Saturday, April 20, 2013

Alternative Uses For Nail Polish

Obviously we all use nail polish to brighten up our fingers and toes, but have you ever tried using nail polish as a quick fix or as part of a DIY project? There are seemingly endless ways to use nail polish, so today I thought it'd be fun to take a look at some of the many ways you can put nail polish to use around the house!


Make Metal Rust-Proof: This is great for objects in your bathroom (think shaving cream cans that leave rust rings in the shower) or outdoors. Just apply some clear nail polish on areas or surfaces prone to rusting and you're good to go!

Stop Bug Bites From Itching: Apply a dab of clear polish over a mosquito bite. The polish will cut the bite off from oxygen, stopping the itch temporarily.




Creat New Jewelry--Or Revamp Old Jewelry: Use polish to turn everyday items into fun statement pieces or add pops of color to old jewelry you no longer wear. Check out tutorials like this one and this one to help give you ideas!

Make Your Remote Control (Or Anything Else) Glow-In-The-Dark: Put a coat of glow-in-the-dark polish over your remote control buttons. Voila! No more squinting to tell the buttons apart in the dark! My old apartment also had glow-in-the-dark star stickers on all of the circuit breakers in the event of a power outage, so you could use glow-in-the-dark nail polish for this same purpose too.


Extend The Life Of Costume Jewelry: Inexpensive or costume jewelry can tarnish and leave green marks behind on your skin. Lightly coat your inexpensive jewelry with a bit of clear nail polish to help preserve it and prevent tarnishing. You can also use clear nail polish as a substitute adhesive to help repair broken jewelry, like for when you need to glue a loose stone back in place.

Threading A Needle: Coat the end of a cut thread with clear polish, then roll it back and forth between your thumb and index fingers to help it dry quickly. The thread will then be stiff enough to easily thread a needle.


Stop A Pantyhose Run From Spreading: This is one of my favorites and something I use nail polish for all the time. Apply clear (or black, if you want to help disguise the run in dark stockings) over a pantyhose run to keep it from spreading. It won't fix the run, but it'll get you through the day until you can pick up a new pair. You can use this same method for tears in window screens.

Protect Buttons: Use clear polish to keep button threads from fraying or to preserve the finish of decorative buttons, like pearl buttons.


Give Your High Heels A Makeover: Whether you're mimicking the famous red soles of Christian Louboutin or putting a splash of your favorite color on an old pair of shoes, start with a coat of white polish on the soles to make your color of choice extra vivid. Once the white polish has completely dried, go over it with a colored polish. Let it dry then hit the town in your fresh new heels!

Create Smudge-Proof Labels: Use clear polish to instantly waterproof your labels.


Color Coding: Use nail polish to differentiate between a set of keys or anything else that needs organizing.

Heal A Wart: Warts need oxygen to survive so sealing them off with clear polish will do the trick. I've never tried this myself, but it's widely reported on the internet that clear polish can kill off a war in about a week's time. Just make sure you throw out the polish in question afterwards so you don't spread any germs, or use a cotton swab to apply the polish directly on the wart to prevent contamination.

Do you have any tips and tricks for other ways to use nail polish? I'd love to hear them!

8 comments:

  1. I love this! I can't believe I never thought of some of these - thank you :)

    http://lipstickedlouise.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. It's really unbelievable some of the things people have come up with, isn't it? :)

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  2. The key one is genius!! I am so doing that!!

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    1. So fun, right? Makes me kind of bummed my keys are already kinda distinctive-looking haha.

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  3. Fantastic post! I didn't know some of these and will definitely try to employ these moving forward.

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    1. Thanks Amanda! I'm glad you found some new ones to try! :)

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  4. If you wear glasses (prescription or sun), put a drop,of clear polish over the screws after tightening them as much as possible to prevent them from coming loose. You could also put clear polish over a ringworm to speed up the healing (obviously, not using that bottle on your nails again lol),

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    1. Thanks for sharing your tips, Sarah! Seems like nail polish is a fix for just about anything. :) I've never heard of using it for ringworm--that's cool!

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