How To Fix A Nail Broken Below Quick

Stocksy/ Raydene Salinas Hansen

Out of the many things my natural awkwardness ruins in my life, nothing pisses me off more than breaking a nail. I swear every fourth dimension my nails expect long and perfect—like, could-make-information technology-on-the-'gram perfect—I end up with a massive fleck or snag. But since going back to the salon every time I accept a crack is unrealistic (and waaaay out of my upkeep), I've perfected the side by side best thing: fixing my broken nail at home.

Ahead, I rounded upward everything I've learned about fixing and smoothing cracked, jagged nails in the comfort of your domicile, including all the tips and tools from an ~actual~ skillful: Pattie Yankee, celebrity blast creative person who works with Priyanka Chopra, Allison Williams, and Hailee Steinfeld. Proceed reading for some ridiculously good nails.

How to Fix a Cleaved Nail With Mucilage

If your smash is merely split, rather than completely cleaved off, try Yankee's favorite quick-fix method: glue. Keep in heed this definitely isn't a permanent fix—you'll even so have to volume an appointment with your manicurist—but it should hold you over until y'all tin can make it to the salon. Here'due south what you'll exercise:

Step 1: Lightly buff the surface of the nail—the key here is to exist suuuper gentle, since too much force per unit area can actually crusade more than impairment.
Step 2: Employ 2 coats of a fast-drying blast glue (like Blast Bliss Brush-On Glue) to temporarily fuse the fissure together until your next professional nail appointment. This will also prevent it from catching and snagging.
Step three: When the glue is 100 percentage dry, cover the area with a thin coat of clear nail polish to help hold the scissure in identify (Deborah Lippmann's Hard Rock Nail Strengthening Superlative and Base of operations Coat is always a good choice, since information technology likewise helps strengthen your nails).

How to Fix a Broken Nail With a Fake Nail

Sadly, sometimes when your broken nail is across repair, your only solve is to false it. "One of my favorite tricks for a broken smash is to apply a quick set of printing-on or glue-on nails to concord you over until your broken nail grows out," explains Yankee. She's a fan of the Dashing Diva Magic Press-Ons, since they "have a pre-adhesive backing that holds up to seven days," merely you can employ any of your favorite fake nail sets.

How to Fix a Broken Nail With Gel and a Silk Wrap

If your nail is fully cracked and hanging off your nail bed, you may need to take more than intense measures, says Yankee—like with the gel and silk method. Here's what you'll practice:

Pace ane: Subsequently wiping the crack clean with blast polish remover, gently buff the blast with a file. Your goal here is to brand the nail every bit smooth and clean every bit possible (no excess oil, polish, or snags).
Pace 2: Very gently, use nail gum to mend the crack. One time it'due south totally dry, pigment a layer of clear gel polish over the nail.
Footstep 3: While your polish is withal wet, smooth a piece of silk (it should be pre-cut in the shape of your nail) over the area and wait for the gel to cure. The silk will kinda deed like a bandaid and requite your nail an extra layer once information technology dries down.
Footstep 4: Carefully buff your nail once everything is dry and follow with a 2d coat of gel polish.

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Dashing Diva Without A Trace Gloss Ultra Shine Gel Strips

How to Ready a Broken Smash With Gel Strips

Looking for something less complicated? Off-white. Try a gel nail strip (like Dashing Diva'southward Gloss Ultra Smoothen Gel Nail Strips) as an alternative to the silk-wrap method. The results will be pretty similar, says Yankee, but they're a lot easier to apply. Clean off any excess oil and polish from the broken boom, mend the crack with nail glue, and and so stick the gel strip on meridian as a tape-like alternative.

How to Fix a Broken Boom With a Tea Bag

This method is definitely the virtually popular broken-blast hack on the internet. The merely catch? According to Yankee, this method requires a bit of maintenance "every few days past applying another coat or two of glue over the tea pocketbook to keep it stiff." But nevertheless, yous can't shell an ultra-inexpensive DIY method. Hither's what you'll do:

Step 1: Cut the summit off of a tea purse and make a square roughly the size of the crevice.
Step 2: Smooth a layer of blast glue over the crack (a brush-on formula is easiest here), and while it's even so wet, place the tea pocketbook square on top.
Pace 3: Once it'south dry out, paint ane more layer of nail mucilage and you lot're good to go.

How to Set a Broken Nail With a Powder Fill

This hack is one of the more than "durable" at-home fixes on the list—and it'south also got Yankee's seal of approval. Hither's what y'all'll exercise:

Stride i: After painting a layer of nail glue over the crevice, sprinkle a little nail powder on top while it's nonetheless wet.
Step ii: Continue this procedure a few times (waiting for each coat to dry in between) until yous've created two or three layers on top of the cleft.
Footstep iii: Ready everything in identify past spritzing a glue-drying spray on top of the glue and pulverization, so vitrify it smooth with a buffing block.

How to Fix a Cleaved Blast By Trimming It

Alright, you lot may not want to hear this, just there isn't a truly permanent fix for a cleaved nail. "No affair how good the repair, a difficult and deep crack or break volition always seem to sneak its way back through the repair," says Yankee. "If the break is in a convenient spot to let it to exist cut down, it might be easiest to just cut it and trim the rest of your nails to match."

And of form, to avoid broken nails in the future, Yankees advises all her clients to moisturize daily with cuticle oil and go along their hands protected from the elements. "Fingernails are constantly exposed to harsh hand soaps, chemicals and water," she says. "Keeping them moisturized and polished is the best solution to avoiding breakage."

Scarlet Buddemeyer Ruby was the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covered dazzler across print and digital.