The other day I was making fun of my wife for her extreme fingernail polish collection. I never taught I was going to say this, but now I’m thinking of using some of it as well. No, I’m not painting my own nails. Instead, I’ve found many survival uses for nail polish.
After a long debate about the alternative uses of this cosmetic staple, I can say for certain that this high quality thick and fast drying paint is perfect for everyday use. Many women will get rid of entire bottles of nail polish because they won’t use it anymore. Some of them throw it away because nail polish is cheap enough to not think about the waste. Rather than tossing away an old bottle of nail polish, read further and learn how to put it to good use.
Clever everyday uses for nail polish:
If you like to fish, nail polish will become your best friends. It will help you recondition worn out lures with tarnished bare metal surfaces. Use some on your lures to make them look like brand new and to prevent future damage. You can also repaint faded surfaces or you can coat your new lures by using clear nail polish to harden the original paint. Some fishermen use clear nail polish over the unpainted surfaces of their spoons and spinners. It helps to protect them against tarnishing and abrasive damage. If the guide wrapping from your fishing poles start to wear, you can apply a clear nail polish coating to repair the damaged areas and discourage further unwinding.
If your vision is not what it used to be and you struggle to line up the sights of your handguns, you can use nail polish to make your life easier. Use bright colors to mark the existing sight dots and make seeing and aligning them easier. You can use one color for the front sight and another for the rear sight. This technique could also be sued for open sighted shotguns or rifles.
The red ring or marking from the safeties of most firearms can wear and become harder to see. If that is the case, you can use bright red nail polish to retouch the markings. In a post-SHTF world procuring thread-securing components such as Loctite would become almost impossible. If you fear that screws and bolts of your rifle can get lose, you can use a little nail polish to provide resistance and prevent the screws and bolts from loosening.
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Color coding your way around the house is another good use for the cosmetic fingernail paint. Every household has a junk drawer which is filled with keys, locks and what not. You could match those keys to their respective locks by using colored nail polish, or combination of colors to both the key and the lock. Use it to mark every item worth marking in your household. You can write dates on your jars or buckets and you can even mark batteries that need to be recharged or reconditioned.
Nail polish can also be used to waterproof your matches for your camping trips. To make sure you are able to start a fire, just dip the flammable head in clear nail polish.
Create a glow in the dark effect for various items. This is very useful for the camping enthusiasts and using glow in the dark nail polish can make your life easier. You can mark your tent straps and prevent people from tripping over them. Use it to mark the trail to the latrine or leave trail marks on trees to find your way to camp at night. You can make every item you need more visible by coating it with glow in the dark nail polish.
If you need to stitch something and you have trouble threading a needle, you can use a little bit of nail polish on the end of the thread. The same technique can be applied to frayed bootlaces, shoestrings or paracords. A coating of fingernail polish will extend the life of your ropes and will make threading them through loops easier.
My wife is also using fingernail polish to keep the tiny screws of her eyeglasses in place. She removes the screws and she puts a tiny dab on the threads prior to screwing them back in place.
Since she has allergy to nickel, she often used nail polish on certain jewelry. It helps to prevent the development of skin rash. She’s doing this with belt buckets as well and she applies a coat of clear nail polish to the area that contacts her skin.
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Seed starting is a pleasant activity, but I always had problems with ink running on my labels after watering the pots. You can use clear nail polish to smudge proof your labels and better identify your plants.
Prevent metal objects from rusting in the bathroom or outdoors. Shaving cream often creates rust rings on your bath furniture and it becomes annoying to clean it. To prevent this, you can add a thin layer of nail polish to the bottom of the tube. You can also protect screws or nails in patio furniture or any other construction project that is exposed to the elements.
You can also seal small holes by using nail polish, regardless if you have a plastic or metal container. I’ve also heard people using it to seal cracked glass and prevent cracks from spreading.
Fingernail polish can also be used as an alternative adhesive and you can piece things together by using clear nail polish and allow it to dry up.
As you can see, this cosmetic staple has many other uses besides coloring your fingernails. It is one of the household items you could improvise with when nothing else is available. If you have any other suggestions for nail polish unconventional uses, please use the comment section below and let us know.
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