Stop Putting Clear Nail Polish on Your Earrings

If you Google "Clear Nail Polish Earring Hack" you will get thousands of search results telling you that coating your earring posts with clear nail polish will solve all of your problems with cheap, reactive earrings. In fact, Into The Gloss just posted an article, here, that tells their readers to try this trick. I'm here to say: please stop trying this, it doesn't work! 

I have to admit that years ago when I was looking for a solution to my metal allergy problem (before I knew that I had a metal allergy), I tried the "clear nail polish hack."

I had tried wearing gold, gold filled posts, sterling silver, and stainless steel earrings and they all bothered my ears. I wanted to find a way that I could wear earrings without any pain, irritation, or itching.

 

The gist of the clear nail polish hack is that you paint your earring posts with clear nail polish and the coating will serve as a barrier between your skin and the earring post so that you won't be irritated by the earrings. 

Firstly, nail polish can contain toxic ingredients, so it is not a good idea to put it near your sensitive piercings. As we all know, nail polish chips very easily, and if it chips inside your ear it can become trapped in the piercing, potentially causing additional irritation or infection.

Secondly, if you have sensitive ears or a metal allergy, you ears are reacting to the metal in the earring post. Even a trace amount of contact with the metal can cause you to have a reaction.

So if you happened to miss a spot on the post, or if the polish wears away or chips you will be exposed to the reactive metal.

 

We all know from painting our nails that nail polish sometimes starts to chip the same day you apply it. Nail polish will start to chip on your earrings at the same rate if not faster. This "hack" is all around not hygienic and not safe, and most importantly, will not save you from the pain of wearing cheap, reactive earrings. 

Bottom line: A coating of clear nail polish on your earrings is not enough to protect you from reactive metals. If you have sensitive ears you need to wear earrings made with non-reactive, biocompatible metals like pure titanium and pure niobium. 

Want to learn more about earrings that are safe for sensitive ears? Check out our blog, here.

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