Credits: Social Media
I said goodbye to green fingers from cheap rings with easy hack
Having had enough of green-tainted fingers from cheap jewelry, I went in search of a fix and discovered a hack using only clear nail polish.
In a perfect world, we would all have as much money as we want to spend on lavish items, and of course, rent. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and the cost of living crisis is very much here. Such financial difficulties have sparked numerous trends like loud budgeting and its antithesis, doom spending.
Why do cheap rings turn your finger green?
For years now I have purchased jewelry from a range of retailers, whether those be small independent businesses or massive fast fashion companies like ASOS and Boohoo.
As a teenager, I was drawn to fast fashion largely because of its “quantity over quality” ethos that enabled me to order way more items than I actually needed. I was completely ignorant at first to the ethical implications of such behavior.
Choosing quantity over quality means that the materials used are of a far lower quality than more expensive pieces. But that didn’t bother teenage Kieran, who simply saw the price tag.
I was soon plagued by the dreaded green finger effect, which is common when using any cheap or costume jewelry.
Though most often attributed to the presence of copper in the jewelry, the green stain can be triggered by copper, nickel, brass, bronze, and some gold and silver interacting with chemicals and sweat on your skin.
While skin discoloration is not harmful to us, it certainly is annoying and somewhat embarrassing. Thankfully, there’s an easy fix.
Clear nail varnish is your saving grace
I was first turned on to the clear nail polish hack by an eccentric older woman who had been wearing costume jewelry for decades.
She had first coated her jewelry in a polymer barrier, which is readily available on Amazon, but soon found that clear nail varnish worked just as well. Once I had tried the hack myself, there was no going back to green fingers.
To properly protect your rings from staining your fingers or tarnishing, take clear nail polish and coat the inside of the ring. You can also do the same on the other side, but be mindful of the thickness as this is the side people will actually see.
Whether you’re using a polymer barrier or clear nail varnish, you’re going to want to reapply the solution every couple of weeks to offset staining.
