Why has nail polish cured my nails?

[Beardycapri]

Didn’t want to be too grim in the title.

I have had discoloured big toe nails for years and I have been using fungal nail lotion to keep it at bay.

But for the second time now, I put polish on (not gel but opi type) and what happened? Is it something in the polish? Is the acetone nail varnish remover? Because my tootsies look great. I haven’t been for a pedicure since this happened just in case it was an infection. So now I feel that I can go to the salon again without transferring anything.

Am bright that it wasn’t a fni? And what’s helped Ed?

Perhaps the nail varnish created a seal which starved the fungal infection of oxygen.

Maybe - I had yellow toes before the varnish and 5 days later they are pink again.

Any nail technicians here who can explain?

Just seen all the typos in the OP. Will edit.

Oh it won’t let me. But you get the gist.

Bumping as I’m interested in this!

I don't know how the nail polish would work on a fungal nail infection - I suppose it could be the acidic nature of nail polish remover🤔

I just recently listened to this BBC podcast on nail fungus treatments and it's very enlightening! It has advice from a Dermatologist is on the British Association of Dermatologists' Foot Fungus Task Force. Nail fungus has a task force so all is well with the world now 😂

The most useful info from this dermatologist is that nail fungus is from athletes foot (which you can have but may not be able to see) and that you need to treat any athletes foot to prevent fungus from returning.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002kq34

I think it's unlikely that the yellowing was a fungal nail infection. If it was bad enough to discolour multiple toes then it would take months to eradicate.

DH had this and we think it was just staining from previous polish that hasn’t come off, with the new application and removal it just came straight off

Thanks for the updates. It could be bruising from wearing pointy shoes rather than rounded toe boots that I normally clunk about in. But I’m still intrigued how varnish/remover can get my toes back to normal.

I suspect your yellowing toe nails weren’t caused by a fungal infection. More likely to be caused by the friction of your big toes bumping against your shoes.

Your DH paints his toenails? Or is that a typo? 😄

Nothing wrong with that. It’s not unheard for men to use nail polish.

Nothing wrong at all, I agree. Just struck me as slightly unusual!

Currently treating athletes foot on one foot and I have a long standing fungal nail on the other (my feet are gross 😫)

I will give this a listen as I really want to sort out all out so my feet are fit to be seen in public

An infection would take months to grow out, it’s most likely damage / bruising and the appearance improves temporarily when you flood the nail with liquid. Varnish isn’t recommended with a fungal infection as the fungi thrives in the dark, wet environment; you’d normally see significant growth after a period of wearing varnish. Have you noticed it looks better after a shower? You could ask your GP to take a clipping to rule out an infection. If it’s damage you can spend the spring/summer varnish-free in sandals and let it recover!

And fingers. Started in lockdown to paint them to stop him biting them then decided he liked the way they looked, then gave his toes a go