Led Lamps.

Full hand lamps and flash cure lights

Start by deciding whether you are curing a full hand or one finger at a time. A full hand lamp sits on the table and cures a hand at a time. A mini or flash cure light is a smaller unit for spot work: tacking a tip down, curing one finger while the rest of the hand waits, or finishing a repair. They answer different jobs, so check what a lamp is built to cure before treating it as your only unit.

Corded and rechargeable

Some lamps plug in and stay put. Others run on a battery and move between stations or travel with a mobile tech, trading a cord for something you have to keep charged. The question to settle first is whether the lamp ever leaves the table. Brands including CND, Gelish, OPI, Kiara Sky and iGel put lamps out under their own name, so a lamp can also be chosen to sit with a system you already use.

Matching the lamp to what you cure

Cure times, wattage and the products a lamp is built for are set by whoever made it. Read the manufacturer instructions for both the lamp and the gel rather than assuming any LED unit cures anything, because gel polish, builder gel and soft gel tip systems can each call for different handling. If you are outfitting a station from scratch, the gel starter kits and electric pages are worth a look before you finish the order.