Fixing polish chips and smudges

Sometimes while you're waiting for polish to dry, you have to use the bathroom or answer the phone or something, and... bam. The tip of your nail is smudged. Or you've been wearing a mani for just a day or two, and it gets scratched by your car key. Whatever the cause, don't fret! Your manicure is not ruined. You can do a quick fix and no one might even notice.

Here's a smudge that happened to my recent mani. Sorry it's hard to see; they say glitter polish is quite forgiving to mistakes and pink glitter even moreso. Hopefully you can see the smudge, right by the arrow.

Here are my steps to fix it:

1. Take a q-tip/cotton bud, dip it in acetone, and run it gently over the ruined area. The idea here is to remove all the rough areas and create a spot that can easily be filled with new polish, without being higher than the rest of the polish.

2. Take your colored polish, and wipe the brush off until you have just a TINY bead of polish on the very tip of the brush.

3. Take a deep breath, steady your hands, and dab the polish onto the bald spot. Smooth it out a little bit.

Sometimes this turns out perfectly and you can't even see where you fixed it! Sometimes it turns out a little splotchy in that area, but most people aren't going to notice. See?

Optional step 4: Apply a new layer of topcoat to the nail. This smooths things out even more, creating the illusion that there was never a smudge in the first place.

Nailgirl