Collection: LDS, All Products

What does LDS make?

Four things that have little to do with each other, which is why this page exists. LDS supplies a rubber base gel range, a line art and liner gel range for detail work, full-cover soft gel tips, and hardware: cordless drills, UV/LED lamps and brushes. A salon might buy LDS for one of those and never touch the other three, so the chips above split the brand into the ranges people actually shop.

The four ranges

What is rubber base, and when do you use it?

A base coat with more flex in it than a standard one. A rigid base cracks when a thin natural nail bends; a rubber base moves with it, which is why techs reach for it on clients whose gel keeps lifting at the free edge. It is thicker than a normal base too, so it can be floated slightly to even out a dip in the nail plate without being a structural builder. Most of the range carries color, so on a client who wants nothing more than a tidy natural nail, the rubber base is the whole manicure: base, color and flexibility in one coat, sealed with a top.

Where it stops: it is not a builder gel. It will not hold an apex or an extension. For that, see Builder Gel, and our blog compares all five options in builder, hard, soft, polygel and rubber base.

The line art range

LDS builds a long fine liner brush into the cap of every Line Art Gel bottle, so the bottle is the tool: open, wipe the brush on the neck, draw, cure. The numbered colors run from black and white, which are the two every salon uses, through pastels, neons and brights to a pearl, a silver and a gold. Beside them sit the Platinum metallic liners, the Silver and Gold Chrome liners, a laser liner with a rainbow shift, two liquid-chrome metallic gels, a clear rhinestone gel that also sculpts small 3D shapes, and an air-dry metallic marble ink for veining. Twelve Draw Painting Gel colors cover the fills that a liner cannot do. The whole range, including the non-LDS art gels we carry, is on Emboss & Painting Gel.

What is in the tips and hardware range?

• Tips: 27 numbered boxes, each one shape and length in a half matte finish, 12 sizes to a box. The matte surface takes color without the shine of the tip showing through. LDS quotes a full set at 30 to 45 minutes against 45 to 75 for a sculpted extension. The cross-brand page is Soft Gel Tips.
• Drills: the LDS Portable runs up to 35,000 RPM with an aluminum alloy motor and a ventilated bearing, changes bits with a twist-lock, and runs forward or reverse for left- and right-handed techs.
• Lamps: the LDS 9D is cordless and rechargeable with a dual UV and LED source, a digital display, heat control and sensor activation, four timers at 15, 30, 60 and 90 seconds, and it is roomy enough to take a foot as well as a hand. Six colors, which is unusual and matters if the lamp sits where clients can see it.
• Brushes: a liner brush, an ombre fan for sprinkling dip powder into a gradient, dusting brushes and a double-head art brush.

Which LDS range should you buy first?

Most salons come to LDS for one of two things. If gel keeps lifting at the free edge on thin natural nails, start with the rubber base: it is the cheapest fix for a problem that otherwise costs you a redo every few weeks. If the station needs equipment, start with the lamp, because it is the one purchase that limits everything else on the menu, and the LDS unit takes a foot as well as a hand. The line art gels are a margin play rather than a necessity: black and white alone let you charge for French, outlines and lettering that cost a minute of labour. The tips are for salons that want to cut a full set down to half an hour.

How the LDS ranges work together

They stack into one service more often than the four-way split suggests. A soft gel tip is bonded and cured, a rubber base goes over the natural nail at the cuticle end for flex, a line art gel draws the detail, and the LDS lamp cures every layer while the LDS drill takes the bulk off at removal. If you are building a station around one brand, that is the sequence; if you are buying LDS for one thing, it is most often the rubber base or the lamp.

Buying and care notes

• Rubber base: apply thin at the cuticle and free edge; the flex is in the formula, not in the thickness.
• Liners: wipe the cap brush on the neck and cap it straight away. A liner with a dried tip cannot draw a fine line again.
• Tips: keep boxes closed and note which of the twelve sizes ran low; the middle sizes always empty first.
• Lamp: wipe the inside, including the diode covers, because cured gel on those surfaces is what makes an older lamp cure unevenly.
• Drill: seat the bit fully, start slow, keep it moving, and clean the handpiece with a disinfectant wipe rather than a soak.
• Stock check: around a sixth of the live LDS range is out of stock at any time, mostly brushes and line art sets, so check before promising a client a specific box.

Related collections

• LDS Rubber Base Gel Flexible colored base coats.
• LDS Line Art Gel Liner gels, chrome liners and marble ink.
• LDS Soft Gel Nail Tips Numbered half matte tip boxes.
• Lavis, All Products The sister range: gel color, builder gel and cat eye.
• Nail Tools, All Brands The rest of the bench.

Related reads

• Builder, hard, soft, polygel, rubber base compared
• What is builder gel? A nail tech's guide
• Easy nail art trends you can do at home
• The 10-step nail prep checklist