A woman has been praised for sharing a genius hack that will guarantee chip-free nails when using basic nail varnish – and all you need is water, making the hack almost free
Say goodbye to chipped nail varnish with this easy hack.
If you’ve ever tried painting your nails at home with some basic nail varnish, you’ll know the pain that comes with noticing it’s chipped five minutes later. What’s more, you also have to contend with sitting completely still and not moving your hands for what feels like hours, or else you’ll get bumps and dents in the polish because it’s not completely dry.
One woman shared a genius trick online that means you never have to worry about messing up your nail varnish ever again. And all you need is a cup of cold water, as well as ice cubes, so the hack is basically free.
In a video on TikTok, Kate (@8kateee) said she doesn’t know how anyone gets “normal” nail varnish to look “halfway decent” without using the hack, which she dubbed the “ice trick”.
She said: “Some of you don’t know the ice trick when doing your nails and I actually have no idea how you’re getting normal polish to look halfway decent. It’s my favourite girl hack of all time, so let me show you.”
Kate explained she begins by painting her nails as normal, and then waits around “30 seconds” for the coat of varnish to start to dry. She insisted you don’t need to wait until the polish is fully dry, but it cannot be “dripping wet”.
Then, once she’d painted two coats on her nails, she took a cup of cold water and ice and plunged her freshly painted nails in. She said: “You just need a cup of ice water and you’re going to stick your nails in there for as long as you can.”
Once she’d done both hands, she clarified: “The whole point of this is that if you’ve ever painted your nails you probably know that if they’re not all the way dry and you go to bed, or you sit down with a blanket or something, you’re going to get little divets in the polish.”
To finish the video, she gave the polish on her thumb a “little poke” with another nail to see if it left a mark. When it came up completely dent-free, Kate knew the coat was “hard enough” and she no longer needed to worry about getting chips and dents in her varnish.
Commenters on the video were blown away, with many saying they needed to try the hack “immediately”. Others suggested the trick works with cold water and no ice if your hands are sensitive to cold and can’t handle the ice.
And one commenter spoke for all of us when she said: “How is it everyone knows how to paint their nails nicely? Mine looks like a five-year-old did it.”
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