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What is the Best Way to Measure My Nail Polish Suspension Base and Nail Polish Liquid Pigments?
The challenges of measuring nail polish suspension base and liquid pigments.
Measuring your nail polish base and liquid pigments can be a real challenge especially when you use measuring tools that are inaccurate or difficult to use.
Measuring cups are one way to do it but they are not always accurate. This is a pain when you plan to make 5 x 10ml bottles of nail polish.
You think that you have measured 50ml of suspension base but it turns out to be much less and then you end up with 4 bottles of nail polish and 1 half bottle which ends up being a waste of polish and a wasted bottle.
Pipettes can also be difficult to use because the liquid gets stuck in them and often refuses to come out. Sometimes when you squeeze the pipette to add liquid pigment to your polish too much comes out or not enough.
So what is a better way to measure my suspension base an nail polish liquid pigments?
Medical syringes are one of the best ways to accurately measure your nail polish suspension base and nail polish liquid pigments.
Advantages of using syringes to measure your suspension base and liquid pigments
This is great because it will help you to accurately recreate the same nail polishes in the future because the ingredients will be measured in the same amounts each time you make the nail varnish.
1. Medical syringes are primarily used to measure quantities of medication and drugs for patients. Therefore the amounts and volumes must be extremely accurate to ensure that patients get the right amount of medication.
That means that when you are measuring your liquid pigments and suspension base with syringes you can be confident that you are measuring exact amounts each time.
2. Medical syringes are made from polypropylene (glass ones are less common) which is solvent resistant. This means that the syringes will not melt, disintegrate or get damaged when they come into contact with nail polish thinner, liquid pigments or nail polish suspension base.
3. You can get the right amount liquid pigment or suspension base to come out of the syringe because the plunger gives you much more control than a pipette.
4. Syringes are available in so many different sizes from 60ml to 1ml. This means that you can make very large or small batches of nail polish if you want to. 1ml syringes have increments of 0.1ml which is a tiny amount but can be very useful.
By measuring your liquid pigments with a 1ml syringe you can add very small amounts of very strong and potent liquid pigments. This is important because some liquid pigments can drastically alter a nail varnish colour or shade even in tiny amounts.
A syringe allows you to add a liquid pigment gradually but still know accurately how much you have added.
Disadvantages
1. They can be difficult to clean for reuse however not impossible. To clean your syringes place the tip of your syringe in some solvent (nail polish remover, acetone, MEK…) and draw back the plunger so that the syringe is filled with solvent and then push it back out. Repeat this step a number of times until the barrel of the syringe is clean
2. The written increments i.e. the numbers and markings on the side of the syringe are not solvent resistant and will rub off once they syringe comes into contact with suspension base, nail polish thinner, solvents or liquid pigments.
This can be very annoying as you can no longer tell how much you are measuring. To prevent this you can prep your syringes.
How to prep your syringes to prevent the numbered increments from rubbing off.
All you have to do is wrap cello-tape around the barrel of the syringe to protect the numbers and markings.
Now even if you clean and prep your syringes they will only last a maximum of about 3 to 4 uses.
Personally I just throw them away once I have finished making my nail polish.
The best brand of medical syringes for your nail polish making
The best so far that I have found are the luer slip syringes made by Terumo. Luer slip syringes tend to be cheaper than luer lock syringes which is very helpful.
They are also better for making nail polish because they have a small nozzle on the end of the syringe that you can dip into your suspension base and liquid pigments without getting the barrel of the syringe covered in suspension base.
The rubber bung on the end of the Terumo plungers does not easily come off the plunger and does it not stick inside the barrel of the syringe compared to other brands.
Terumo syringes are a bit more expensive but you get what you pay for after all.
I hope that this article has helped you to understand a better method for measuring you nail polish suspension base and liquid pigments for accurate results every time.
Please comment if you found this helpful or share your top tips for measuring your liquid nail polish ingredients.
