Every freekin’ bottle of the blasted stuff!! Even the expensive stuff that’s $14 a bottle!!
I keep it in a cool place! I don’t put it in direct sunlight! I try to water it down with remover! I do everything I possibly can to appease the nail polish gods and yet STILL - Gook in the bottle!
BAH!!
That’s it - I’m cutting my nails!
:mad:
I keep mine in the fridge. It still goes icky, but it takes longer.
Just add a drop or two of nail polish remover in the nail polish bottle, screw the lid on, shake bottle and voile!
Good as new!
I use this clear nail polish with a touch of glitter in it (I’m not a fan of colored nail polish) and it’s always smooth and never gooky. It’s a cheap kind too, made by Wet N’ Wild.
Anyway, just thought I’d pass that on to ya’ :).
See, but I find when I do that the gloss isn’t quite as glossy. The shine isn’t quite as shiney. The glitter isn’t quite as glittery.
:mad:
I think I’m just destened to be dissapointed with my nail polish.
And the thing that really picks my butt, is OPI. It’s the WORST OFFENDER and it’s supposed to be professional! Ha! If it’s professional, I’ll EAT MY HAT!
::grumble, grumble, stupid nail polish, grumble, grumble::
Rubbing alcohol works to thin it back out as well, and doesn’t cut down very much on the shine. YMMV.
Interestingly, I’ve had the most success with Avon and Wet 'n Wild - probably the cheapest nail polishes you can buy. I think Wet 'n Wild is $0.99 per bottle. (Where the heck is my cents sign on this blasted key board?)
Do not buy Urban Decay polishes then. They turn gooky after one use. How gooky? The polish was so thick, that when I used it the second time, I had to put a thick blob on my nail and sort of push it around to spread it on the nail. By the time it finally dried (14 hours!), each nail had about a hundred tiny bubbles in it. :mad: I wrote to the company, and they sent me two new ones (thinking it was a fluke). Nope, the others are just as bad.
Actually, it does seem that the more expensive the polish is, the glumpier it gets. I have Wet ‘n’ Wild polishes that are about 8 years old and they’re perfectly fine. Then I have an OPI that’s only 8 months old and it’s already getting glumpy.
alice, do you live near a Sally’s Beauty Supply? They apparently sell nail polish thinner. It’s somehow different than remover (if you use remover, the polish will break down a bit more quickly). I haven’t bought it myself, but I know several people who have, and they give it rave reviews.
And if you need to have shiney-shine, glittery-glitter et al, then use Sally Hansen’s Mega Shine. It costs about $6 for a bottle, but it’s manna for nails. It dries in two minutes to a perfectly smooth finish that gleams like water. I’m on my 4th bottle.
Humm - this I will try.
I’m afraid I’m SOL on the Sally’s though - I don’t think they have them in Canada. 
Ya see, I recall reading somewhere (no cite, though) that if you put nail polish remover in your nail polish, it will end up making it gunk up. I think I read this in Cosmo, which may not be the best source, but I think it was one of those “Cheap Girl’s Guides to Making Make-up Last because We’re too Snooty to Buy a 99 Cent Bottle of Nail Polish”. They’ve always got someone saying “I just spent $250 on a tube of lipstick, and it broke! What do I do?” If you can afford to spend $250 on a tube of lipstick, or moisturizer, or eye shadow, then you can afford to have someone take care of it for you. (Whew! I really didn’t mean to rant in your thread like that! Sorry!)
You should be able to find nail polish thinner at any beauty supply store. If you can’t find a beauty store, call the local cosmetology school. If they can’t sell it to you, they should be able to tell you where to find it.
alice, sally hansen also makes this rocking top-coat stuff that dries polish uberfast and makes it ubershiny and stronger. If you can’t find any, I’ll mail you some. Gladly.
I find that bottles of nail polish are too big. They get gloopy before I can use them up. I like those “petites” bottles. Cheap and small.
My girlfriend holds a bic lighter under the bottle for a few seconds. I know it’s probably dangerous, but she says it works. Me? I just keep buying more friggin’ nail polish. I’m also on the Avon stuff right now. It isn’t cheap anymore, and it doesn’t hold up well. I’m truly bummed. OPI is no better. It’s a racket, I tell ya!
Are you using any of those “jet dry” or “express finish” polishes? I find that those dry out in the time it takes me to paint five fingers.
Yeah, they really do - I bought one bottle of it when I was in the States 2 years ago, and its gunk now. Conversely, bottles of normal, cheaper nail varnish I bought about three years ago, are still fine. Perhaps its better to keep them in warm places rather than cold ones?
So - cheap is better. “Jet Dry” or “Express” are bad. And alcohol rather than remover is good for thining them out.
I think I really WILL cut my nails! 
Another tip is to make sure the threads of the bottle and the cap are clean of all nail polish. You might want to wipe on a small amount of vaseline to the threads of the bottle. The cap should screw on very tightly so that no oxygen can seep in and ruin the polish. Also, the cap and bottle should unscrew very easily after that.
It’s hard to believe I’m doing this…
For twenty two years I’ve been a cabinetmaker, and my job has included spraying nitrocellulose laquer. A preliminary search on google revealed that fingernail polish is made with nitrocellulose laquer.
Sooooooo, here goes.
medstar has good advice concerning sealing the bottles. Try that.
She has it wrong about oxygen infiltrating in though, because the problem is caused by solvents evaporating out.
EchoKitty
Tell your friend nitrocellulose is a powerfull explosive, also called “guncotton”. I can see why her idea works, and small bottles probably put her at minimal risk, but I know a guy (paint industry manufacturer) who told me a story of exploding nitrocellulose at of all places, a nailpolish company.
alice
The polish becomes dull because the remover is so volitile that the polish dries too quickly. Find out if a retarder is available for nail polish, and use the recommended amount. For furniture I use Isobutyl Isobutyrate, but this is likely impractical for you ladies. if you could get it though, the smallest part of a drop of this stuff could be used to dope the reliquified (by way of remover) nailpolish, and you would likely get the shine back.
Short summary:
medstar’s advice is the best.
Thus I conclude the world’s weirdest post.
Even I’m shaking my head.
:rolleyes: @ myself
Oh, and hi Sue Duhnym.
BTW
Lots of stuff on the web about how dangerous fingernail polish is.
It contains some really volitile solvents.
But as a guy, I confess; I like girls with lipstick/dresses/nail polish etc.
So sue me. 
Hmmm…they’re making gloss acrylics for plastic models now…nontoxic, thin with water…I wonder how well that’d work?
ok. I’ve learned something new here today (tonight, same same).
But I haven’t had any of these problems. I’m also notorious for buying nail polish. I’ve close to 40 bottles in varying shades of blues, burgundys and bronzes.
No clotting or anything. I keep mine in an old wine box (used to hold 2 bottles of wine) at normal room temp (or whatever the heat/ac is set at).