Magnifying or circular flourescent lamps?

Although they are not a basic equipments in beauty salons, almost every has at least one magnifying lamp. There are versions with small lens diameters, square lenses, conventional or LED illumination, but also models with circular or double-sided illumination. The choice is wide and you need to be careful to find the one that best suits your workflow.

Conventional fluorescent or LED?

As technology evolves, perhaps one of the most important questions is whether to opt for the older circular tube lighting or the newer LED lighting. It is not an easy question to answer, as both types have advantages and disadvantages. While circular tube technology is now fully mature, LED is still in its infancy. It is often the case that an LED light source will break down well within the lifetime of a lamp that is still a circular tube. When the promise is that it will last longer. However, the fact that the light sources provide flicker-free light, which does not tire the eyes during long working days, is undoubtedly a huge advantage and a point in favour of LED technology. If price is important, circular tube magnifying lamps are still significantly cheaper. However, if you're investing in the technology of the future, LED versions are the winners at a slightly higher price.

Cold or warm light lamp?

With the rise of LED lighting, the issue of colour temperature and the use of fixed or even adjustable colour temperature lamps is becoming more and more common. Warm is recognised by its more yellowish light, cold by its bluish light, and ranges from 2000 to 5500 kelvin. What is best for the job is decided by what we are doing. If we're doing a simple facial treatment or, say, building a lash extensions, a warmer light is better for our own comfort and that of our guests. But if you're working with colour - make-up, for example - and colour recognition and accurate colouring is a priority, then cooler light is more useful. This is the closest to the daytime (not morning and evening) colour temperature of sunlight.

Smaller magnification or larger dioptre?

The answer is simple. Whatever we think is best for the job at hand. In other words, how magnified we want to see what we are doing. Of course, for most jobs, a standard 3 diopter magnification is sufficient, as it provides plenty of magnification. But if you're working as an eyelash technician, for example, or if you're doing precision work outside the beauty industry, then 5-6 diopter versions are a good choice. They can magnify the area underneath them five or six times, making even the smallest details visible.

Should I choose circular or double-sided lighting?

Today, there is a wide range of small, medium, large circular or square lamps with magnifying lenses. The circular versions are always equipped with circular light sources, while their angular counterparts are mostly equipped with illumination on both sides of the lens. There are advantages to both. While the circular types provide uniform illumination from all directions, their double-sided counterparts provide a shadow-free working area.

Spring-loaded or hydraulically operated?

Anyone who has ever used a magnifying lamp knows how annoying it can be when it falls on your head because of the inferior mechanics of moving the lampshade. This happened much more often than you might think with the early spring-loaded versions. As the years went by and the springs weakened, it became completely impossible to fix the desired position, and you could always hit the person under the magnifying glass on the head. Nowadays, spring-loaded lamps are not very common on the market. They have been replaced by internal hydraulic versions, which are more comfortable and safer to use. They are also more stable in maintaining the selected position. If you do find an obsolete spring-loaded one when you are shopping, avoid them if possible.