Does anyone have tips on how to deal with my top coats making my mani shrink at my nail tips? Every quick dry top coat that I use does this, even after I’ve thinned it out.
Nina Ultra Pro – Lilac-ing Discipline
Top coat – KBShimmer Clearly on Top top coat
grainiary on
i don’t have any tips for you but damn that color looks amazing on you lmao
PepeL3P3w on
Silly question but do you wrap the tips of your nails?
granitebasket on
I’ve only recently started experiencing shrinkage. My topcoat didn’t shrink when it was fresh, but it thickened, and since adding thinner, shrinkage has been an issue.
In the meantime, I decided to grab a bottle of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (red bottle top coat) from the drugstore and implement the tip I’ve seen in this sub, which is to apply 60 after the last coat of colour. (So while you may make a pass across all your fingers for each layer, when you get to the last coat of colour, you do colour – 60 sec – top coat, one finger at a time.)
This does seem to work as far as avoiding shrinkage goes, though I’m not impressed with the level of gloss from Insta-Dri. There are no visible brush strokes when applied, but they appear subtly as it dries.
The other tip I’ve seen that I haven’t tried as I find it harder to execute is for your top coat to make contact with a sliver of bare nail all the way around the edge adjacent the skin folds.
As for my old top coat: I read the ingredients, and after the first two ingredients, which are same as my thinner, it’s alcohol. Has anyone tried adding 99% isopropyl alcohol (the highest percentage I can easily buy it) in addition to thinner that is Ethyl Acetate and Butyl Acetate?
edskitten on
I think they all shrink a little but top coats with Toluene seem to be the worse offenders.
OneHundredSeagulls on
It’s basically essential that you cap the edges and also cover all the sides and the root. Overwise it will shrink quite badly, but when I really get all the edges then I usually don’t have problems.
Dry-Meeting-8763 on
Tbh I think it depends on your polish and body chemistry. I have great luck with INPL/Opi QDTC, but that topcoat makes other brands shrink. I’m positive there’s a chemistry reason but I didn’t go to nail polish college, so I just say “trial and error!”
7 Comments
Does anyone have tips on how to deal with my top coats making my mani shrink at my nail tips? Every quick dry top coat that I use does this, even after I’ve thinned it out.
Nina Ultra Pro – Lilac-ing Discipline
Top coat – KBShimmer Clearly on Top top coat
i don’t have any tips for you but damn that color looks amazing on you lmao
Silly question but do you wrap the tips of your nails?
I’ve only recently started experiencing shrinkage. My topcoat didn’t shrink when it was fresh, but it thickened, and since adding thinner, shrinkage has been an issue.
In the meantime, I decided to grab a bottle of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (red bottle top coat) from the drugstore and implement the tip I’ve seen in this sub, which is to apply 60 after the last coat of colour. (So while you may make a pass across all your fingers for each layer, when you get to the last coat of colour, you do colour – 60 sec – top coat, one finger at a time.)
This does seem to work as far as avoiding shrinkage goes, though I’m not impressed with the level of gloss from Insta-Dri. There are no visible brush strokes when applied, but they appear subtly as it dries.
The other tip I’ve seen that I haven’t tried as I find it harder to execute is for your top coat to make contact with a sliver of bare nail all the way around the edge adjacent the skin folds.
As for my old top coat: I read the ingredients, and after the first two ingredients, which are same as my thinner, it’s alcohol. Has anyone tried adding 99% isopropyl alcohol (the highest percentage I can easily buy it) in addition to thinner that is Ethyl Acetate and Butyl Acetate?
I think they all shrink a little but top coats with Toluene seem to be the worse offenders.
It’s basically essential that you cap the edges and also cover all the sides and the root. Overwise it will shrink quite badly, but when I really get all the edges then I usually don’t have problems.
Tbh I think it depends on your polish and body chemistry. I have great luck with INPL/Opi QDTC, but that topcoat makes other brands shrink. I’m positive there’s a chemistry reason but I didn’t go to nail polish college, so I just say “trial and error!”