Nail Tip Of The Week: Preventing Bubbles
Your Nail Tip Of The Week is inspired by a reader letter. It’s an issue that has plagued us all: Air Bubbles. You can fix a smudge, remove polishing mistakes and even refresh a dull top coat but getting rid of those pesky bubbles is impossible.
Your best defense is a good offense but without knowing the causes, where do you begin.
1. Air flow – Sitting near an open window, in front of or under a fan is the surest way to bring those babies to the surface. So even if it’s hot and nasty, close those windows and turn off those fans.
2. Moisture – I always wash my hands before painting my nails but excess moisture on your nail plate means impending bubble-doom. Wait a good 5 minutes after washing and rub a piece of cotton or paper towel around the edges just to make sure.
3. Excess dirt/oil – A tip I picked up from a lovely MUA nail boarder is to wipe your nails with vinegar before applying base coat or polish. Unlike some nail polish removers that contain moisturizing ingredients, straight up white vinegar will clean your nail bed without leaving any residue.
If you follow these steps and still end up with bubbling, it could be time to switch up your products. In the NYX South Sea shot above the bubbles were caused by using an inferior base and top coat. No amount of prep and caution could have prevented that.
I’m wearing Rimmel’s 60 second nail polish in Camouflage. My first time...
Let me bow down to the polish gods!
The vinegar did the trick! I've carefully 'rolled' stayed away from even a slight breeze, waited almost an hour between layers before applying the next coat and still I would get bubbles! That is until the vinegar made them vanish! All gone!Now I love my painted nails!
I have read that your polish will bubble if you let it dry while in direct sunlight!
I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s worth mentioning at least.
Interesting theory, thanks for sharing!