So, uh, i painted my nails (for the first time since i was a kid) last night. They look rough i love it. That’s beside the question, i waited patiently for my nails to dry. Right? Hooray me for not Oh! Squirrel!ing. For I don’t know how many hours afterward, they stank like ammonia or something. I wanted to pet my cats but my nails were too stinky. They would not allow it. So how do I make my nails stop stinking faster so I can get back to petting my cats?
edit: follow up do they make nail polish that smells like catnip


The stink is the smell of the acetone evaporating. You can speed that process by hitting them with a warm blowdryer. The heat and airflow will encourage faster evaporation of the acetone.
that won’t compromise the polish somehow, will it? like, make bubbles appear or have it be shiny rather than matte or anything? i thought about popping them under a heat gun on low or something, but i forgot about blowdryers (am bald) so thanks for the reminder
Believe it or not-- ice bath will set them faster. Also, recommend thinner costs and let each dry before the next.
Like, five seconds or a minute? Thanks so much
Give it a minute or two, wave around to shake the drops off and then lightly feel to make sure it’s not tacky. Im pretty impatient, so sometimes I don’t wait long enough.
I learned a lot from this set of instructions and the tips at the end. Especially capping/sealing and base coats. They’re talking about nail wraps – which I love – but I have use the same techniques with just normal color as well and had a lot more success.
https://lilyandfox.com/pages/how-to-apply-lily-fox-nail-wraps
I see some people mentioned gel. I have never successfully used gel, I’m just aware there are extra steps and a light or something to cure, but if you find that the polish is taking longer than 5 minutes per coat to be dry enough to pet the kitties, then you might have a gel polish. Those really require the light to cure (if I’m understanding correctly).
I’ve only done it a few times with my nails and i’ve only had bubbles happen once. I think if you keep the temp warm rather than hot and don’t have the polish super thick it shouldn’t be an issue.