The genius nail polish hack you never knew you needed

Nail-Polish-Sugar-Hack-Cara-Delevingne

We wish we knew about this sooner

Beauty Crew Beauty Writer / June 27 2017

We all know the heartache that comes from accidentally knocking over your nail polish bottle and having it spill everywhere. Not only do you lose your go-to nail colour in one fell swoop, but your carpet will never be the same, either.

Thankfully, we stumbled across a genius nail polish hack from Tumblr that had been posted on The Worst of Tumblr Facebook page that could well be a game changer for said scenario.

The Tumblr, bxbosslady user claimed that she had witnessed a sales assistant at Ulta drop a bottle of nail polish in the store, which shattered and spilled all over the floor. Next, the sales assistant instantly poured regular white sugar all over the spill to absorb the polish to the point where it could simply be swept off the floor.

Now, since you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet, we wanted to either prove or dismiss the nifty hack once and for all. To do so, we enlisted the help of manicurist, Bernadette Leva who tried the hack for herself.

According to Leva, the process was pretty simple: first she spilled a red nail polish over her laminate nail table before sprinkling a generous amount of sugar over the top. Leva waited for two to three minutes to allow the polish to absorb and then wiped away the debris.

Now, while we had our doubts as to whether this hack would work, according to Leva the Tumblr post is in fact true!

Don’t believe us? Then check out the image of Leva’s results below.

It is important to note that while the sugar was incredibly effective in absorbing the nail polish spill, there was a slight amount of residue left on the table, which Leva then cleaned up with acetone.

Additionally, Leva believes the hack would work best on high gloss surfaces and would be less effective or potentially ineffective on porous surfaces.

She also explains, “this technique only works for oil-based nail polishes, as the sugar is insoluble in oil. Whereas with water based polishes, the sugar would dissolve, leaving you with a bigger mess”. Good to know!

So while this nail polish hack has its limits, the trick is still worth trying the next time you have a nail polish disaster.

While we may experience minor nail polish mishaps on occasion, they’re nothing compared to the nightmarish way North West uses her favourite colours.

Have you discovered any unusual beauty hacks that work a treat? Share them with us in the comments below.

Image credit: Getty; Supplied

Kate started working for BEAUTYcrew in early 2016, first as a contributor, and was then named Beauty Writer in 2017. She loves picking the brains of the industry's top experts to get to the bottom of beauty's toughest questions. Bronze eyeshadow palettes are her weakness and she's forever on the hunt for the perfect nude nail polish to suit her fair skin. Her words can also be found in Men's Health magazine, and she now works in PR.