The genius hack for fixing a broken nail

Without having to cut it off and start from scratch

Beauty Crew Beauty Writer / August 28 2020

There is nothing more frustrating than growing your nails to the perfect shape and length, evenly across all 10 fingers, only to have one (or multiple) break and ruin all your hard work.

Thankfully, we stumbled across an incredible beauty hack that might just be the answer to all our broken, brittle and fragile nail prayers. The trick was first seen on Revelist’s Facebook page, Eyeliner Addicts, and shows an easy way to fix a broken nail in a matter on minutes.

The hack involves using a pantry staple as a replica nail. The household item in question? A tea bag.

We know. We found it hard to believe as well!

In the video (which you can watch below), a small strip of the paper from the tea bag is cut to fit the shape of the broken nail before a layer of base coat is applied to the nail. Then, the tea bag strip is placed onto the nail (while the base coat is still wet) to act as a bandage of sorts to keep the nail together. Once dried, another coat of clear polish is applied to the nail before the excess paper is filed off and the nail is buffed to the desired shape. Lastly, a coloured nail polish is applied and miraculously all signs of the broken nail are gone.

While we’re not entirely sure how long this hack will keep broken nails at bay, it’s a genius way to keep your nails looking great until you can make it to your next nail appointment.

Want to reduce the chance of your nails breaking in the first place? Follow these simple steps to take better care of your nails.

Image credit: Getty

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.