What To Do When You Don’t Love Your Manicure
Updated 2025.10.13.
What do you do when you dislike your manicure? Nail polish is meant to bring joy. When it doesn’t, it’s time to solve this problem -
When you are finished manicuring your nails at home, the first thing you want to do is gaze at them and behold their beauty.
The true point of a manicure, or a pedicure for that matter, is that you’ll feel joy when you look at your nails, and if other people do too, that’s just an added plus.
First and foremost, painted nails are meant to bring happiness to you, if they can bring happiness to the world, then all the better.
Usually, happiness and delight is the outcome of most manicures you will create.
However, there are times when the color idea you had in your mind doesn’t exactly match your mood, or what you expected you might feel, when looking at it.
Sometimes you really do need to find out what manicured nails look and feel prettiest on you by trying out different shades and comparing them.
There’s no need to feel guilty about not loving a finished product of art, as long as you enjoy the process.
There's also no reason to feel guilty for not loving a specific bottle of color because everything has its season or reason.
Because the application of color happens at the end of your manicure, and the most common reason for disliking your manicure is due to the color, the easiest way to fix a manicure you don’t love is to remove your color and do a color change.
A color change is the easiest way to get back to being in love with your manicure.
A color change will require you to remove the base and the top coat, use some nail polish remover, and take up a bit of time (between 10-30 minutes) and product, but know that nothing is ever wasted on the road to manicure happiness.
The color you didn’t love ultimately teaches you a bit about what you do love instead and why.
Often, when identifying why you don’t like a certain manicure, it causes you to think about what might suit you better - so the manicure’s purpose was perhaps to guide you closer to your true desires.
Sometimes color re-dos lead to even prettier manicures and pedicures than the one you began with, so you may be even happier after you do it.
If you don’t have time for a full color change, still remove your current color, and oil your nails and cuticle, or apply a simple quick dry top coat for shine, committing to redo the color later when you do have time.
Bare, natural nails are better than looking at something that will make you upset all day.
In the case you went to the salon for the manicure or pedicure, simply tell the technician that you don’t like the shade, and ask if they can do a color change.
Since their goal is your satisfaction, they may say yes or aim to please you in some other way.
An additional option to consider after a color change, is to add a sheer topper, or a gradient glitter to the tips.
Sometimes adding a contrasting element to a shade can make it more appealing to the eye. It also gives you reason to play with nail colors for a minute.
What do you do with the nail polish color you don’t love?
If you own the nail color that is part of the manicure or pedicure you are not loving, don’t throw it away right away, because it simply may not be working for you that day.
Maybe it will work for your mood when the seasons change or when you’re wearing another outfit.
Give it a few more tries on other days or try it as an accent in nail art
To end, color changing is the fastest way to love your manicure again, or as a second option, add a sheer topper or glitter overlay, to see if it changes your mind.
If you still don’t like it after 3 tries, offer it to someone you know likes polish or toss it.
What doesn’t work for you today, may be just the thing someone else needs and it’s okay to accept that.
Nail colors can be great things to trade with friends or family members who also love nail design as a hobby.
Life is too short to not have a manicure you love, after spending both time and money attempting to get there.
Here’s the silver lining though:
Often… finding out what you don’t like or love in the nail world is part of the path that brings you one polish closer to identifying what it is you do really like.
Rather than seeing this one color as a loss - see it as a stepping stone towards something you really will be grateful to have found.
To identify what you do like, check out what our readers are loving.
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