Can You Dry Nail Polish With A Hair Dryer?

Do you do your nails at home? With lots of manicure kits available, it’s become easier, cheaper, and more fun to rock your manicure from the comfort of your own home.

However, if you are faced with a problem like your nail polish not drying or not drying fast enough, you might be wondering how you can speed things up. 

Can you dry nail polish with a hair dryer? You may be able to dry nail polish with a hair dryer, depending on the type of nail polish you are using. If you are using the traditional nail lacquer, then a hair dryer can help. 

But if you are using different nail polish, like a gel nail polish, then you won’t be able to dry them simply by using a hair dryer. They require UV or LED light for the reaction to be completed and the polish to harden. 

We’ll break it all down below, and give you some additional tips to speed up your manicure process.

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Can You Dry Nail Polish With A Hair Dryer?

It’s date night and you simply want to look as perfect as you can be. However, it’s too late to book an appointment for a manicure so you decide to do it on your own. After all, you still have hours before your date. 

Typically, your regular nail polish will dry up completely in less than an hour. Some dry in as little as 15 minutes. 

Typically, your regular nail polish will dry up completely in less than an hour. Some dry in as little as 15 minutes. 

It’s frustrating not being able to do anything with your fingers for 15 minutes because you’re patiently waiting for the nail polish to dry! You don’t want to risk doing anything before it completely dries because you don’t want to reapply the polish again in case you ruin it. 

You can patiently wait for 15 minutes or more, or you can use your hair dryer to help your nail polish dry up faster. 

When using a hair dryer to help your nail polish dry, you have to make sure that you are using regular nail lacquer. The one that dries up upon exposure to air. 

When using a hair dryer to help your nail polish dry, you have to make sure that you are using regular nail lacquer. 

Also, make sure that your hair dryer has a cool air setting. It may seem like using hot or warm air is the trick to drying the nail polish quickly but it isn’t. Cool air will do, plus you wouldn’t want to burn your fingers just to dry up your nail polish. 

In this case, we are using the cool air function of your hair dryer as a substitute for the nail fan or nail dryer. The nail fans or nail dryers are used by salons to help the regular nail polish to dry up quickly. 

Have you ever blown on your nails? That’s exactly what a nail fan does to help the regular polish dry up quicker. 

If you really want a regular nail polish that dries up quickly, you need to choose the ones with the quick dry formula . Manufacturers understand that it is difficult to wait for too long, so many now come in a quick-dry formula. 

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Why Is My Hair Dryer Not Drying The Nail Polish?

Imagine finding the right shade and color of nail polish for your dress, but trying to wait for a long time for it to dry up. However, they end up not drying at all! 

So you try the nail polish hack of using your hair dryer, only to end up with that not working either.

What’s wrong? Why won’t your hair dryer not dry the nail polish?

First of all, you have to check whether you are really using regular nail lacquer  There are many different colors and shades available right now.

However, there are a lot of different shades and colors from gel polishes. 

Regular nail polishes can be sold on the same shelves where you get your regular nail lacquer. That can cause some confusion as to whether your polish is a regular nail lacquer. 

Gel polishes come in bottle packaging that’s similar to regular nail polishes. The gel polishes are liquid in consistency and they also have a brush bottle cap. You apply them the same way you would apply a regular lacquer. 

The main difference between the two is that gel polishes will require UV or LED light exposure for them to completely dry up (depending on the polish). That’s why no matter how long you use a hair dryer on it, it will never dry. 

If your nail polish isn’t drying, you have to double-check the bottle and see whether it is really a regular lacquer nail polish that you bought or if you bought a gel polish instead. When you confirm that yours is a gel polish, you will probably have to get a nail lamp to be able to use it. 

If your nail polish isn’t drying, you have to double-check the bottle and see whether it is really a regular lacquer nail polish that you bought or if you bought a gel polish instead. When you confirm that yours is a gel polish, you will probably have to get a nail lamp to be able to use it. 

Getting gel polish isn’t a bad thing if you want to nail polish that dries up fast. Gel polish is one type of nail polish that is preferred because you don’t have to wait for it to dry.

It only takes a few minutes of exposure to the UV lamp for it to completely dry and harden. 

Nail Confusion

There are so many different types of nail polish out there, and they work in different ways. It’s hard to generalize.

For example, virtually all standard gel polish requires UV or LED light to dry, but there are now Air Dry Gel Polishes  that don’t require light!

And UV Light will not speed up the drying of a regular lacquer polish.

Bottom line: you need to read the label of each polish you buy to see how it works.

Bottom line: you need to read the label of each polish you buy to see how it works.

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Other Ways To Dry Your Nail Polish Quickly

We all have different preferences when it comes to the product we use. Although some people prefer to use gel polishes because they dry so quickly, there are still some people who don’t want to expose themselves to UV lamp and possible skin cancer.

If you are one of those who prefer to use regular nail lacquer, there is still hope in drying up your regular nail polishes quicker than usual. Here are a few things you can do to quickly dry up your regular nail polish. 

1. Dip In Ice Cold Water

One way to help your regular nail polish dry quickly is to use ice-cold water. In a bowl, place some ice cubes and add some water.

When the water is cold, you can simply dunk your fingers on it for a couple of minutes before removing them from the water. Then you’ll see that the nail polish is all dried.

Just be sure that you’ve given the nail polish enough time to settle first before dunking them in the bowl of cold water. This will make sure that the nail polish adheres properly to your nails first before it meets the water. 

2. Use Hair Spray

Another way to help dry up the nail polish quickly is to use some hair spray . A quick spritz of this product will help you save some time when it comes to drying your regular nail polish. 

Instead of a hair spray, you could use a nail-drying spray . Another good alternative for that is your cooking oil spray.

After spraying, you leave the spray for a couple of minutes before rinsing out your hands.

3. Baby Oil

If you don’t have spray oil or hair spray, you may use baby oil to help your nails dry faster. Make sure you have a decanter or a dropper to help make sure that you can control how much oil you use because you don’t need a lot. 

All you need is a drop or two of the oil over your nail that you want to dry quickly. 

4. Use Thinner Coats

Sometimes the color you want to achieve with your regular nail polish doesn’t come out if you don’t have enough layers or if you don’t use thick layers. However, if you use thick coats, it will take far too long to dry up. 

Instead of applying your nail polish in thick coats, it would be best to apply them in thinner coats. You can apply your nail polish in multiple coats, but you should make sure they are thin coats. 

Thin coats will dry up faster because there is less product and most of the surface is exposed to the air.

Once your initial layers dry up you can add another thin layer to get to the color or shade that you like. 

5. Use A Quick Dry Top Coat

You can dry up the nail polish faster by using another product on top of it. There are quick-dry top coat that you can use over your choice of nail polish.

Usually, these topcoats cost as much as your regular bottle of nail polish does. 

Although the topcoat could dry fast, the middle layers may still move around, which could still cause ripples to form. If you want a smooth surface, you’ll still need to be patient when it comes to letting your nail polish dry. 

The good thing about top coats is that they don’t only dry quickly, but they can help protect the nail polish so that it won’t easily chip.