or UV lamp comes out, etc we're going to err on the side of caution and say five years of use and the point will go to UV lamps.

Costing Time, Not Money

The biggest draw for LED lamps is actually time. The average LED takes 30-60 seconds to cure a gel polish while a UV lamp takes 2-3 minutes. So, going with the smallest amounts, that's 4 minutes a manicure for LED and 8 minutes for UV. While six minutes might not SOUND like much, at say, eight manicures a day that's an extra 48 minutes of spare time to fit in more clients or, I don't know, go get coffee or lunch.

Of course you still need to paint the nails, and paint them well. For some people they may be able to paint nails in 30 seconds. I, for one, do not. It usually takes me about 45 seconds- one minute a hand unless I'm doing french or something. Still, an extra 24 minutes a day to have a snack isn't too shabby!

Winner Winner Chicken DInner

So, the winner? Well, it depends. If you're new to using products that cure or you only do nails periodically you may want to start with a product line than can use UV (such as gelish) as the initial cost and ongoing cost is actually lower.

If you do a lot of gel nail art, paint nails fast, or do your OWN nails at home (you can only cure one hand at a time with most lamps after all) then a good LED light might be worth it to you to save valuable time. After all, there's nothing worse than waiting 2 minutes for some polka dots to cure on an accent nail.

Stay Glamorous everyone!

Amanda