The Future of Nail Polish is Here

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a nails girl. Growing up, my mom would paint each of my nails a different color because I could never decide on just one. While thinking back to my rainbow nail days gets me in my feels, I’ve also experimented with anything from 3D nail art to matte manicures. Since coming to college, I’ve gotten more into gel polish and acrylic sets for a polished and longer-lasting look. Alas, even after all the exploration with different forms of nail art, my indecisiveness with color selection stuck around. So, you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon color-changing nail polish at my local salon last year.

Dubbed “mood-changing” by marketers and manicurists alike, these polishes in reality, are temperature-based, fluctuating in color as you change environments. Generally, the polish gets darker as your environment gets colder, and lighter as you feel warmer. However, what I have come to notice is that these polishes actually change their hue with whatever your hands come in contact with – whether that be the cold Chicago air or a warm cup of coffee.

As your body adjusts to its surroundings, your nails take on a gradient of all the shades between the lightest and darkest ones for a sweet ombre look. The color change manifests differently each time, creating the potential for tons of different manicure outcomes. Basically, you’re paying to get 10 gel manicures for the price of one. What a steal!

Although temp-based color changing gel polishes are on the rise, it is important to distinguish them from other color-changing polish that has been around for some time. I distinctly remember my pre-teen self standing in the middle of a cruise ship gift shop begging my parents for a bottle of Del Sol polish. Del Sol is a company that specializes in all sorts of products that change color when exposed to sunlight . So, while the UV polishes are particularly pigmented when they do work, their biggest pitfall is that they are completely dependent on the weather. No sun = no change.    

So while seasons change and trends expire – I hope color-changing gel manicures are here to stay.