Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Dear Oprah,


From the August 2010 issue of Oprah, page 199 (scan above):

Pick your polish wisely. Many salons use nail polish thinner when
their old polishes start to thicken with age. Thinners compromise both the color and integrity of the formula. If the bottle is less than three-quarters full,
ask for a new one, says Park. A freshly opened bottle of polish can make
your pedicure last weeks longer than an older, and potentially thinner-out,
bottle.


That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Thinner does *not* compromise the color, at all. I can't imagine what a nail salon would say if a customer refused to let the the manicurist use a polish that was less than three-quarters full......

Anyone agree with me? Or am I crazy?

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19 comments:

Unknown said...

you are not crazy, this article is crazy!

Laura @ Sawan-Heaven said...

I agree with you.

amusedPolish said...

oh my- whoever wrote that doesn't know much about nail polish..

Stephanie Merlin said...

Ok, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. The worst part is to ask for a new bottle if it's less than 3 quarters full. What a waste of perfectly good polish! What's the point of having X many ounces of polish if only 1/4 of it is only going to give you a good manicure? That's really economical and practical (sarcasm). That's insane. Sorry, that just irritates me how idiotic that article is. :P

Skulda said...

The only way I see this having any merit is if the salon OVER-thins their bottles so that it's mostly thinner and little polish. I could only see this happing in a poor quality salon.

jbrobeck said...

this is why people through nail polish out. seriously, we should all email her to retrack that. people will believe her

KarenD said...

Oh my. What a load of wrong that is. Now people will think thinner is bad and unfortunate nail techs will have to deal with people demanding fresh bottles. Maybe the person who wrote that doesn't understand that using thinner is not the same as thinning polish with remover, but still, no reason that should get published.

Sasha said...

Interestingly, the person quoted is a *salon owner* in Seattle I think. I have the article at work and will look tomorrow and update with who the quote is from.

Amazing that misinformation can get published like that.

Bunny Masseuse said...

She is smoking SOMETHING... she better start giving a good address of a place where salons can send their old unusable polish to properly recycle at, geez!

Sassy Gal said...

Well maybe OPRAH, in all her untold amounts of wealth, can supply everyone with a full bottle of nail polish everytime they go to the salon! Thanks, O! That's just extravagant and wasteful....

~Elizabeth aka Lacquered Lizard said...

I don't know...maybe there is *some* truth to that. Maybe each company has it's own thinner for a reason. Most of us don't wear polish long enough to care about wear-time so we're not as picky about what thinner we use. Personally, I think it's bogus, but maybe there's a small nugget of truth in there somewhere....

Erika said...

That author is full of horse feathers. And obviously didn't do their research before penning that article.

Thinned polish is no different in colour or staying power than that which has not been thinned.

sprinkles said...

I worked in a salon for a long time and we would occasionally add thinner to older polish. I even used some of those polishes and didn't notice a difference.

Sasha said...

The quote is from Jane Park, owner of Julep Nail Parlors in the Seattle area.

Cali369 said...

I read this too and thought 'what a load of cobblers' - one of us should write in.... or all of us!

Unknown said...

I so disagree with that, it's not going to hurt the polish unless one were to dump half a bottle of thinner in it. I've used polishes that have been thinned, and done wear tests with them, and it stays just fine.

Unknown said...

LMAO!

Maybe she meant to say "Polish remover" compromises the polish. Because I know some salons use remover to thin a polish out...also I have noted that if I use my generic Sally's thinner to thin out an OPI or Zoya, sometimes it doesn't work as well. SO I make sure to buy the same brand thinner of the polish I am thinning, if they have one.

Make sense?

Anonymous said...

Up until recently I always got my mani done in a salon (many many years), and I've seen them put thinners in their bottles. It's funny I should read this blog post since I just remarked to a co-worker how much better my manicure lasts since I've been doing my own or take my own polish to the salon. Also, I've bought colors I chose often at the salon, and they've been a bit darker. I'd have to agree that thinning can change the formulation and change the color a bit.

Really, these salon are trying to maximize their profits. It's like the nail salon equivalent of a sweat shop, seriously. They're not throwing out a polish just because it got thick. I will say that I haven't asked for a new bottle if it looks used up--I just pick another color. I've learned my lesson on that. The ones used up have probably been thinned too often.

Anonymous said...

She isn't a nail technician. Not licensed. Just the 'owner', doesn't actually DO nails.