How to make your nail polish dry quickly
With your fingers completely immobile, spending precious time waiting for your nail polish to dry can be very exasperating. Some people will blow on their nails, others will flap their arms like a butterfly and the rest will wave goodbye at a high speed. I told myself that there must be a better way to save time. Here’s what I came up with:
1. Run cold water over your nail polish or soak your nails in a bowl of ice water.
Extremely cold water accelerates the drying process and the polish will harden more quickly. Of course, you must let the water stay in contact with the nails for a least 5 minutes.
2. Use a hairdryer on the cold setting.
The cold air works the same way as the water. Just as ventilators are used to dry paint, the force of the air on the nails is concentrated so your polish will dry more quickly.
3. Use a top-coat, a spray or quick-dry drops.
You can also find on the market a very useful product which is available in a regular polish bottle with a brush, as a spray or in a dropper-bottle. By spraying or applying it on the polish, you can avoid messing up your manicure and the chemicals in the quick-dry product will harden the nail polish almost instantly. In just a few minutes, the polish will be completely dry. Suggestions: O.P.I drops DripDry (around 19$CA), Mavala Mavadry Polish or Spray (polish around 20$CA– Spray around 18$CA), Sally Hansen Shea Butter Rapid Finish Nail Color Dryer ( spray), Insta-Dry Speed Dry Drops (drops) (Spray around 10$CA – Drops around 8$CA).
4. Use quick-drying nail polish.
You can find many nail polishes with a quick-drying formula. They usually dry twice as quickly as a regular polish. Suggestion: Sally Hansen Insta Dry Nail Color (around 7$CA).
5. Make sure that your nails are clean and dry before applying polish.
This advice may seem basic, but it can make a big difference. If there is dirt, dust or grease on your nails, the polish will not adhere and will not dry. Wash and dry your hands before applying polish and never use hand cream. If you wish to apply hand cream afterwards, wait until the polish is completely dry. The cream creates a barrier between the polish and air which means that it won’t dry properly.
Here’s a tip for preparing your nails: even if you haven’t any old polish on your nails, rub them with a piece of cotton wool soaked in remover (rubbing alcohol will also do the trick) and let it dry. Your nails will then be absolutely clean and ready for the application of polish.
6. Use a machine called a nail dryer.
You can get this at some nail salons and specialty stores or on the internet. It’s a small machine designed specially to dry nail polish. You put your hand in the little cavity, switch on the machine and your nails will dry in record time. Some work with air and some with heat. Prices vary according to quality and there are many different brands.
7. Wait until the first coat is completely dry before applying the next.
If the first coat is not properly dry and hardened, the second coat will take much longer to dry because it doesn’t have a good base to adhere to.
8. Apply very thinly, even if this means having to apply several coats.
Make sure to remove excess polish from the brush so as to achieve as thin a coat as possible. You can swipe the brush several times over the same area if you wipe the excess product on the edge of the bottle and apply a very small quantity for each coat.
9. Use a polish that is less than a year old.
The older the polish, the thicker it becomes and the longer it will take to dry. Thick polish is difficult to apply and will be streaky. You don’t want to find yourself with a thick coat that will take much too long to dry!