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Do you use anything to speed up your nail polish dry time?


Do you use anything to speed up your nail polish dry time? Share!

I use Zoya’s quick-drying droplets! It usually helps get them to a manageable level but I avoid doing nails right before bed so I don’t get lots of fabric imprints later!

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Christina Avatar

Wait until first coat is completely dry, that way I’m not putting wet polish over wet polish over wet polish (including top coat). Can be time consuming to wait sometimes. In that case, I use Seche vite!

I’ve heard putting your fingertips in ice water dries them faster, or makes the polish more solid. Too cold to try that this time of year 🙂

Liz Avatar

no :/ for some reason ANY topcoat ect makes my nailpolish chip faster. And yes, I’ve tried all the popular ones including Seche Vite. I’m not sure what it is, I just know that I’m an incredibly practical person and refuse to even purchase/apply a polish that won’t look good in one coat (or two if I REALLY love the colour) and won’t chip in a few days (I’m a chip-o-phobe and need to change the entire polish if it starts chipping) – I just can’t be bothered spending too much time on my nails and I certainly can’t be bothered to mess up my quite nice natural nails with some sort of fake nails or pay for a manicure (I’m cheap too! So many “redeeming” qualities today 😀 ).
I mainly stick to Essie and Catrice and fair pretty well with my little philosophy! Wearing Catrice Goldfinger, a beautiful pale yellow gold that looks a lot like that new Dior polish atm – 6 day and still going strong!

/novel

Sarah Avatar

Seche Vite or Poshe quick dry top coats. I don’t like quick-dry drops, they don’t seem to make a difference and they leave a weird film on the nails.

gwgw Avatar

Mavala Mavadry ! absolutely perfect! refuse to paint my nails without it.
not only the varnish dries in seconds but also leaves my nails shiny! perfect!

Oona Avatar

Essie Good to go! Since I discovered it, I can’t live without it, I can even do my nails just before going to bed! Thanks to it I can change my nail color more than once a week 🙂

Lark Avatar

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. One coat, dry in under a minute. Before you start sneering girls, I’m a painter. A regular polish lasts under a minute in a painting studio. The solvents for oil painting wreck that pretty Chanel polish I loved so dearly! And faster than this stuff dries.

This works for me. I wish the polish was less gloppy but one does what one can.

summerblue Avatar

How ’bout using a drop or 2 of nail polish thinner to get rid of the gloppiness. I’ve had polish for years that I keep restoring w/ thinner.

Raquel Avatar

i use a quick dry top coat (dont know the brand), but it really works and helps to achieve a glossy look to the nail, and it helps to last longer too

Penny Avatar

I use Essie Good-to-go as topcoat. This is a real miracle: I paint all the nails, then straight on another layer (if necessary – so most of the time). And after that (without waiting time) Essie Good-to-go. Then I wait about 10-15 minutes and everything is so dry that I could go to bed without getting fabric imprints.
I used to paint my nails seldom because it was: layer one – wait 1 hour – layer two – wait 1 hour – topcoat – wait 1 hour… Now it’s: paint – paint – paint – wait 15 minutes – done!

Dorna Avatar

seche vite top coat and then i use nail enamel drying spray, the ones that come in the aerosol cans. They’re usually under 5$ and so worth it! I don’t have time to chill after painting my nails, haha.

dovile Avatar

Essie’s Good To Go quick dry top coat is my absolute HG product. Hated SV (horrible shrinkage, quick to dry in the bottle), Poshe (shrinkage, chipped in a day), OPI’s, CG’s top coats (both shrink and chip like mad). Finally found my Essie this summer. It does everything I need it to and more. 🙂

Ashley Avatar

I just make sure to wait 10-15 mins between each coat and use a fast-drying top coat. Which I figured out accidentally when I was painting my nails while distracted doing other things on two occasions. Since they dry to the touch within 5 minutes or less in most cases, I can still do things in between coats, but giving them that extra time to actually solidly dry is worth it because it means that I don’t have to potentially wait up to a day for the polish to harden after the whole thing is done. So, if it’s a choice of waiting 10-15 mins between each coat but then having completely hard nails within 5-10 minutes post-top coat or just waiting for the nails to feel dry to the touch and then waiting up to 24 hours for the nails to harden post-top coat, I think I will choose the former 😉 I tried one fast-drying aid, and all it did was leave my nails oily.

Ashley Avatar

Oh, and the two top coats I’ve been using that are super fast-drying and harden quickly are GOSH Matt Effect and Quo by Orly (so I’m sure the parent brand’s top coat works the same, since most of the Quo stuff is the same as the Orly stuff)

Angela G. Avatar

I really don’t do much to dry my nails. But when I’m in the mood, I’ll sit in front of the fan, and do a Lady Gaga “Monster” pose to speed up the process. lol

Yara Avatar

Seche Vite is not the best choice because in 1-2 days it make the nailpolish to peel offlike crazy. There are better top coats out there which don’t make your manicure start detiorating in few days, but those take much longer to dry, than Seche Vite does.

Using your blowdryer (even if its hot air) definitely is a sure way to dry a nailpolish fast and withpout any problems afterwards.

+ Using Some cooking oil spray (or those mineral oil drying sprays)- is something that does not really dry the nail polish technically, however it makes the your freshly applied nailpolish to be stickproof, as it can be still wet and soft inside before drying completely…

Pami Avatar

If I’m in a hurry, or it’s a slow-drying polish, I use Zoya’s Quick Dry drops like Christine does.
Most of the time, I let the polish dry between each coat. Sometimes I’ve used a fan, or blow dryer on low.

M. Avatar

Currently Good to Go, which unfortunately doesn’t compare to To Dry For in either making polish dry faster or last longer. Too bas I haven’t seen To Dry For down here.

Mandy Avatar

I recently discovered Cult Nails “Wicked Fast Speed Dry Top Coat.” I am a fan! I use it over Zoya polish colors, and it works great, plus it’s free of DBP, Formaldehyde, and Toluene .

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