Tip of the day: Does nail polish go bad?
by Boydie Beener (Subscribe to Boydie Beener's posts), Posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 8:05AMThis is a post
Believe it or not, nail polish does not go bad. Now we know we've been adamant before about getting rid of those beauty products when they expire. However, this is one that you can keep until it dries up or gets goopy on you.
Why?
Most cosmetics do not have strong enough preservatives to ward off bacteria for more than few months. Polish on the other hand is too potent for bacteria to survive in, no matter how long you've had the bottle. Just check out the big ingredients on your bottle – Ethyle Acetate, butyle acetate, nitrocellulose, Formaldehyde resin, isopropyl alcohol?! We don't know what a lot of these mean but they sure sound a little scary to be engulfed in if we were a little bacteria.
There is a downside to this product though. It can dry/goop up if you don't screw on the lid tightly enough. The same ingredients we just mentioned will evaporate and the polish will go to crap, if you will. Once it's dried up, then you will need to toss it.
Kate C. 7-22-2008 @ 7:02PM
So I have a question. If all that stuff is in nail polish why are we putting it on our nails? It sounds really bad for you. Surely some of it would be absorbed into the body.
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Em Dash 7-23-2008 @ 3:12AM
If you put nail polish in the fridge it won't goop.
If you have goopy polish, you can resurrect it by adding a little bit of nail polish remover, putting the lid on tight, and shaking it hard.
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Kirsten 2-03-2010 @ 4:23AM
For the love of god don't use remover in your polish! It's meant to destroy and degrade polish and it will destroy your polish. Use polish thinner, that's what it is made for!
Kirsten 2-03-2010 @ 4:23AM
Eh, you do not have to toss thick or dried up polish. They invented polish thinner for that. You can even use it on a completely dried up polish and make it work again.
Polish will outlive you.
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