Pure speculation! The science behind nail polish

There are a few common sciencey questions I get asked a lot, and for some of them, I have a strong suspicion on how they work, but I can't confirm it properly (without misappropriating university resources, anyway). So here's a post where I speculate about how things work, which may or may not turn into a series of posts...


How does shatter/crackle polish work?

Old school!

As a sciencey nail blogger, this is the question I get asked the most! I've seen a lot of posts saying that ethanol (or ethyl alcohol, or alcohol SD40) is the ingredient that makes it shatter, but that's not the full story. I know this for a fact, because I've tried adding various amounts of ethanol to various types of nail polish and none of them wanted to even separate. More importantly, I'm sure many, many other people have played with it too, but no one's written about their successful crackle franken, even though crackle came out over 2 years ago. Additionally, most people who try to explain shatter claim that it's because ethanol evaporates faster than usual, but ethyl acetate, the most common nail polish ingredient, has a lower boiling point and evaporates faster.¹

Ethanol is definitely a big part of why shatter does what it does - it doesn't stay well mixed with the other nail polish ingredients and helps it go uneven, plus it could be part of why shatter won't shatter on bare nails². it's also about the other ingredients in the polish.

This area isn't my forte, but I think polish companies have taken care to formulate a polish which sticks together quickly, is very brittle, and doesn't adhere well. In shatter/crackle ingredients lists, you'll notice "adipic acid/neopentyl glycol/trimellitic anhydride" quite high up while "nitrocellulose" is low, whereas in most normal polishes, it's the other way around (most polishes don't have adipic acid/neopentyl glycol/trimellitic anhydride at all). This different formulation is probably also why shatter tends to flake off so easily and dry dull.


How does spotted/bubbly polish work?

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Freaky Friday - In which my boyfriend becomes a nail art guru

These events happened a while ago, but I've only just managed to wrap my head around them. I'm still don't quite understand how it happened, or how I can make it happen again...



In which he demands quality nail art supplies

"I'm bored!" the boyfriend sighs. I see his eyes dart towards the pile of un-throw-out-able beauty products in the corner of my room. "Can I help you clean?"

This is never a good phrase to hear. He's convinced I'm a hoarder; I'm equally adamant that he produces too much waste by throwing things away and later rebuying them when he comes to the inevitable realisation that he needs them again. "Um... how about you design some nail art? You're always saying I should do bolder designs, maybe you can give me an idea of what you had in mind?"

This suggestion seems to quell the Throw All the Things beast, and I toss a few white swatch sticks his way. "Just give me one, I don't want to waste your stuff," he says.

"I don't actually use those for swatching, I prefer the clear ones. Use all the sticks you want."

His eyes narrow. "I don't want to use substandard sticks."

In which he discovers near-dupes and lemmings

After reassurances that they'll be fine, he starts asking for colours. "I want black. Do you have a bright green as well?"

I show him Rimmel Green Grass. "Darker," he says.

I take out ulta3 Frog Prince. "More fluoro." I'm feeling more and more like I'm dealing with a demanding toddler. "I can't believe you have this many polishes and no GOOD colours."

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My SOS Skin Regimen

Lately I've had a few nasty pimples appear on my face, including a few of those deep, nasty bumps that hang around for ages and make you start to think you may have a tumour, as well as a field of little clogged pores. I mainly think it was diet and lifestyle (lack of sleep, possibly also my habit of eating a whole jumbo bag of chilli kettle chips in one sitting) which made them rear their ugly heads, but by the time you notice them, there's no way to diet-and-lifestyle them away. At the same time, I was having horrible hay fever which made my nostrils sore and flaky.

Chin bumps! :(

So with this combo, I turned back to these safe, non-irritant options:

Ground oatmeal - My irritated skin go-to. Oatmeal contains anti-irritant avenanthramides as well as moisturising beta-glucans - see my original post here for the juicy scientific details. My mum is a nurse who treated kids hospitalised for severe dermatitis with oatmeal baths when steroids weren't effective, and the difference it made was astounding, as well as dirt cheap and risk-free.

I pulverise the oatmeal in a coffee grinder, scoop out a teaspoon and cover it with water, then mix it into my gel cleanser or clay mask. I also soak a teaspoon in water before bed, then dab it into the irritated parts before moisturising. I store a whole heap of pre-ground oatmeal in a classy plastic IKEA container:

Rose hip oil - In my excitement to try new products, pure rose hip oil sometimes falls by the wayside in my skin regimen, but when I need SOS treatment, I head straight for this miracle-in-a-bottle (original review here).

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Tried and tested: Born Pretty Brushes

I have this stupid problem where I keep misplacing my favourite clean-up/everything brush. It's a skinny round eyeliner brush, so it's understandable that it rolls into oblivion every once in a while, but it's been missing since the end of March and it's annoying me no end.

I've bought multiple sets of generic brushes off eBay for clean-up and none of them have survived the daily dip into acetone, so when I was sent a set of 5 acrylic brushes from the nail addict's favourite accessory store, Born Pretty (worldwide free shipping FTW!) I wasn't expecting too much... but they're actually awesome. (I guess that's what specialist nail stores are for, hmmm...) They're a bit too big for intricate nail art, but they're perfect for clean up, with the handy combo of stiff but not too stiff, and fine bristles.

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