Warmed Gel Polish: Benefits, Application & Safety for Nail Technicians

Question
I recently had my nails done with a hard gel that the asian technician heated the clear gel up in the microwave/under a hot lamp before applying two coats on my nails.  I am very impressed.  It has almost been three weeks and there is  no lifting at all.  I am a nail technician in Maryland and I have searched all over the internet for hard clear nail gel that needs to be warmed up.  Also, my nails didn't burn at all under the uv lamp.  Please tell me what that kind of gel is called. I would like to continue to use it.  I have seen the hard gel in a glass container or ceramic.  They keep it warmed under a hot lamp or place it in the microwave to use the top of the warmed gel.  Please let me know their hard gel secret.  Darlene

Answer
There's nothing particularly special about the gel itself. You can warm any UV cured gel. DO NOT WARM IT IN A MICROWAVE! Never put any nail products in a microwave! Most products are combustible to some degree, check the MSDS for flash points.
However, I warm my UV cured gels under the heating pad that I have on the armrest of my desk, you could also use a candle warmer, the heat from your desk lamp, place the gel container on top of a paraffin unit until you need it, or try a double boiler type method and place your gel container in a cup of hot water to warm it... just make sure your gel container is water tight for that one, and make sure your gel container is heat resistant if you place it on a candle warmer.
Warming gel before use makes it runnier which can make it easier to work with for doing overlays. It is conceivable that warm gel would also be less likely to heat spike under the UV lamp, since molecules move faster when warm, so using a warm product would result in less acceleration once the photo-initiator hits the light. I can't promise that that's why you didn't experience any burning sensation under the UV lamp, it might have just been that the wavelength of the lamp and the photo-initiator in the product were within a ratio that didn't result in heat spikes.
Just remember, when warming UV gel, that while a little heat won't affect the gel, light will. Keep the gel out of the light, any kind of light will eventually cause the gel to harden.