After typing that title, I feel like I’m writing a report for an elementary school science fair or something. 🙂
I’m scaling back on how frequently I post, but I really want to at least try to keep up my pin tests each week. This week, I needed something quick and already on my to do list.
So I decided to paint my nails and see if this “quick dry” technique really works.
(Don’t worry…I know my paint job is messy. It’s apart of the test.)
This tip was one of those pins with a link to no where. So I did just what the caption said:
“How to Dry Nail Polish Quickly: submerge wet nails in cold water for 3 minutes. The polish will dry completely, and it gets rid of any that got onto your skin!”
So, I painted my nails…
I used this affordable (*cough* cheap) nail polish, so nothing fast drying or special.
I did a base coat which dries quickly. Then my first color coat.
I soaked them in ice cold water for 3 minutes. Which is uncomfortable! Eventually my hands numbed and I didn’t feel it.
Then I repeated the process with one more coat and then the top coat.
I even got brave enough to try it on my feet.
Did it work? Yes and no.
When the water was ICE cold, it seemed to work pretty well. As the water warmed up, it worked less and less.
The messy extra polish on my skin didn’t slide right off, though I’m sure it made it easier to scratch off. I didn’t do it because the polish still wasn’t dry enough for scratching after I soaked them. 🙁
Will I do this again? Not likely. It’s impractical and undesirable to soak your extremities in freezing cold water at any other time of the year except summer.
You have to keep the water super cold for it to work. It seems like more effort and stress to keep replenishing a bowl of water with ice just to save a few minutes of drying time per coat.
Nah…I’ll stick to lazing out and watching a movie while I paint my nails and let them dry normally. 🙂
Maybe there was more to the original tutorial, but just following the pin’s caption, this one is a dud. My apologies…this is probably as critical as I’ll get with these pin tests. I don’t want to offend anyone.
On another note…
I want to give you all a big huge hug right now. Thank you, thank you for your words of support and love to Monday’s post. Since posting, I have felt so much lighter and liberated. This week has been much better and your wonderful words have stuck with me. I will cherish and refer back to the comments in that post for a long time.
Many thanks. I hope your day is delightful. 🙂
I bought that same nail polish a few weeks ago! Thanks for the results and for the pin tests in general!
I love your idea of pin testing. I saw that pin too, and wondered if it would work. Thanks for saving my extremities. 🙂
I had seen that pin as well. I can imagine that it was painful! I've also seen that you can try putting your wet nails under running water. I may have to try that one later.
I pinned and tried this, too! That was the most uncomfortable three minutes of my life…and the polish was still wet enough for a fingerprint after. Perhaps it works better with just one coat, but who only uses one coat unless it's clear? Dud, indeed. You are seriously brave for also trying your toes…
LOVED your Monday post. I'm in the midst of a new normal, as well,
I use to do this every time I paint my nails, because here in Brazil the weather is too hot and sometimes can appear some bubbles on the polish, so it´s helpful, but it doesn´t work for complete drying either. ;]
With my first pregnancy, my midwife told me to hold ice in my hands without tensing up anywhere else as 'practice' for labor… somehow this pin test reminds me of that. 😉
I have been doing this for a couple of years now. I just put my nails under cold running water for maybe 30-60 seconds. It does not dry it completely but in my opinion it speeds up the process. I am really to impatiant!
lazin' out is so good 😉
Everyone always thinks its so weird, but I keep my nail polish in my fridge because I heard somewhere a long time ago, that it helps to "keep" the polish better. I feel that it helps make it quicker to dry too if the polish itself is cold!
Although I've never tested it "experimentally" so it could just be my imagination 😛
I still haven't braved the bog world of Pintrest, so I am glad you are doing it for me! This one just sounds miserable!
I was doubtful just reading the title, hehe…love this series!
I've tried the cold water trick and wasn't too impressed but what I do like to do when painting my nails is to paint quick and messy and let them dry and then hop in a hot bubble bath. My skin gets nice and soft and the polish on my skin a cuticles comes right off!
oooh! no spray pam or non stick cooking spray! it is gooey but it totally works. 5 minutes or a little longer for the really thick layers!
I promise it works.
and it's on pintrest 🙂
Lol, I totally tried this one this week. I just used cold water with no ice. For me it was just fine the plus for me is I didn't try to touch them to early and let them actually dry. It was interesting to try.
Funny that yo posted this b/c I was just thinking about this last night as I did my nails. The one thing that's IMPOSSIBLE with a baby b/c you don't know when theyre going to wake up and you may have wet nails! Anyway, I think the ice thing would be painful, but I do recommend getting the excess off your skin in the shower. It takes like 30 seconds and it's so easy. I always do my
I keep seeing this pin so I was really thrilled to see your test. Yea, it looks like more of a pain than it is worth for sure.
I had seen this also and thought about trying it and I am glad that you shared this with us.
I tried this too a while back. It didn't work at all for me 🙁 So don't feel like your being critical. It's just a Pinterest FAIL.
So glad you're out there testing these for me 😉
Thanks! I'm so lazy to actually try it out! LOL!
XO, April
http://www.beautyandbraids.blogspot.com
I HATE painting my nails. It's so frustrating, I'm really impatient too, but I like the look of it. So today I had one freshly painted hand in cold water and thought to myself, does this even work? So I read your blog between hands, and it didn't work for me. It just rubbed off. I so agree that your hands just get numb after a while and you don't feel the unpleasantness anymore
Chemically it does not work at all. What really dries the polish is the evaporation of the solvents. Putting it in cold water doesn’t increase the evaporation, it decreases it and thickens the still wet polish. Because it’s thick it might seem dry but when it warms back to room temperature it’ll be just as if you never forze your fingers at all.
Moving air such as a slow fan will help the evaporation speed up, but cooling will certainly not.
Hi, I use finger nail polish pretty much for anything as a quick fix. I have one of those cigarrette holders where you can put cigs on both sides and close it. Well the thing that holds it closed is loose and I was wondering if I put finger nail polish on it and put it in the fridge.., would the finger nail polish dry faster??? Or would it be better to just put it outside (since it’s also cold out ther)??
I just run my hands under cold, cold, cold tap water for about 30 seconds pretty much immediately after I paint them. You have to give them 30 seconds to a minute before you stick them under or you might get bubbles. I run the water over my knuckles so there’s no direct pressure on the fingernails, just in case. I shake my hands around until all of the water on my hands dries up, and it’s a billion times faster than normal… I use Essie
I tried the ice water recently but there was no huge difference from air drying my nails.
Yeah…I have found the effort in making an ice water bath not really worth the slightly faster results.