Nail polish can take a long time to dry, especially with multiple layers.
Nail polish can take an average time of 15 minutes to dry, but this is just for the top layer. Including the layers underneath it, nail polish can take up to an hour to dry completely.
Because of this, many products have been invented to reduce drying time. One of these products is the nail polish drying spray. Nail polish drying spray does work.
Here is How Well Nail Polish Drying Spray Works:
Nail polish drying spray works and can effectively cut down nail polish drying time. However, these sprays usually promise to dry nail polish in just a minute, which is not true, especially if you apply multiple layers of nail polish.
What Is Nail Polish Drying Spray?
A nail polish drying spray is a liquid product that works to make nail polish dry faster. It is made to be sprayed onto wet nails right after applying the nail polish.
Drying spray is a popular product that salons and nail professionals use. It is very effective in significantly cutting down the drying time of nail polish and making it smudge-proof in just a few minutes.
This is a handy product to have if you do your own manicure and pedicure at home. You can spray it on your nails after applying nail polish.
The nail polish would dry faster, so you can use your hands and move on to other tasks for the day without worrying about your manicure getting ruined.
Some nail polish drying sprays do not just dry nails faster. They also have other nail care benefits, like making nails look healthier, preventing cuticle dryness, and moisturizing the nails and fingertips.
How Does Nail Polish Drying Spray Work?
You may wonder how nail polish drying spray works. These products have components in them that help cut down the drying time of nail polish.
To know how a nail polish drying spray works, it is important to know what nail polish is made of and how it works.
These are the main ingredients used to make nail polish:
- Solvent – This is the first ingredient of nail polish, and it is a key ingredient that helps determine the drying time of the nail polish. The most commonly used solvents for nail polish are ethyl acetate and butyl acetate.
- Polymer – This is a form of plastic that creates a smooth surface once it is applied to the nails. The type of polymer commonly used for nail polish is nitrocellulose.
- Resin – This enhances the polymer, making the film glossier and harder.
- Plasticizer – This ingredient makes the polymer more flexible, so it does not chip easily.
- Pigments – These ingredients are the components that add color to the nail polish. They can be organic or inorganic.
- Pearls – These ingredients give nail polish a shiny and pearly effect. Not all nail polish contains pearls, as some nail polish has a matte finish that does not use these ingredients.
When you apply nail polish to the nails, the solvent evaporates, which then causes the polymer to form a thin film on the nails. The resin makes it harder, while the plasticizer prevents it from dripping.
A nail polish drying spray contains silicone, which helps the solvent in the nail polish evaporate faster. The spray also works to prevent the nail polish from smudging while drying.
This product is very easy to use. All you need to do is spray it on your freshly-painted nails.
Make sure that the nozzle is roughly 15 cm away from the surface of the nails. After spraying, please wait for a few minutes for it to dry.
How Fast Does Drying Spray Work?
After applying nail polish normally takes up to an hour for all the layers to fully dry. The top coat can take around 15 minutes to dry. This is why many nail salons have fan dryers with UV lights to decrease the drying time, especially when their clients are in a hurry.
Nail polish drying sprays were created to cut down the drying time without the help of fan dryers and other professional nail drying tools.
Many nail polish drying sprays promise to dry nails within a minute. This may sound too good to be true, which is often the case for nail-drying products.
A nail polish drying spray typically dries nails within a few minutes, but the drying time depends on the number of nail polish coats applied.
So even if nail polish drying sprays do not live up to the promise of drying nails in just a minute, these products still significantly reduce drying time.
From at least 15 minutes of waiting for your nail polish to dry, your nails can dry in 5 minutes or less if you apply a nail polish drying spray.
Of course, the more coats you apply, the longer it will take for your nails to dry, even with the help of drying sprays.
Is Drying Spray Good For All Nail Polish?
There are different types of nail polish, from regular nail polish to glitter nail polish to peel-off nail polish to gel nail polish. Each one has a different drying time from the others because of the difference in solvent contents.
In general, nail polish drying spray is good for most types of nail polish. It can work on glitter, matte, and regular nail polish.
However, it does not work very well on gel nail polish. This is because gel nail polish has a different consistency. It also has additional ingredients.
Gel nail polish has methacrylate compounds and photo-initiator compounds like benzoyl peroxide.
Because of these compounds, this type of nail polish does not dry normally. It has to be cured with UV light to adhere to the nail.
When applying gel nail polish, you need to cure it with UV light after every coat, which makes applying this nail polish quite tedious. You must cure after applying the top coat and again after applying the first coat of colored nail polish and so on.
Even if you use copious amounts of nail polish drying spray, it will not work on gel nail polish.
Is Drying Spray Better Than Hairspray For Drying Nails?
Before nail polish drying sprays and fast-dry top coats were invented, people used different hacks to speed up the drying process of nail polish.
These hacks include dipping the nails in ice-cold water, placing the hands inside the fridge freezer, applying cooking oil on the nails, and using a blow dryer.
One popular hack used to dry nail polish faster is hairspray. Hairspray is a hair care product that is common in many households, and you can buy it at cosmetic stores, drugstores, and any store that sells hair care products.
Hairspray helps dry nail polish by speeding up the process. However, it only dries the top coat.
If you compare a nail polish drying spray to a hairspray, a nail polish drying spray works better.
This is because nail polish drying spray is specially formulated to speed up nail polish’s drying process, and hairsprays are made to set a hairstyle.
While hairspray can be effective, nail polish drying sprays have special ingredients that are good for the nails. These sprays are made to set nail polish nicely and quickly to prevent them from smudging and getting ruined.
So if you can buy a nail polish drying spray, it makes sense to get one rather than using your hairspray at home. Hairspray is a good hack and only offers a temporary and quick solution if you do not have a nail polish drying spray.
Sources:
The Science Behind Quick-Dry Nail Products
How Long It Takes For Nail Polish To Dry – And How To Make It Dry Faster