SPF for your nail appointment. Yes or No?
Somebody once asked me: ‘Will my hands get tanned under the UV/LED lamp, haha?’. And I actually found myself thinking about it for a moment. Will my skin catch some brown sun-kissed tones under the lamp while my gel polish dries?
I always knew that UV/LED lamps are safe to use and cause no damage to your skin. We don’t have our nails done every day, right? So what possible risks could be taken here? You probably heard there are some lamps called UV lamps and some LEDs which leads to the question “what is the difference?”.
Perhaps you think there isn’t any because it still does the same job which is curing the gel polish. But there actually is some.
Both dryers UV (ultraviolet) and LED (light-emitting diode) exposure ultraviolet radiation. The gel polish is cured by these UV rays which penetrate into our skin as well.UV dryers radiate rays at a lower concentration while LED lamps extend higher concentration of ultraviolet wave-lenghts and energy which requires a shorter time to change a liquid gel into a hard plastic form.
LED dryers are therefore being called as a safer variant because your skin is exposed to UV radiation for a shorter time which is 45-60 seconds while UV dryers cure gel in 2minutes time.UV rays are known as one of the causes of skin cancer. So we try to protect ourselves by applying a layer of SPF cream which blocks UV rays from penetrating into our skin and we don’t get sunburnt or get aged prematurely.Now, although studies show that the connection between nail dryers and skin cancer is very low, ladies, imagine that you have your nails done every 2-3 weeks. Let’s say you have a gel polish manicure, which consists of applying minimum 3 layers (base coat-color-top coat) where every coat needs 60 seconds to get cured. Your skin will be exposed to UV rays for quite some time.
And for that reason at our salon we think it’s important to protect our skin too. Therefore we offer our clients an option to use a SPF lotion before starting a procedure. We will gladly apply SPF protection not only on your hands but your feet as well.
To comply with all our clients we use products suitable for sensitive skin.As we care about our skin on summer holidays, let’s not forget to protect our hands during nail procedures. Stay healthy, stay beautiful, carpe diem.
Michaela Slivkova