Thursday, January 24, 2013

Can Pam Cooking Spray Help Dry Your Nails Quicker?

      
I’ve seen the tip on Pinterest several times now about spraying wet, polished nails with Pam cooking spray. Along with this, I’ve also seen the tip about placing your nails in cold water to aid in the drying process.

I am a nail biter and it is a habit I am forever trying to break. If my nails are painted, I am more likely to not bite them. I’ll go months without biting them and then a switch will flip and then that’s it- nail biter, again.

Well, the holidays are over and I actually have some down time and thought now would be the perfect time to get back on the no-bite train, paint my nails, and try out the above mentioned tip. The pin I used took me to an article on elle.com with all kinds of helpful hints- actually, the remainder of the article was probably more interesting than the ’spraying your hands with cooking lubricant’ bit.

As previously mentioned, when I’m in my “no-bitey” phase my fingernails are pretty much painted all the time. Which means I’ve done a lot of nails in my time.If you are wondering, my “process” starts with the whole cuticle soaking/trimming/pushing rigamarole then into Sally Hansen Hard As Nails as a base coat. Next comes several coats of whatever color- with a minute or so between coats- and then I apply a top coat. For my money, Seche Vite dry Fast Top Coat is the best I’ve found. Obviously, I have my own system that works best for me. But a promise of even FASTER dry nails was tempting.

The instructions, I guess, COULD have been more clear than “spray with Pam.” Who knew? So, I put my regular top coat on, not knowing whether the Pam replaces that step. And then I sprayed my nails with Pam and immediately realized… oh crap… I now have cooking lubricant all over my fingers. There were no suggestions as to how long to keep it on, or when to wash it off. I left it on for about two minutes… then gently washed it off with soap and water. I used my thumb as a test nail, so as not to ruin the ENTIRE manicure if things went south.


Pam Cooking Spray Nail Drying Shift
Tectonic Shift!

I don't know if you can see, but the entire top layer shifted like a techtonic plate. Glad I only tested it on my thumb. I was able to slide it back and kind of finesse it into normalcy, but I wasn't blown away by Pam's effectiveness. Plus, did I mention that you have to cover your fingers with Pam?

I waited a little longer for the rest of my nails and they dried fine... but, I think the only real "trick" to getting nails to dry is TIME and not touching them- the longer the better. No earth shattering reveal here... but at least I may prevent one person out there from getting Pam all over their kitchen faucet. So, did it work? The answer is a solid YES(?).


Pan Cooking Spray Nail Drying Final
Final Result? Shiny... but from Color or Cooking Spray?

Anyone out there got any tips on not biting their nails? I'll test the cold water submersion theory next and let yall know how that works! Science!

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