Dark Polish Trend Can Lead To Yellow Nails.
This autumn and winter, the runway nail trends have been all about the dark. Dark purples, blues, and browns (along with blood- and wine-reds) have adorned the fingertips of models and celebrities, causing a lot of trend-conscious women to follow suit. While it’s fun to experiment with colors beyond the basic red or pink or neutral, using a lot of very dark nail polishes can lead to an unwanted side effect when the polish is stripped off—yellow, discolored natural nails. There are ways you can avoid this unsightly staining.
Use a Good Base Coat
An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure, and in this case, your pound of cure comes in a little bottle of base coat. Although they’re hard and shiny, your nails aren’t impermeable. Like your skin, they have pores, and they can absorb chemicals, moisture, and pigments. Applying a clear base coat to your nails before slapping on dark polish prevents the heaviest pigment chemicals from permeating your nails by sealing off your pores. This, in turn, stops your nails from turning yellow.
What Is A “Good” Base Coat?
Not any base coat will do, however. The wrong base coat could make matters worse if it contains toluene, formaldehyde (including formaldehyde reins which are found in many drugstore brands), or dibutyl phthalates (DBPs). First, all three of these chemicals have been shown to have detrimental health effects in large doses, and they have a cumulative effect—that means that, over the years, they build up in your body. So even though the tiny amount present in each individual coating of base coat isn’t going to cause nervous system damage (toluene), breast cancer (formaldehyde), or birth defects and hormone disruption (DBPs), a lifetime of using such products can contribute to your health down the road.
Also, these chemicals just aren’t good to your nails and the surrounding skin when you use them frequently. They dry out the nail plate and can cause skin irritation in the cuticles, especially formaldehyde and its resins. End result: you have brittle nails that break or peel easily. That’s never a good look. Choose a base coat that has no toluene, formaldehyde, or DBPs. We recommend Instant Wrap or Grow Tougher (www.nailaidcares.com/products-quickshop.php, $6.50) for solid protection without the nasty chemicals.
Rule Out A Medical Issue
Sometimes, yellow nails persist even if you aren’t using dark nail polishes without a base coat. This can be a sign that you smoke too much—in which case, make a New Year’s Resolution, and quit—or can be an early warning signal about some other illness, such as:
- Fungal infection of the nail—your nail will also thicken up
- Kidney disease or infection
- Jaundice (a liver condition; your eyes and skin will also be yellowish)
- Iron or zinc deficiency—eat your greens and whole grains, and take a supplement
- Respiratory problems, such as a lung infection
- Major viral infections, such as flu or mononucleosis
- Type II Diabetes
Obviously, you should be displaying other worrying symptoms if you’ve got anything other than a fungal infection. And most cases of yellow nails not related to smoking or nail polish do turn out to be the beginning stages of fungus. Your doctor can prescribe a paint-on treatment to kill the fungus off within a week or two.
What Else Are You Doing With Your Hands?
Dark nail polishes and health issues aren’t the only culprits behind stained nails. Other everyday products and activities can lead to yellowing of the fingernails, such as:
- Cooking, especially with tomato products
- Household cleaners
- Frequent swimming in a chlorinated pool
- Self-tanning lotions
- Hair coloring products
- Paints, inks, and clays
- Photography chemicals
You can protect your nails in most of these cases with a good base coat.
Treatments for Yellowing Nails
What do you do if you’ve already stained your nails with polish? First, make absolutely sure you haven’t got a fungus developing. Then, you can try hydrogen peroxide for a fast, natural brightener. Simply soak cotton balls in a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution (check the label of the bottle) and rub them on your nails for a few seconds each, as you would with polish remover. A cut lemon also does the trick. Both of these options should help reduce the staining, but bear in mind that the acids can dry your nails. Use a cuticle oil or rich lotion afterwards to ensure you don’t dry things out.
If that doesn’t do it, there are commercial nail whitening preparations out there. The same warning applies to these as to base coats, however: you don’t want to buy anything with DBP, toluene, or formaldehyde in it (formaldehyde resins are also bad). Nail-Aid, makers of Instant Wrap and Grow Tougher above, also makes Yelllow No More, a nail whitener that doesn’t dry out the fingernails as it brightens. (http://www.nailaidcares.com/yellow-discolored-nails.php).
