Have you ever bought a striper polish, and once you come home to admire its beauty you realized the brush is completely unusable? This happened to me the other day, and instead of throwing it away or going through the hassle of using a nail brush dipped into it and cleaning it off each time, I decided to fix it.
Today, I will be showing you how to fix yours, as well. The one I recently purchased was already fixed by the time I decided to do a post about it, so here is an old black Stripe Rite Striper. It got wonky a long time ago so I trimmed it, but that seems to have made it worse.
First step to fixing your brush is to seal the bottle so it doesn’t dry up or get goopy. I used saran wrap and pressed along the rim to ensure no air was going to get trough. Then I pressed the rest around the neck of the bottle to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere.
The next step is to clean the brush off. Since Stripe Rite is acrylic paint, I just ran it under running water. If you are fixing an actual polish brush, you are going to want to use nail polish remover and a paper towel to wipe off the polish.
Next, you are going to cute two small pieces of aluminum foil and tape one to some cardboard. You can use a notebook. I do not suggest paper because it is too flimsy.
Once you have a square of foil attached to your cardboard, take the other piece of foil and prep it by taking a strip of tape slightly longer than it, and place it so the tape just hangs off of the edges.
The next part is a little tricky. You are going to want to wet the clean brush, and reshape it. If there are some stray hairs, you can use a little bit of hair gel to smooth them. I also found that twisting the hairs helps to smooth them and keep them together.
Next, you are going to place the brush onto the foil and tape the other foil on top of the brush.
You are going to have to hold the brush from slipping with one hand, while you take a hair dryer in your other. Place the hair dryer on hot with low power. You will only need to hold it there for a few seconds. I held it 3-4 inches away from my brush straightener :)
It isn’t a smart idea to use a hair straightener because it will most likely melt the brush. I didn’t try this, but logic shows high temperature metals easily melt plastic.
The next step is to check your brush to make sure it is ready to go back in the bottle. At this time, if there are any hairs that won’t cooperate, go ahead and trim them. Also, if you used any hair gel, you are going to want to rinse it out with water.
You can also take this time to thin out your polish/paint if it is a little too thick. The thickness could have been a cause in your wonky brush. To think out my Stripe Rite, I used a few drops of water. DO NOT stir it around with your newly shaped brush. It could cause it to go back to it’s useless form. I used a coffee stir with tape on the end instead. The tape is put on the end to keep the polish/paint from going into the straw. If you’re thinning out polish, use nail polish thinner.
The next and final step is to put your brush back into your bottle, and enjoy :)
Thanks for reading! I hope this little tip is useful to you all, and saves you from stressing over a bad brush.
