Why you should paint your nails at work

While I wouldn’t consider myself the most feminine person, I absolutely adore painting my nails. I paint them 2-4 times a week and have started bringing in nail tester strips so I can try out new designs even when my nails are already painted. Back in high school I used to paint them everyday after school but ran into a problem that every serial nail painter deals with: drying time.

For the newbies, nail polish is just paint and therefore it takes time to dry. If you have a good opaque polish that only needs one coat, this could take as little as 5-10 minutes, but the more coats you add the drying time increases exponentially. In my qualified opinion, there are actually 2 times you care about: setting time (the time it takes for the nail polish to withstand light touches) and drying time (the time it takes for the nail polish to dry completely). I have drawn a highly accurate illustration of the drying time and setting time below.

While it sucks to bang you nails while they are still wet, what I consider to be one of the biggest annoyances in my life are indenting my polished nails between the setting and drying time, which is often hours long. I used to do my nails before I went to bed to make sure I wouldn’t mess them up but even then my nails would have an imprint from my sheets. Ending up with fully dry, non-imprinted nails is near impossible because when are you going to not be using your hands in a way that your nails will never touch anything for hours on end.

Except at your desk job.

Think about it, at a typical desk job you are typing or in meetings for most of your day, all the while your nails are free and clear of any malicious inanimate objects. Not only that, it’s a nice way to quickly relieve stress while feeling somewhat productive because now your nails look great. I get that it can look ‘ditzy’ or girly which is perhaps not how you want to appear in front of your coworkers but like almost everything, if you own it and ensure that it doesn’t affect your performance it will be seen as a fun personality trait. And if you’re like me and have the “too much” gene, you can even build nail polish racks to put your dozens of polishes on display, perhaps even with a sign inviting others to paint their nails as well. I’m telling you it’s a fantastic conversation starter and a painfully effective form of networking.

In conclusion, nail polish racks should be a staple in every work environment and if the brand HoloTaco wants to add me to their PR list, my DMs are open.