Patricia’s puzzled about polish: Does nail polish go bad or can it become contaminated? For example, you paint your nails once or twice and then don’t use it for a couple of years because you misplaced it, is it still safe!
The Right Brain nails the right answer:
If you’re looking for an excuse to splurge on a new bottle of OPI, we could tell you that you have to throw your old nail polish away after 6 months because it’ll spoil like a bottle milk on a hot summer day. But if you want to know the truth, we have to tell you that nail polish doesn’t really go bad.
Bacteria
Unlike water based cosmetics which are breeding grounds for bacteria, nail polish is pretty much self-preserving because of all the solvents it contains. (Not much grows in a ethyl acetate cocktail!) Just look at the major ingredients in an OPI nail polish: Butyl Acetate, Toluene, Nitrocellulose, Ethyl Acetate, Tosylamide/Formaldehyde Resin, Dibutyl Phthalate, and Isopropyl Alcohol. Nothing’s gonna grow in THAT chemical cocktail. You could say that nail polish is preservative free!
Dry Solvent evaporation
Of course just because it won’t grow bacteria doesn’t mean it can’t dry out. If you didn’t screw the cap on nice and tight before you lost the bottle two years ago, you can pretty much kiss your polish goodbye. Because those same solvents that won’t grow bugs will do something else: evaporate! And once nail polish dries out there’s not much that can be done to save it.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
While your polish may dry out quickly if you leave the cap off, you don’t have much to fear in terms of it spoiling because of old age. In fact, scientists predict that Hostess Twinkies and OPI nail polish will be the only things to survive a nuclear explosion. Oh wait a minute, that’s cockroaches. Well, never mind, you get the idea. And if you’re wondering about your other beauty products you might want to read our previous post on 4 Ways To Tell If Your Cosmetic Has Expired.
PS If you’re losing bottles of nail polish for years at a time, it sounds like you need a good makeup case!
What do YOU think? What’s the longest you’ve ever held on to a bottle of nail polish? Leave a comment and share your tawdry secrets with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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I didn’t know that – thanks! Now I’ll keep my favorite polish!
Nail enamel seems so harmless that I could thing of it as the latest thing when it comes to our nails’ health.
I found a bottle of white Sally Hansen polish that came in a French manicure kit from a year or two ago and the white pigment had separated from the rest of the polish and settled on the bottom. I couldn’t get it homogenized again so I had to chuck it. All my polish is years old and this is the first time I’ve seen this kind of thing happen.
Thanks for sharing the information. I didn’t know that nail polish are self-preserving.
I have a bottle of Black Russian nail polish that looks brown, green or purple depending on where the light stikes it that I adore from the 80s and it still works great!
Actually, there is something you can do to save old dried up polish. Go buy some Nail Polish Thinner, (not remover, it will ruin the polish), and add a couple drops to the goopy polish. Shake, set aside for a few minutes and Bammo! As good as new!
OPI is the best product in the entire world.
i will never ever use another product again.
life starts with OPI!!!!
Nail polish thinner will save your old gooey polish! This stuff is a god send, it replaces the ingredients that evaporate in polish. It is available at Sally’s Beauty Supply:
http://www.sallybeauty.com/Nail%20Polish%20Thinner/SBS-163400,default,pd.html?cgid=Nail05
Don’t shake your polish, it creates bubbles. Roll it between your palms instead.
I have a bottle of silicone shield polish which is Ph balance desperately looking for this opolish. i had it in my salon. closed in 1992
this polish is still good as the day I purchased it.
it is a base and top coat.
it is the only polish that will stay on my nails.
do you know where I can get this polish now. I have searched the internet.
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