Make your polish dry faster: ice water method tutorial

I think by far, waiting for your nail polish to dry is the biggest turn off when it comes to changing manis. You can't do anything during that time! Even the slightly bump can ruin a perfect polish job.

Today I bring to you, wait for it, drum roll please... A tutorial on using a bowl of icy water to dry your nail polish in under 15 minutes (I also had in total 6 layers of nail polish: 1 base, 4 polish, 1 topcoat). And I should add, I slap on really thick layers of polish each time.

Step 1

Before you dive into painting your nails, get the water and ice ready. There's nothing worse than ruining your nails before you even got to dry them. You'll need a cup of ice, and half a bowl of tap water.

Step 2

Add the ice into the bowl. Be careful because I got splashed.

Step 3

Watch the ice starting to melt already! Now you can start painting your nails. On a hot day, it'll still take the ice 30 minutes to melt away completely. So don't rush yourself. Slow and steady wins the award of perfect-no-clean-ups-needed-manis.

Step 4

Make sure to always put on topcoat. I waited around 1 minute after my layer of topcoat, then plunged my fingertips into the bowl of icy water.

The rule is:
Alternate every 15 seconds for each hand. Otherwise your fingers will feel like they're going to freeze off. Repeat each hand 4 times so it adds up to 1 minute per hand. 2 minutes in total.

You can dry your hands off afterwards but make sure to avoid your nails. My polish was dry to touch in 5 minutes' time after taking them out of the water. The most amazing thing is that they're pretty much indestructible after half an hour! As opposed to my normal 2 hour wait because I like thick layers.


Check out the result! I used Essie Lilacism. It is such a gorgeous cool shade for summer.

Like they say, time is money. I've just saved myself a lot of money.