The Tea Bag Method

I have a lot of people come to me asking me how I repair My broken nails.

Well, here is the answer to that question:
first of all, there is a difference to a "broken" nail and a chipped/cracked nail.

Broken nails can not be fixed because they are, in a word, broken. When you tell me that your nail is broken, I am assuming that your nail has gone from one long one to a short one and a tip that has come off.

Chipped nails are nails that have become uneven. Mine usually chip around the tips and start to peel. but sometimes, a piece of your nails can come off and i count that as a chip too.

Cracked nails are the most annoying in my opinion. They always seem to crack in the most inconvenient and possibly painful places. For example below the tip of the nail where your nerves are sensitive. Or, that ONE nail that decides to be a pain in the ass and start to crack right at the tip of your nail while the others are still nice long and pretty.

Now, for two out of three of those scenarios, I have a solution that can help you to save your chipped or cracked nails. If their broken, sorry but I'm not a magician. This solution is called the Tea Bag Method.

Now you cold of course go out of your way to go to the store and buy a the nail wraps and gel and a UV lamp to cure it and all that good and expensive stuff. OR, you could grab a tea bag or buy a cheap box of tea and try this.

Here is what you will need to do this. Well, my way anyway.




-An empty tea bag
-Scissors
-Base coat
-Acetone
(optional) Paintbrush or Cotton Ball/Q-tip

Now what you want to do first is to clean your nail. Your going to need acetone to do this but rubbing alcohol is an option if you don't have acetone. I have the one in the jar that you just stick your finger in but if you have a bottle, you can use a paintbrush and dip it into the acetone or put some onto a cotton ball or Q-tip and rub it onto the nail. The acetone takes off the natural oils and anything else like lotion or normal everyday hand gunk that may build up on your nails.
If your just repairing one nail and have the rest of your nails polished and dont plan on taking the polish off because you just want to fix that one nail, then here is what I do when I'm using a cotton ball. Put it on the top of the bottle of acetone, place your palm firmly against the cotton ball and turn the bottle upside down CAREFULLY. Then use tweezers to hold the cotton ball and clean the nail.

Ok, after your nail has been cleaned, your going to want to take your tea bag and make sure its empty.
Open it up completely into a big rectangle. Then take the open tea bag and measure it against your nail and cut out a piece to fit the crack of your nail.


Then your going to want to take your base coat and put a thin coat on your entire nail.

Then, take the strip of the tea bag that you cut off and sized to your nail and put it FIRMLY against the area thats cracked. Your going to want to put the edge of the tea bag as close to the edge with the crack as possible. If some of it gets onto your skin and off of the nail thats ok, when your done and its completely dry then you can file it off. Any bubbles you see you can squeeze out or pop with a pin.


after you have that piece of the tea bag firmly against your nail and have gotten rid of the bubbles and your first coat is dry (so that the bag doesnt move from where you have placed it), put a second coat of your base coat and seal your free edges.


When that dries, then you can file off (GENTLY) any excess that you see.

Now, if your trying to cover your entire nail because of peeling, the only thing different that your going to do is instead of cutting off a small strip of the tea bag, your going to cut a piece that fits your ENTIRE nail and then put down your base coat and press the piece of the tea bag against it. A cool trick i learned from YouTube is to grad a piece of plastic wrap and hold it against your nail to help smooth it out. Now if you use the plastic wrap, be very careful to not leave it on the nail too long or you can end up gluing it to your nail and THAT is definitely not part of this process.