I’m not one for actual manicures. If I do get one for the everyday work week, it’s a clean-up type of job, with snipped cuticles and a file-down. If I’m feeling stellar, maybe I’ll opt for a buff. Either way, I hate the idea of polish—or rather, the process behind polish. I don’t want to fall asleep under the nail dryer while waiting for my double-coat to dry for thirty minutes, turning the pages of a gossip rag with my knuckles, only to go straight into the subway and dent it in a closing door, or watch it smear into a rippling wave pattern as I’m scrubbing dishes later that night.
So how did I find myself at Tribeca’s Tenoverten salon after work, getting a manicure with actual polish? It all started when a colleague gave me a bottle of Kur Instant Smudge Fix—which, according to the Vogue.com beauty department, is a new miracle treatment that smoothes over any accidental bumps or fills any gaping chip that occurs when your nails are in almost-dry limbo. The process is easy: For simple smudges, you dab on a bit of Kur’s clear liquid solution, let dry for 30 seconds while watching it mysteriously blur the lines of the offending chip, and then paint over it with a regular clear top coat. For more visible damage, like a dent or chip where you can see the surface of your actual nail underneath, fill the hole with a thin layer of your original polish color, let it dry for 30 seconds, then apply a layer of Smudge Fix and wait 45 seconds to apply a clear top coat.
Sure enough, moments after Bertha, the sweetest and most meticulous manicurist on the planet, finished my nails and I headed out the door, I dinged one, peeling off half the polish from its surface. Out came the Kur Smudge Fix and I set to work, filling in the bare part of the nail and painting over it with a fresh coat of Essie Starter Wife. Later that night, I fanned out my hands and made a friend guess which nail had been chipped—she had to do a doubletake and an extreme lean-in before figuring it out.
The next day, I ran a second test in the form of a DIY experiment with a darker color—Tenoverten’s deep Bordeaux in Maiden. After administering a scratch with a thumbtack at my desk, I went through the process all over again. Unlike the sheerer polish of the day before, the Smudge Fix elixir completely blended the darker shade—there weren’t any visible bumps—and it was impossible to tell which nail I’d dented. It’s official: The step to a perfect manicure is an arm’s length—or a swipe—away.
Londontown Kur Instant Smudge Fix, $14; out September 1
The post Your Chipped-Nail Situation, Solved: The New Clear Polish That Melts Smudges appeared first on Vogue.
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