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Beauty

This Simple Hack Will Make Your Nail Polish Dry in 5 Minutes

Be ready to go in just 10 minutes.

The trouble with doing your own nails at home is they take so long to dry! When you’re at the salon you have the time set aside to sit under a nail dryer, relax, and maybe enjoy some tunes or a massage while you wait. But when we’re at home and the kids are calling or the chores seem innumerable, we need to speed things along. Who really has all that time to sit and be still?

But if you get up too quickly, you run the risk of messing up your nails after you’ve just done them. Ugh, nothing is worse than that. Luckily, with one simple hack, you don’t have to set aside an extra 20 minutes to wait for your nail polish to fully dry. All it takes is a bowl of cold water.

This beauty trick is one of the oldest in the book, and I’ve used it at home to help my nails dry faster during times when I’m in a pinch. The water doesn’t have to be ice cold, but you can throw a few ice cubes into it as long as your fingers can stand the cool temps.

To use this hack, you should first make sure that you’re applying your nail polish in thin layers, painting on two layers of color max. If your polish is thick and goopy, no hack is really going to help it dry faster.

The ice water trick is super simple. All you have to do is fill a small bowl about halfway with cold water (again, adding a few ice cubes if you want). When you’re ready to dry your nails, submerge your freshly-painted nails into the bowl, one hand at a time, for five minutes each. Lightly touch the nail on a corner when you’re done to make sure the nail polish has set.

That’s it! We hope this hack helps you get some of those precious minutes back into your day, while also helping you look and feel your best!

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