Remove polish every two weeks and give your nails a breather for a day or so. Or switch to light polish, which doesn't need to be changed as often since there's a lower risk of it staining your nails.
While wearing nail polish all the time won't stop your nails from growing, it does damage your nail integrity. Even with blood supply, nails do still need air to “breathe”. That's why a break from nail polish every few weeks is a must. For keratin granulation, 3 to 4 weeks will be enough time to give your nails a rest.
The average time for your natural nail to grow out completely from the cuticle to the tip of the nail can take anywhere from four to six months. This is a long time to refrain from manicures or using polish, so we recommend taking a three to four week break between nail appointments. What is this?
“If you consistently wear nail polish, your nails may become susceptible to what's known as keratin granulation,” Mahalli notes. Keratin granulation is caused by nail polish drying out the nail beds, which can lead to keratin clumping together and forming white spots or stains on your nails.
You Lower Your Chemical Load
There's a reason mommies-to-be skip manicures. A lot of nail polishes are a chemical cocktail of ingredients tied to miscarriages, birth defects, cancer, and lung diseases, and it's not just the toxic trio of formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate that's to blame.
Nails don't need surface access to air because they get oxygen and nutrients from your blood. Keeping nails hydrated is important if yours are prone to breakage, and a pause in polishing to moisturize would help.
Jin Soon, a NYC-based manicurist, recommends up to three coats of nail polish for full color coverage and a smooth, finished look. "If you apply more than three coats in one sitting, the application will be prone to clumping off in one piece, almost like a shell" she says.
exposure to UV light. Removal process of gel polish can be destructive to nails. Removal involves soaking in acetone, and aggressive buffing, scraping, and peeling of polish, which can injure the nail plate. Wearing gel polish for long periods may result in severe brittleness and dryness of the nails.
Your best bet is to clean off the old polish after a week and repaint your nails. The one great thing about lacquer is that it's the least damaging to your nails. If you use an acetone-free remover, you can change the polish every week.
If you paint your toenails, it is best to leave the paint on until it's time for it to be removed (around two to three weeks in most cases), and then allow an equal amount of time for your toenails to be left natural. This includes not putting on a clear top coat of polish.
Constant exposure to toxic nail paints and other nail care products can produce a number of health effects ranging from minor complaints like skin irritation, allergic reactions, nausea, to more serious troubles like respiratory problems, cancer and reproductive conditions.
“Keeping nail polish in a fridge slows down the normal possible discoloration and solvent evaporation of the polish, which happens as the polish gets older,” says Hariharan. In short, “the sooner you put the product in the fridge, the longer the color stays true.”
Wear a base coat
If you apply nail polish without any steps to help to strengthen the nails, your nails will weaken over time causing brittle nails. They will also have some discolouration, dryness and there can even be breakages. A base coat will help reduce some of these side effects, especially discolouration.
Nail polish application typically involves 1 coat of base coat, 2 coats of color application to ensure full coverage, and 1 coat of top coat for long-lasting wear and shine.
The water will keep you from smudging your nails unless you use too much force, so you can remove lots of the excess this way. (Warm water is pretty much the only way I fix botched toe nail polish - it's super easy to remove the excess at the end of a shower!
Use your Bed of Nails when needed, preferably daily for 10 to 20 minutes, or as long as you desire. As a new user it might be better to lie for a shorter period of time, until the body gets used to the nails. It is completely harmless to lie for a longer period of time or even to fall asleep on it.
Nails contain genomic DNA that can be used for genetic analyses, which is important for large epidemiologic studies that have collected nail clippings at baseline and for future epidemiologic studies that consider collecting nails as a DNA source for genetic analyses.
Regular polish and gel generally have the same effect on the nails. But, the removal process is where it gets tricky. Gel polish needs to be soaked off in acetone and that can be harmful to nails and skin. In this case, yes, regular polish is safer.
Gel polish lasts between 2-3 weeks at the minimum, while regular polish is lucky to go a week without chipping. With light wear, your gel nails last at least twice as long as a normal polish, but realistically they get you four to six times a standard manicure mileage.
Another good option for a standard manicure is the best peel-off nail polish. It doesn't damage the nails and is easy to remove.
"The shelf life of an unopened polish can last up to 5-8 years, and after opening the polishes last up to two years," Ling Lin says. Forgetting to screw on the top tightly or exposing your bottles to veritable temperatures can also speed up the expiration process.