Lesson Lockdown: How To Clean Your Stained Nails

Polished Prisoners,

Yup today your back to lockdown status because aw lawd ain't nothing worse than taking off an amazing richly pigmented polish that rocked your world and seeing yes, gasp, stained nail beds!  Honestly,  I never understood why women would complain about this until it happened to me.   To be fair I scrub my hands all day everyday as part of my regular gig IRL.  I'm used to my nails being no-man's land in terms of bacteria and germs and gloves are an absolute.  So when I took off my gorgeous holo polishes from Love Angeline and looked down at my nails and saw the following I wanted to scream!

I tried using a little more acetone than usual.  Nope.  I tried a pseudo-foil method.  Nope.  Then I finally realized if I wanted these stains gone I was going to have to put my background in biochemisty to work.  I rummaged around the house looking for baking soda and lemon juice and then finally scrounged up some hydrogen peroxide.  I was gonna bust these stains' butts lol figuratively of course!

The Science

So here's the deal really this is all about mixing a powerful oxidant (hydrogen peroxide) with a strong acid (lemon juice aka citric acid) and a bad ass base (baking soda aka sodium bicarb).  Mix 1 part lemon juice with 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 2 parts baking soda to create a paste.  If you don't have lemon juice but do have a lemon go ahead and squeeze away or you can place lemon wedges directly on your nails, but it will take way longer to whiten than it would if you just did this mixture.

You can use a nail brush or a tooth brush to scrub at your nails to expedite the process of stain removal especially if your like me and are, one, totally skivved out by anything that remotely approaches a stain on your nail and, two, you want to move onto whatever your next manicure is without the limitation of stained nail beds.  One PSA though if you have any open wounds on your fingers or around your cuticles this will sting! "Mommy it burns, it burns!"  It's an antibacterial mixture though so it won't harm you but you've been warned ;)  And when you are done you should get this!

So there we have it.  I thought this really might be useful to some ladies out there struggling with this issue.  I really and truly hate stains on my nails, but I also have no real reference for the whitening solutions that you can go out and buy.  Plus why would I when I know I can create the same thing at home for basically free since I have these ingredients lying around my house on the regular?  I actually use baking soda to wash my hair.  Let me know if you like this.  I have other little tips and tricks up my sleeve too if your interested.  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post!