Yellow nail polish is currently quite a hit and I’ve rocked the color numerous times already. But what if, underneath it all, your nails are stained just as yellow and you’re afraid to go ‘bare nail’ because of that?

If you have stains on your nails from nail polish or other staining things like paint and such, luckily there are a few things you can do about it. You can start by using a good basecoat religiously and wait for the yellow stains to grow out, but you can also speed up the process by doing a few other things…

• You can use one of those nail-buffers that you can use to make your nails shine to buff the top layer off of your nail. If you’re lucky and you’ve only had a polish stain the top layer, this is the perfect one time solution to getting rid of those ugly yellow tint stains on your nails. Because this is quite an aggressive way to treat the stains I suggest you do this no more than once every month or two.  Buffing your nail does make your nail thinner every time you do it and you will end up with perhaps pretty looking, but extremely thin and fragile nails.  You don’t want that do you?

• You can soak your nails in water with lemon juice or lemon slices. The acid in the juice will strip away stains and grease. Do not do this too often as your nails do, of course, contain calcium and calcium and acid aren’t exactly friends and it can leave your nails soft and weak. If you don’t have much time and don’t want to do the whole soaking things; simply rub a slice of lemon directly underneath and on top of your nails.

• Mix up a nice little paste with some lemon juice and baking soda. It doesn’t only look cool because it will start to fizz a little, but it will also whiten your nails quite a bit when you scrub your nails with this mixture using an old toothbrush. Beware that this is quite an abrasive little mix and it might end up making your nails feel quite rough, so do not do this too often!

• Not everyone has just a couple of lemons or baking soda lying around, so you can also use a common whitening toothpaste. So try scrubbing your nails with an old toothbrush and whitening toothpaste!

• This is something I do often myself: Dissolve a tablet of denture cleaner into a small bowl of lukewarm water. Then, soak your nails for about five to ten minutes. Sure your fingers will smell minty and that’s not always something you want, but it will also have cleaned your nails quite a bit. This is also a great tip for people who have long acrylic or gel nails to get them really cleaned up well underneath as it’s sometimes hard to get into each nook and cranny when washing your hands!

• If you happen to have some 3% hydrogen peroxide in your medicine cabinet you could soak a cotton ball with it and rub it into your nails. Let it dry and rinse your hands before putting on a basecoat or a nail treatment of your choice.

Be sure to always wash and moisturize your hands after doing these treatments as both mint and acid works as an astringent and will leave your nails and  your hands feeling quite dry.

Will you be trying out or have you tried some of these out before and would like to share the experience, please comment below!  If you have other tips share those too! I’m curious to know what you think.