Becky Stern of Adafruit Demonstrates How to Make a Portable Ultra-Violet Manicure Lamp for Curing Gel Nail Polish

Becky Stern, the Director of Wearable Electronics at Adafruit Industries, demonstrates how to make a portable ultra-violet (UV) manicure lamp to cure and dry gel nail polish, a different type of polish that is stronger and wears longer.

If you’ve seen Becky’s videos or photos before, you already know she likes to paint her nails. What you might not know is that it’s UV gel nail polish– a different chemical formulation that’s more durable, flexible, and lasts much longer than the air-dry stuff. And it doesn’t just look nice, it lets you do more stuff with your nails– open cans, pick at electronics, do the dishes– we like to call it “structural” nail polish…Doing your own gel manicure is easy if you have the right tools, dare I say even easier than standard polish because the different viscosity smooths out its own inconsistencies and once it’s cured, it’s completely dry. Adafruit’s UV LEDs, PowerBoost 500c, and 2500mAh battery make it easy to whip up your own manicure lamp at home, and Noe even designed a 3D printed enclosure for putting it all together.

The complete instructions and the kit are available on the Adafruit website.