"Bleeding" Polishes
By Christine Wei @myleftynails
There's been various discussions on bleeding polish and how to prevent it, so I figured I'd gather info I've shared in different comments into one post. Comp photo attached is Flower Child from the Studio 70s collection (PR)
What is “bleeding” polish
Nail polish hardens when the liquid solvents in it evaporate. QDTC (quick dry top coat) penetrates all the layers underneath to help those solvents evaporate. To be precise, QDTC contains the same solvents and rewets the polish underneath. But it contains a higher percentage of these solvents, so the manicure as a whole then dries faster.
Bleeding occurs during this quick-dry process, giving the polish an overall darker look. A working theory is that as the greater amount of solvents are evaporating, it also pulls up a bit of pigment, essentially creating a colored jelly-like layer over the shimmers, partially obscuring them; it's also possible for the pigment to essentially stain some shimmers. (I'm going to do some testing to try to figure out the exact mechanism, after discussing with some friends, because we're nerds for nail science! Either way, the chemical structure of the ingredients aren’t changing here the way they do with remover/acetone, which actually breaks down the polish.)
Whether a polish bleeds is based on the chemical structure of specific color pigments used, so it’s not indicative of the quality of polish, and it happens across brands. Bleeding is more common with certain deep purples, blues, and reds.
It seems like thicker coats of QDTC also result in more bleed, while bleeding isn’t as pronounced with thinner coats of QDTC. Discovered this when I accidentally did an extra thick coat while doing the attached comp.
How to prevent it
Since bleeding happens when QDTC penetrates the color polish, it can be prevented by creating a barrier between the two. The products commonly recommended for this include peely base coat, no smudge top coat, and hairspray — all of which have different solvents than polish, and block QDTC from rewetting the layers underneath. (Polish largely contains acetates; the other products are alcohol- or water-based.)
Note: Different products and different brands of the same type of product may work better for different people. People have also noted one of the barriers working with certain colors but not others to prevent bleed. As with all things nails, personal chemistry and different combinations matter, so you might need to do some experimentation.
Whichever product you’re using, it goes on AFTER the color coats and BEFORE top coat. I personally use peely base, which has worked on every bleeder I have so far. This is what my process looks like:
1. Apply base coat
2. Apply color coats, usually 2-3
2. Apply color coats, usually 2-3
3. Do clean-up and let dry**
4. Apply peely base; wait to dry completely, about 10 minutes
5. Apply QDTC
6. Oil!
4. Apply peely base; wait to dry completely, about 10 minutes
5. Apply QDTC
6. Oil!
**Notes about dry time
Since you’re putting a film over your color polish, you do want to give it more dry time than usual. I don’t wait for polish to fully dry before I put peely base over it, but I do wait until the polish is touch dry and no longer feels squishy.
If I want to speed up the process, I sometimes use dry drops between color coats. Product instructions say not to do that, but it's just because of the moisturizers that might hamper the next layer from adhering. It's fine to use in between as long as you wash your hands before the next coat. (I don’t do this after peely base.)
