How To Repair Broken Nails

Stocksy/ Raydene Salinas Hansen

Out of the many things my natural clumsiness ruins in my life, nothing pisses me off more than breaking a nail. I swear every time my nails look long and perfect—like, could-make-information technology-on-the-'gram perfect—I end up with a massive fleck or snag. But since going dorsum to the salon every time I have a cleft is unrealistic (and waaaay out of my upkeep), I've perfected the next best affair: fixing my broken nail at home.

Ahead, I rounded up 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~ adept: Pattie Yankee, celebrity nail artist who works with Priyanka Chopra, Allison Williams, and Hailee Steinfeld. Keep reading for some ridiculously practiced nails.

How to Fix a Cleaved Nail With Mucilage

If your blast is just split, rather than completely broken off, try Yankee'due south favorite quick-gear up method: glue. Go on in mind this definitely isn't a permanent prepare—you'll still have to volume an appointment with your manicurist—but it should hold you over until you tin can make it to the salon. Here'due south what you'll do:

Step ane: Lightly vitrify the surface of the nail—the central hither is to be suuuper gentle, since too much pressure can actually cause more than damage.
Step two: Utilize 2 coats of a fast-drying blast mucilage (similar Blast Bliss Brush-On Glue) to temporarily fuse the crevice together until your next professional nail appointment. This will likewise preclude it from communicable and snagging.
Stride three: When the glue is 100 percent dry, cover the area with a sparse coat of clear nail shine to help agree the crack in place (Deborah Lippmann's Hard Rock Nail Strengthening Top and Base Coat is always a expert option, since information technology besides helps strengthen your nails).

How to Fix a Broken Smash With a Fake Nail

Sadly, sometimes when your broken nail is beyond repair, your simply solve is to simulated information technology. "1 of my favorite tricks for a cleaved nail is to apply a quick set of press-on or mucilage-on nails to hold you over until your broken nail grows out," explains Yankee. She'due south a fan of the Dashing Diva Magic Press-Ons, since they "take a pre-adhesive backing that holds upwardly to seven days," just you can utilize whatsoever of your favorite fake smash sets.

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

If your boom is fully croaky and hanging off your nail bed, y'all may need to have more intense measures, says Yankee—like with the gel and silk method. Here's what y'all'll do:

Footstep 1: After wiping the crack clean with smash smoothen remover, gently buff the boom with a file. Your goal here is to make the nail as shine and clean equally possible (no backlog oil, polish, or snags).
Step 2: Very gently, employ blast gum to mend the crack. Once information technology's totally dry, paint a layer of clear gel smooth over the nail.
Footstep 3: While your polish is still wet, smooth a slice 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 give your nail an extra layer once it dries downwardly.
Stride 4: Carefully vitrify your nail once everything is dry and follow with a 2nd coat of gel polish.

Dashing Diva Without A Trace Gloss Ultra Shine Gel Strips

Courtesy Image

Dashing Diva Without A Trace Gloss Ultra Smooth Gel Strips

How to Set up a Broken Nail With Gel Strips

Looking for something less complicated? Off-white. Try a gel nail strip (similar Dashing Diva's Gloss Ultra Smoothen Gel Nail Strips) as an alternative to the silk-wrap method. The results will be pretty similar, says Yankee, simply they're a lot easier to apply. Clean off whatever excess oil and polish from the cleaved smash, mend the crevice with nail glue, and and then stick the gel strip on top as a record-like alternative.

How to Set up a Broken Nail With a Tea Bag

This method is definitely the most pop broken-nail hack on the internet. The simply grab? According to Yankee, this method requires a flake of maintenance "every few days by applying another glaze or 2 of glue over the tea purse to keep it strong." But still, you can't crush an ultra-cheap DIY method. Here'southward what you lot'll do:

Step 1: Cut the elevation off of a tea bag and brand a square roughly the size of the crack.
Footstep 2: Smooth a layer of nail glue over the crack (a brush-on formula is easiest here), and while it'southward nonetheless wet, place the tea bag square on top.
Step 3: Once it's dry, paint ane more layer of blast gum and you're good to become.

How to Gear up a Cleaved Nail With a Powder Fill

This hack is one of the more "durable" calm fixes on the list—and it's also got Yankee's seal of approval. Hither's what you'll exercise:

Step 1: Afterward painting a layer of smash glue over the crack, sprinkle a little nail powder on top while it's still wet.
Stride ii: Continue this procedure a few times (waiting for each glaze to dry in betwixt) until you've created ii or three layers on top of the cleft.
Pace 3: Set everything in place past spritzing a glue-drying spray on top of the gum and powder, then vitrify it polish with a buffing block.

How to Prepare a Broken Blast Past Trimming It

Alright, yous may not want to hear this, but there isn't a truly permanent set for a cleaved nail. "No matter how practiced the repair, a difficult and deep scissure or intermission volition ever seem to sneak its manner back through the repair," says Yankee. "If the break is in a convenient spot to let it to exist cutting down, it might be easiest to just cut it and trim the rest of your nails to match."

And of course, to avoid broken nails in the futurity, Yankees advises all her clients to moisturize daily with cuticle oil and keep their easily protected from the elements. "Fingernails are constantly exposed to harsh paw soaps, chemicals and h2o," she says. "Keeping them moisturized and polished is the best solution to avoiding breakage."

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