Varnish drying rate
The varnish consists of special enamel and coloring pigments. A durable layer will take 20-25 minutes. Please note that decorative varnishes require more time.
The amount of time allowed for drying depends on several factors.
- Brand and product quality;
- Preparation of nail plates;
- Room temperature, humidity level.
However, there are other aspects that deserve attention.
Acrylic coating
I would also like to mention the so-called ecological, that is, acrylic varnish. It is an acrylic emulsion and does not contain harmful substances such as formaldehyde and toluene, which means it is completely safe for health. This coating may contain a variety of useful additives that help strengthen nails, accelerate their growth and prevent splitting. Keep in mind that acrylic by itself does not have any beneficial effect on nails. Moreover, it can even be harmful because it prevents air from reaching the nail plate. Therefore, pay special attention to the components listed in the product.
Acrylic emulsion dries quite quickly, but only with skillful application. In addition, within 1-2 hours after application, the coating is easily washed off with water even if completely dry, so you need to wear gloves when doing homework. Of course, you should not use ice water in an attempt to dry the varnish as quickly as possible.
Alkyd varnish is applied in extremely thin layers (no more than two), starting from the center of the nail. Nail plates must be absolutely clean and free of grease. Before applying the second layer, you need to wait until the first one has completely dried. You can also use regular decorative varnish on top of acrylic, but it should only be dried in air. Acrylic manicure is worn for 2 to 7 days.
Reasons why varnish takes a long time to dry
The popularity and high cost of varnishes does not guarantee absolute success.
The unprofessional performance of the master leads to disastrous consequences:
- The varnish takes a long time to dry and lays on the surface in an uneven layer.
- Subsequently, cracks and bubbles appear.
- Other defects cannot be excluded.
Outdated varnish
With a large assortment of colors, it is problematic to choose the appropriate shade option for the current image. Sometimes craftswomen resort to old varnishes, the shelf life of which is already questionable.
This is definitely a bad approach and should be avoided. Expired products cause additional costs.
Oily surface
You cannot apply enamel after cream - a common mistake of most craftswomen. Due to the greasy film, the surface is uneven and the varnish takes a long time to dry.
Therefore, it is recommended to wash your hands before the procedure, and then use a cosmetic degreasing product.
Many layers of varnish
For greater saturation, varnishes are applied in two layers. What does this mean? If you perform the procedure carelessly, the enamel will be rough when it dries.
- Professionals practice a double thin layer.
- The next layer of paint is applied after complete drying.
- Test by lightly touching the surface of the nail.
- If it is sticky, then it is too early to start the second stage.
Home effective remedies and methods
If for some reason you don’t have special equipment on hand, and you really need to dry the varnish quickly, time-tested folk methods will come to the rescue. Our mothers used them during their youth, when these newfangled sprays, oils, quick-drying coatings and ultraviolet lamps were not a thing!
First of all, it is very important to properly prepare your nails for painting:
- Carefully remove the old varnish with a special liquid.
- Sand the nail plate with a soft buff.
- Wash your hands with soap and dry.
- Degrease each nail by wiping it with alcohol or nail polish remover.
After this you can apply varnish. To make it dry faster, choose any of the methods below.
- Before you begin your manicure, place a bowl of cold water and a few ice cubes nearby. Place your hands with freshly painted nails in water and hold for 5 minutes. When exposed to cold and moisture, the varnish will begin to dry faster.
- Use not cold water, but oil, even ordinary vegetable oil. Dip each nail in it one by one for just a couple of seconds. The varnish will dry 2 times faster, and excess oil can be blotted with a napkin, washed off with cold water, or rubbed gently over your fingers.
- The freezer compartment of your refrigerator! Place your hands with freshly painted nails into it and hold for 3-5 minutes until the product dries completely. By the way, short exposure to cold has a beneficial effect on the skin of your hands.
- If there are special manicure fans, then why not a regular one to dry the polish?
However, it could be the air conditioner or a draft from an open window. Place your hands under the flow of cold air and wait 2-3 minutes. It's even more convenient to use a hairdryer. Just set the cold styling mode - the hot air makes the varnish dull and quickly cracks. When drying your polish with a hairdryer, choose the cold styling setting.
What do the professionals advise?
To avoid wasting time, adhere to the following aspects:
- Cheap products attract low cost, but not high quality. Manufacturers save on fixatives, so the drying time of a cosmetic product is much longer than that of high-quality and expensive products.
- Varnishes are stored in a cool place. If exposed to sunlight, the product will quickly deteriorate.
- Do not forget to close the lid of the cosmetic product, otherwise the substance will lose its elasticity. If you need to return the previous structure, add drops of solvent. True, this does not always work.
When painting, color is taken into account. Coloring products with additional decoration elements are time consuming.
Nitrovarnishes
Transparent nitro varnish is made from colloxylins, plasticizers, solvent and various resins. This type has good resistance to moisture, after application it dries to the touch in half an hour, a maximum of an hour. Nitrovarnishes are solutions characterized by the highest drying speed.
They dry to the final stage in about 3-5 hours. Although they have the shortest drying period, they are not environmentally friendly materials, since they contain a solvent that is toxic and harmful to humans. This varnish should not be applied in rooms where people live. Nitrovarnish has low stability and weak protective coating strength.
Simple and fast
First, let's try to solve the problem in a traditional way without any complex approaches:
- Immerse your hands in cold water to reduce the amount of time it takes to dry. This is the simplest known method, but there is a risk of enamel peeling. Experiment with other polishes to determine effectiveness with a particular product.
- A hairdryer with a switch to cold air will solve the problem. There are positive reviews online from professionals who have already tried this technique. The other side of the coin: you need to take out the hair dryer without damaging the top layer of enamel. For convenience, it is better to lay everything out on the table before starting the painting procedure. Find yourself without a hairdryer? Use a fan.
- The freezer is a known working method. Place your hands in the freezer for a few minutes to set the nail polish.
Three life hacks
If you don’t have special products on hand, try equally effective ways to speed up the drying of your nails.
Ice water
Take a small basin or bowl, fill it with cold water, and throw some ice into the water. Immerse your fingers in the water for a couple of minutes.
The varnish dries quickly under the influence of low water temperature
If you are going to dry your manicure this way, do not apply a thick layer of varnish: the coating may lose its smoothness.
Video: experiment with painted nails and cold water
Cold air
Hairdryer, air conditioner, fan - any of these devices will probably be found in your home. However, it is necessary to take into account that the hairdryer is used in cold air mode, since hot air does not harden the varnish coating, but becomes softer and risks swelling and peeling.
Cold can be used in another way: before you start painting your nails, put the polish in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes. This “cold” manicure will dry faster. For the same reason, varnish should be stored at room temperature.
Vegetable oil
A few minutes after applying the polish, place a drop of olive or other vegetable oil on your nails and lightly spread the oil over the surface of the nail plates with light movements of your fingertips. Leave on for 3-4 minutes and then rinse off with cool water. The oil will not only dry out the polish, but will also have a beneficial effect on the cuticle.
Instead of oil, you can use cooking spray: it also has a fat base.
Video: how to dry varnish with olive oil
Specialized drugs
The market offers various products for beauty salons, with an impressive wide range. Enamels in different color variations are sold on store shelves; means for fixing nail polish.
Tops
Chemical cosmetic for effective drying and fixing. At first glance it looks like an ordinary varnish, but in fact it is an effective product that is easy to use.
Apply the paint varnish to the surface, and then wait a few minutes until the base layer dries.
- This product is impressive because it not only promotes quick drying.
- It strengthens the enamel, increasing durability and giving it greater expressiveness.
- To avoid premature damage, apply the product in a thin layer.
Spray
Express drying is suitable for beginners. After designing your nails, just spray them with a spray. Then wait for a few minutes. The composition of the spray contains useful components to care for the skin of the hands and cuticles.
Oils
This refers to oil-based cosmetics. These are effective and useful drugs. They have long been in demand due to their positive effects on the skin around the nails. Solves the problem of cracked and dry skin.
- The above mentioned cosmetic products are quite applicable at home.
- The main thing is to read the instructions before use, carefully apply the substance to the surface, following all the rules.
- Such products can always be purchased at an affordable price.
Professional products
Despite the effectiveness of some home methods, manicurists, of course, do not use them. To dry the varnish as quickly as possible, there are special tools and devices. First of all, these are chemical dryers; they can be used both in the salon and at home:
- Visually they appear as a clear varnish, but in reality they are a kind of topcoat (fixer). It is applied a minute after the usual color layer, and air dried. It will not only save time, but also give durability to the manicure and prolong the glossy shine.
You need to paint the top coat in one thin layer, otherwise the colored varnish may shrink.
- Express dryers come in the form of a spray; they are more convenient to use than a top coat. Immediately after painting, you need to spray your nails generously and wait about five minutes for them to dry. Often, the composition includes caring substances, so you can not only reduce the time for manicure, but also nourish the cuticle and skin of your hands
- There are oil-based formulations. Everyone knows about the beneficial effects of oils on the periungual skin, so with constant use of this product you can get rid of many problems
Nail salons are often equipped with a special device with a built-in fan. You place your hand in it after painting, and the air flow dries it in just a couple of minutes. Its cost is not too high, so if the varnish coating is used often, you can purchase such a device for home use.
Quick-drying varnishes are another solution for busy ladies. This composition dries in no more than a minute, or even a few seconds. But they have disadvantages. Varnish coatings thicken faster than usual, resulting in longer drying times. You should avoid direct sunlight on your nails, otherwise they may acquire a yellowish tint. Durability can also fail, but this is more a question of the chosen brand.
It’s worth mentioning separately about shellac; it is a hybrid coating of varnish and gel that lasts for about two weeks. It is not difficult to make such a manicure; for this you need a base coat, color and top coat. It is also necessary to have an ultraviolet lamp, since shellac does not dry in air, but polymerizes under its rays for two to three minutes. If you choose an LED model, polymerization will take only 30 seconds.
The cost may put you off from this type of manicure, because the price of a good professional set is at least 10,000 rubles. But for your home, you can independently select a mini-lamp and several bottles of polymer, spending no more than three thousand. But you won’t have to repaint your nails several times a week, but do it a couple of times a month.
So, there are a lot of methods for quickly drying nail polish. You just need to choose the most suitable one and enjoy an excellent, dry manicure. Purchased products will help fashionistas in emergency situations, and if you pay attention to homemade tricks, you can also save money. But it’s best to plan your day, leaving little time for a manicure.
Source of the article: https://vseonogtyah.ru/manikyur/bystro-prosushit-pokrytie.html
Double Layer Feature
If you apply regular polish in two layers, your nails will dry in half an hour. By purchasing a proven product, the drying time is reduced by fifteen minutes. Using special means that speed up the drying process, it is possible to further reduce the waiting time.
Professionals recommend applying two thin layers. This guarantees the durability of the coating and color saturation.
How long will it take for your varnish to dry?
What do we paint with?
If we take ordinary colored varnish as an example, it will take 10–15 minutes to dry. Transparent nail hardening varnishes dry the fastest - in a minute. But for water manicure, depending on the final thickness of the coating, it takes about 30 minutes to dry completely.
There is an opinion that the darker the varnish, the longer it will take to dry.
Clear hardener varnishes dry the fastest
It is important to degrease your nails before the procedure and apply the polish evenly; without these simple measures, drying the polish may not be successful at all.
Gel polish dries very quickly, within three minutes, but this requires an ultraviolet lamp. Shellac, as well as gel coating, is recommended to be dried separately, in layers - the base one dries for a minute, and all the others for two.
Gel polishes will dry quite successfully on a clear summer day in the midday sun, when natural ultraviolet radiation is most intense.
The drying time of the varnish depends primarily on the type of coating.
Thick varnish in a thick layer?
A thick coat of varnish is guaranteed to take longer to dry than several thin coats, and you will likely smear it during the drying process. The situation is much better with several thin layers - just apply them one by one, waiting until the previous layer dries slightly.
If the polish is old and has also thickened a little, you should not try to do a quick manicure with it: most likely, it will not dry completely even in half an hour.
Photos of the best varnishes
Water based
These solutions do not have any unpleasant odor when applied; water-based acrylic mixtures are the safest. However, they take longer to dry than other compounds. Complete polymerization requires 10-14 days. Such a long period is associated with the main component - water, which evaporates for quite a long time, compared to solvents.
Water mixtures are usually made on an acrylic basis; they do not withstand the negative effects of temperature changes, humidity, and mechanical stress. Many people are interested in how long does acrylic varnish take to dry? Touch-drying time is about 2-3 hours, and a layer of varnish usually has time to dry in 18-35 hours.
The most common mistakes: what not to do
Initially, you need to prepare a set of means or objects that will be used to dry the finish coat so that they are at arm's length. It’s not the most ingenious idea to reach into the closet with your freshly painted nails in search of a professional hair dryer or special dryer, fill a container with ice water, or open a bottle of oil. All the work was done in vain, and my hands were all dirty.
The older the jar with the coating, the longer it will take to dry on the nail plastic. If you want the coating to be of high quality and dry instantly, it is important to part with old jars of varnish without regrets, even if they were expensive. The new product maintains the established concentration of particles, which speeds up the drying process.
REFERENCE! When the coating is too thick, it falls into a too dense ball, which takes more than half an hour to dry. Varnish that has thickened can be diluted with acetone, but it is better to just buy a new one.
Before applying coloring pigment to the nail plate, it is important not to use hand cream or gel, because the nail plate must be dry and completely free of grease.
Is it possible to dry gel polish in a lamp?
In order not to overexpose the main coating under the lamp, you should choose models equipped with a built-in timer with an audible signal. Additionally, the master can set an alarm on his mobile phone, notifying him about the end of drying. Immediately after the signal sounds, the nails are carefully removed from the light source. If the device has become hot during operation, it can only be turned on after it has completely cooled down.
Attention! If you keep the gel polish under the lamp for longer than the time specified according to the instructions, the coating will quickly begin to deform, crack and peel off.
Do I need to dry the base in a lamp?
To dry the base, use ultraviolet or LED lamps. It is recommended to read in advance the instructions that come with the bottle with the base about how much time it takes for complete drying. If this time is shortened, problems will arise with applying the top layer. If you expose your nails to a light source, the texture of the base will become deformed, and this will also negatively affect the quality of the manicure.
After waiting the required time, the master applies a colored coating to the nails. After this, the nails dry again. The rule here is very simple: the color coating dries exactly as long as the base.
Attention! The base must be completely dry before applying the top coat. If you ignore this rule, the colored varnish will lie unevenly. Because of this, the manicure will soon begin to peel off, and instead of a month, the polish will only last a week on the nails.
How long to dry the top
In domestic beauty salons, ultraviolet lamps with a power of 18–20 watts are usually used to process the final coating of nails. LED devices are used less frequently due to their high cost. A 20W UV light will dry a thin layer of topcoat in 3 minutes. Processing the top applied in several layers will take 4 minutes. Working with glitter may take 4.5 – 5 minutes. In this case, the master must warn the client that the final stage will take longer.
