Dry Your Nails Fast

We all want our nails to dry faster.  It’s the most boring and annoying part of painting nails.

You may remember the Ice Water Dries Nails – Fact or Fiction post where I did an experiment to see if dunking your hands in ice water dries your nails faster.  Needless to say, I’m writing this post… So what are some other ways that might work?

‘Running your nails under the cold tap’ is one method that was passed down to me.  I tried it a couple of times on a whim.  If I was rushing out then I’d put them under the cold tap just as I was leaving the house as an extra level of protection.

But that wasn’t really testing whether it dries nails faster than leaving them to air dry.  Only a thorough experiment would find out once and for all if:

Cold running water dries your nails faster

Tools

• Base Coat
• One light coloured nail varnish
• One dark coloured nail varnish
• A Timer
• Cold running water from the tap

Method

• Apply 1 coat of base coat and 2 coats of a light colour to 1 nail
• Apply 1 coat of base coat and 2 coats of a dark colour to the other nail
• Wait 3 mins to air dry
• Place nails under cold running water for 1.5 mins

Results

At first glance the light colour appeared dry.  When I touched it there was a teeny bit of a tacky feeling (really want to stress that it was not that tacky, like on a scale of 1 – 10, the tacky feeling was about a 3) but it didn’t smudge.  I then pressed harder and I saw a very light imprint of my finger print appear.

Again, the darker colour looked dry.  I touched the surface and no smudging occurred.  There was a slight tacky feeling (approx 2/10).  Pressing harder didn’t cause any smudging or fingerprints.

Final Thoughts

This method works! It definitely sped up the drying time so I could get beyond the ‘fragile state’ (you know that time when you literally can’t do anything because it will ruin your nails).

I deliberately used the exact same nail varnishes as in the Ice Water Experiment so I could compare the results.   The Cold Running Water Method process took less time, was MUCH less painful (physically!), took less time to prepare (didn’t have to get ice cubes from the freezer) and actually was successful in drying my nails faster.

In the Ice Water Experiment I waited 2 mins before plunging my fingers into the ice water and in this experiment I waited 3 mins before putting them under the tap.  The additional minute may have helped, although that fact doesn’t really matter because the Ice Water Experiment claims to dry nail varnish instantly.  So I was actually being generous by giving it 2mins to air dry first!

I would definitely recommend this method if you have a nail varnish that takes a bit longer to dry, if you’re in a rush and/or want a more secure feeling that your nails are dry.  It doesn’t dry nails instantly, but putting your nails under cold running water does dry your nails faster.