How to Fix Stained Nails

This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you purchase through our links. Please read our full disclosure here.

As CF’s current resident nail blogger, it’s safe to say that I’m obsessed with polish. I own more than 80 bottles of varnish, I paint my nails three times a week and my nails are very rarely chipped, or even polish-free.

The biggest downside to this fascination (apart from my ever-dwindling bank account) is that I’ve had to learn how to fix stained nails from dark polish. My stained nails are always worst in the wintertime, when we all start rocking deeper, darker shades. This is by far the biggest downside of wearing nail polish, but can be (somewhat) prevented and avoided.

Are you sick of yellow nails? Here are a few tips to get rid of yellow stained nails, once and for all:

Table of Contents

How to Get Rid of Yellow Nails:

Here are my two best tips for preventing and getting rid of yellow nails caused by dark polish. In my experience, these are the only two methods that really work.

1. Use a Base Coat

I know, I know – I also used to think that applying base coat was a completely useless step, but I can assure you that it isn’t! Not only does it help your polish stay on, it protects your nail big-time from stains.

I cannot stress this enough, if you’re not using a base coat, you absolutely must! After wearing a dark shade for a few days, my bare nails are much less yellow than they would be if I hadn’t been using a good base coat. A few months ago I outlined my favorite base coats, so definitely pick up one of those up and be on your way to cleaner, pinker nails.

2. Let Them Breathe

To a polish-fiend like myself, this is basically the kiss of death – you want me to show my yellow, stained nails when I could just paint my nails any other gorgeous shade? Unfortunately, yes.

Every 5 or 6 weeks, I try going polish-free for at least 3 to 4 days. At the beginning, my nails are unsightly, but by the end, they’re back to their healthy, normal pink shade. This is, unfortunately, the only fool-proof way to get rid of stains on your nails.

What WON’T Work for Stained Nails:

I’ve showed you the effective methods fixing stained nails, but there are two popular methods that, from my experience, don’t work at all. Don’t waste your time on…

Lemon Juice:

When I first got nail stains, I googled and googled “how to remove nail stains” and the tip that kept popping up was to put my nails in lemon juice, as lemon juice is allegedly a bleach and will remove stains. Too bad that this totally does not work at all, and the only thing it achieves is making your hands reek of lemon juice for hours.

Buffing your Nails:

Okay, so this technically will work, but buffing your nails is really bad for them – it completely thins and weakens the nail bed. If you have to do this, make sure to use this solution extremely sparingly!