4 Best Nail Polish Drying Sprays & An Easy DIY Spray

Struggling to dry your nail polish or just don’t have that patience? Dont fret, you have options.

One of those is to use a fast-drying spray, which I have found to be very effective at speeding up the rate at which your nail polish dries. So in this article, we are going to cover:

What are fast-drying nail polish sprays
How do they work
How to use, Are they safe
And the best brands to get.

What Is a Nail Polish Drying Spray & How Does it Work

A nail polish drying spray is a liquid sprayed onto wet nail polish to make it dry faster.

Some work by using special solvents to speed up the evaporation of the liquids in the polish and others use quick-drying topcoats or oils. Citation.

Are Nail Polish Drying Sprays Safe

Most of the ingredients used in nail polish drying sprays are safe on your skin and shouldn’t cause any issues unless you have an allergy. So ensure you read the ingredients before trying. And you need to avoid inhaling any of the spray.

Best Fast Drying Nail Polish Sprays

The 4 Best Nail Polish Drying Sprays are:

Demert Nail Drying Spray : (The most popular spray with the fastest polish drying ability)
OPI RapiDry Spray : (A premium topcoat spray that speeds up drying whilst strengthening your nails)
Onyx Nail Spray : (The spray with the best scent)
DIY Nail Drying Spray : (Most affordable spray)

1- DeMert Nail Dryer

I use and recommend DeMert because hands down it is the fastest nail polish drying spray on the market.

And because it’s so good it’s currently one of the most popular nail drying sprays.

DeMert Brands has been making various beauty products for the last 5 decades so they have years of experience in the industry.

All of their products are made in the USA. Citation.

How to Apply Nail Polish Drying Spray

Using a nail polish drying spray is pretty easy:

The first thing you need to do is apply your nail polish, (just like you usually do).
Next, hold your polish drying spray roughly 4 inches away from your nails and spray.
Ensure all your nails receive ample amounts of spray.
Now your polishes should dry completely within 2 minutes. Citation.

How DeMert’s Nail Drying Polish Works

The main ingredient found in DeMerts is mink oil, butane, and propane.

The butane and propane are volatile solvents that force the solvents found in nail polish to evaporate faster which dramatically speeds up the rate of drying of the polish.

Now the mink oil acts as a sealant that protects the polish and allows it to dry safely. It has been used for decades now to make nail polish dry faster. Citation.

Where To Buy DeMert Nail Drying Spray

Amazon usually has DeMert brands at a really good price you can click to see it.

Pros Of DeMerts

Dries Nail Polish Really Fast DeMerts Spray on average dries your nails within 2-3 minutes which will save you a ton of time.
Strengthen and Conditions Your Nails Another benefit of the mink oil is that it conditions and moisturizes your cuticles.
Anti Smudging Ability Now because the spray rapidly dries your polish, it prevents it from accidentally getting smeared.
Prevents Air Bubbles The mink oil acts as a sealant preventing air from getting trapped and thus stopping air bubbles from forming.
No Scent or Odor – has a very faint scent which will quickly fade away. This means that your nails would smell like they always do.
Very Affordable Most nail polish drying sprays are pretty budget-friendly but DeMert’s are currently the most affordable ones on the market.

Cons of DeMert

Not Animal-Friendly DeMert’s Sprays are made with real mink oil so if you are cautious about using animal products then you probably shouldn’t use this spray. Citation.
Can’t Work In Between Coats If you plan to apply multiple coats of nail polish DeMerts shouldn’t be used on the first coat of polish or in between coats.

This is because the mink oil from the spray would hinder the second coat of polish from merging with the first one. What you can do is use the spray on your last coat of polish to make the final one dry faster.

Aerosol Bottle

The DeMert’s spray comes in a pressurized bottle similar to how spray paint bottles are. This means if you hold the bottle too close to your nail polish when you spray, the amount of force being released can actually ruin your nails.

So my advice, hold the bottle at least 4 inches away from your nails before spraying.

2- OPI RapiDry Spray

The OPI RapidDry Spray is a premium fast-acting nail drying spray.

OPI was one of the first brands of fast-drying nail polish sprays to become mainstream and they initially helped to pioneer the concept.

And because of this, they are highly regarded, so much so that they have won several different awards for their Rapidry Spray. Citation.

How OPI Rapidry Spray Works

OPI is a quick-drying topcoat that is sprayed in a mist form onto your nail polish.

Now since the topcoat is in a vapor form allows it to get harder more quickly thus protecting your polish which allows it to dry without smudging.

How to Apply OPI Rapidry Spray

First, you need to apply your nail polish and let it sit for 60 seconds and finally spray the OPI spray on your nails.

Pros Of OPI Rapidry

Drys Nail Polish Really Fast The OPI will dry your nail really fast saving you time and at the same time preventing smudging.
Protects Your Nails Unlike other polish drying sprays, OPI Rapidry will form a thin layer of top coat over your nails protecting them against damage and general wear and tear.
Gives Your Nails a Glossy Sheen Just like how a topcoat gives you that shiny look, the OPI Rapidry would give your nail polish that same glossy sheen appearance.

Now DeMert and most other nail polish drying spray doesn’t do this for you, since they are focused on only drying your nail polish.

Restores Your Nail Polish

Another great use for the OPI Rapidry Spray is that it can be used to restore your nail polish sheen.

So if your current nail polish is worn out and you dont want to do them over, you can quickly spray some of OPI spray on it giving your nails a temporary boost.

Cons Of OPI Rapidry

Expensive The OPI spray is considerably more expensive than other sprays.

The reason for the high price is that the method that they use for drying nails fast, being that its quick-drying topcoat spray, requires more expensive ingredients to make

OPI brand is also more of a premium brand and most of its products have a reputation of working really good allows them to charge customers more.

Comes in a Small Bottle

OPI Rapidry Spray comes in really small bottles. Their bottles contain 55 ml of spray whilst a DeMert contains 390 ml. For me, they only last around 10-11 manicures.

So you have to constantly be ordering them, they really should sell larger bottles I won’t mind paying a few extra bucks.

Where to Get OPI Rapidry Spray

Amazon usually has OPI Rapidry in stock you can click to see the price.

3- Onyx Polish Drying Spray

Onyx Sprays are different from OPI Rapidry, in that they focus primarily on drying the polish instead of just forming a protective coating.

And because of this, they work really fast.

How Onyx Spray Works

The active ingredients used in Onyx spray tend to rapidly vaporize and evaporate when sprayed on.

Now when Onyx is sprayed onto wet nail polish it forces similar solvents found in the nail polish to also evaporate with it making the nail polish dry dramatically faster.

Onyx Spray drys your polishes really fast plus they have a really good coconut scent.

In comparison to OPI, they are not too expensive.

Where To Get Onyx Spray

Amazon usually have Onyx Sprays in stock you can click to see the current price

Sometimes they dont have them in stock individually so you might have to buy a bundle package you can click here to see the bundle on Amazon.

The bundle includes a nicely scented nail polish remover.

4- DIY Nail Polish Drying Spray

One of the simplest and most affordable DIY methods of drying nail polish is using cooking spray.

The key here is to use cooking spray with the right ingredients.

The spray needs to contain volatile solvents which in most cooking sprays are propellants.

Propellants are used to help dispense the cooking spray from the bottle.

How Spray-On Cooking Oil Dries Polish Fast

Now once the cooking spray contains propellants, it will proceed to evaporate quickly when released onto the polish.

This rapid evaporation would then force the solvents in the polish to also evaporate.

I experimented with Pam’s cooking spray and I had fairly good results, you can click here to see the one that I used on Amazon. I chose this one because it has a significant amount of propellant.

But you can always buy one from the supermarket, just ensure you check the ingredients for propellants.

How to Apply Cooking Spray To Make Nail Polish Dry Faster

The first thing you need to do is apply your nail polish and let it sit naturally for 2 minutes.
Next, proceed to spray the cooking spray onto your polish
Please hold the bottle at least 6- 7 inches away to avoid the spray’s force causing ripples or air bubbles to form on your polish.

Pros Of DIY

1- Very Affordable

Using Cooking Spray is the most affordable method to dry your polish quickly.

A lot of you probably have a can in your kitchen, so you might not even need to buy one.

2- Multipurpose

Cooking Spray will not only dry your polish fast it would also condition your cuticles as well.

The reason why it conditions your cuticles is that the cooking spray contains oil that moisturizes your skin.

Plus you can always use it to cook with if you don’t like it for your nails so it won’t be wasted.

3- Very Safe

Cooking spray is completely non-toxic, you can even cook with it.

So you can trust that no harmful chemicals are being applied to your skin. Citation.

Cons of DIY

1- Not Consistent

Various brands of cooking spray will give you different results this is because each spray has different levels of butane and propane.

And butane and propane are the main ingredients that cause the cooking spray to dry your nail polish.

So if they don’t have a high percentage of these chemicals your polish will take longer to dry.

2- Takes Longer to Dry

You got to remember cooking oil wasn’t made to dry nail polish it was made to cook with.

And because of this cooking spray wouldn’t dry your polish as fast as sprays that were designed specifically for drying polish.

But the fact that cooking oil can dry your polish fast is a neat feature, just understand that the results will vary.

HairSprays DIY Nail Polish Drying Spray

Another great DIY method to make your nail polish dry faster is using hair spray.

Hairspray contains volatile solvents that have been shown to speed up evaporation thus allowing nail polish to harden faster.

Hair sprays, in my opinion, aren’t as effective as cooking sprays but it’s still worth mentioning.

One more thing just ensure that you use an aerosol hairspray.

How to Use Hair Spray To Dry Nail Polish

First, allow your nail polish to set for two minutes
And then spray the hair spray
Just make sure you hold the bottle around 8 to 10 inches away to avoid air bubbles from forming.