Science Behind Fast-Drying Nail Polish
On Stardoll, you can paint your fingers and toes any color that the Polished store sells with a click of your mouse. In the real world? Not so much. Some nail polishes seem to take years to dry while other nail polishes are advertised as fast-drying, such as Sally Hansen Insta Dri, or Rimmel 60 Seconds Super Shine. But the real question is… what makes it dry faster?
The answer might surprise you: it’s the exact same ingredients, but just different amounts of each! This works the same as baking chocolate chip cookies: if you change the amount of ingredients, the cookies will still be chocolate chip, but they will look and taste different.
There are a few main ingredients in nail polish, but the one that matters most in fast-drying nail polish is the solvent. A solvent is defined as “a liquid, typically one other than water, used for dissolving other substances.” In other terms: any liquid thing that’s not water which dissolves other substances. Solvents also evaporate quickly, so the more solvent there is in a nail polish, the faster it will dry. However, this comes with a con: what if your polish isn’t smooth and has lumps in it? Yuck.
The ingredient that causes most nail polishes to become smooth when it’s on your nail is called nitrocellulose, or a film former. Nitrocellulose is one of the most common film formers, but it’s not the only one. In fast-drying nail polishes, there is more solvent and therefore evaporates faster. To ensure the the nail polish dries and sets well, a second film former is usually added: copolymer. That way, there’s more strength in the film formers so the polish adheres to nails faster.
In short, nail polish dries faster because it has different amounts of ingredients, and chemistry can tell us why. If you’d like, you can experiment with this idea a little bit on your own by making cookies over a period of time. Start with a recipe, then change one ingredient at a time and you’ll see how the results differ, but are still chocolate chip cookies. Happy experimenting!
-Carly