We've talked before about using tea bags to patch up a broken nail and hold it together, but over the last couple of weeks I've been trialling a nail repair method that takes that concept to a different level. Tea bag wraps that cover the entire talon are supposed to add strength to fragile nails, which mine definitely are. My thumbnails are particularly prone to breaking, mostly because the edges of my smile lines (the lines between your nail bed and your tips ) sit really, really low down on those two nails, and I had the beginnings of no fewer than four cracks between them when I decided to get started on tea bag wraps.
I began by cutting open an unused tea bag (Lyons Green Blend, nom) and emptying the tea leaves. (Bordering on the sacreligious, I know, but needs must.) Placing the tea bag on the nail, I ran the handle of a small scissors around the edges of the nail to create an imprint of it, and then used the scissors to roughly cut out the shape of that nail. It was then pretty easy to just round the bottom corners freehand to ensure a neat base at the cuticle.
Next up: a layer of base coat (Orly Bonder), onto which I immediately pressed my tea bag cut out, trying to avoid wrinkling or air bubbles. I held it in place while the base coat dried, then trimmed and gently filed down the free edge. Then, I added another layer of base coat for luck, before proceeding with the usual two coats of colour and finishing things off with a topcoat (Essie Super Duper).
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I was pretty impressed with how well the wrap lasted, considering what it was made up of. I got a full five days out of mine before it started to lift at the edges, and there was no worsening of the tears that otherwise would have ripped straight across the nails. You really do need to use a dark shade or an opaque bright over it, though - sheers and pale shades won't disguise the texture of a tea bag at all!
