When You Need Dry Nails Fast
Fresh nail polish and life seem like a train wreck waiting to happen. One fastened seat belt, one turn of the key and smuuuudge .
Although a botched manicure or pedicure may seem trivial next to, say, the overfishing of Canadian salmon streams, beauty company chemists have set their minds to finding an instant drying solution. Some of these products go on like clear polish. Others spray on. Some promise to dry nails in as few as 60 seconds, others in as many as 30 minutes.
Which work best? Our non-scientific evaluation put six products, applied on top of the same brand of polish according to label directions, through two sets of three tests: a touch test 60 seconds after application, then paper crumpling, then typing.
All the products performed better than polish alone. (“The average (untreated) manicure will dry to the touch naturally in 45 minutes to an hour,” says Robin Hultquist of Salon Bellaggio in Irvine.) Some products passed on one round but not the other. The following is a list of tested products and their performance.
*
Product: Superfast Nail Enamel Dryer; 4 ounces, about $2.46 in drugstores.
Performance: This alcohol-intensive pump spray flunked the touch and crumpling tests but passed the typing test in the first round. Second round, same results.
Product: Top Speed by Revlon; 2 ounces, about $3.71 at drugstores.
Performance: This scentless pump spray had split results on the touch test, flunked the crumpling test twice and passed the typing test twice.
Product: Dry-Kwik by Sally Hansen; .45 fluid ounces, about $2.24 at drugstores.
Performance: This odor-free lacquer failed the touch and crumpling tests on the first try. It passed the touch test but not the crumpling on the second, and passed both typing tests. Left the best shine of any product tested.
Product: L’oreal No-Time Nail Dry; .05 fluid ounces, about $3.56 at drugstores.
Performance: This odor-free lacquer got an F on the first set of tests and an A on the second. Go figure.
Product: Max Factor Quick Set Nail Dry; .5 fluid ounces, about $3.74 at drugstores.
Performance: This thin lacquer aced the typing test on both attempts but had split results on the touch and crumple tests.
Product: Rapidry by O.P.I.; 2 ounces, about $5.95 at salons and beauty supply stores.
Performance: This pump spray smells like bug repellent, but it passed both rounds of tests with flying colors.
