Gel nail polishes are at the peak of their popularity and we see why. They dry in a lamp within seconds, don’t chip, and stay looking fresh for up to 3 weeks. However there are downsides to it. After prolonged use your nails become thin and brittle, plus a gel manicure is expensive and doing it at home can be quite difficult for beginners. So this summer we encourage you to give your nails a break, and try some DIY nail tricks to make your nails look great without damaging them in the process.
1. Toothpaste
If your nails have become stainer after wearing a dark nail polish, or perhaps they look a bit yellow – you can easily fix this by brushing them with some whitening toothpaste, yup, it worst just the same as it does on your teeth.
2. Petroleum Jelly
If you’re a messy nail painter and you constantly get nail polish on your skin and cuticles – this trick is for you. Use a quip to tab some petroleum jelly on the skin around your nail. Then paint away and don’t worry if it gets on your skin. Once the nail polish dries you can just wash your hands, and the messy nail polish will get off your skin easily thanks to the petroleum jelly trick. You can put some petroleum jelly on the top of the bottle to prevent it from drying itself shut.
3. Elmer’s Glue
Alternatively you can use elmers glue around your nails and then once you’re done painting the nail polish on and it’s try – just peel off the Elmer’s glue from your skin. It’s oddly satisfying.
4. Ice Water
Regular nail polish can take a while to dry, but there’s an easy trick to dry it faster. Just put your fingers in to a bowl of ice cold water for 3 minutes, your nail polish will be dry and smudge free.
5. Double Layer
If your nail polish tends to chip you should try this trick. Do two layers of base coat, the first one just on the ends of your nails, and the second coat all over your nail. Then proceed with the regular nail polish and top coat.
6. Non Stick Spray
You can spray your nails with non-stick cooking spray to help them dry faster. Spray the freshly painted nails with it, wait a couple of minutes and wash off. It’ll cut the drying time in half.
7. Hair Spray
If you like creating funky nail designs but don’t have the patience to let each layer dry before you use top coat – hairspray is your best friend. Just spray it onto your nail design to keep it in place and prevent any smudging, let it dry for 10 seconds and move on to top coat.
8. Makeup Sponge
If you love glitter nail polish, but it never comes out as intense as it looks in the bottle – it’s cause you’re probably using it wrong. There’s no need to use 10 layers of glitter and create a glitter mountain of doom on your nails, just use a makeup sponge instead. If you put a generous amount of glitter nail polish onto the makeup sponge first, it’ll absorb most of the liquid and then you can pat on the glitter on your nail in one go.
