Decanting Nail Polish From A Nic's Sticks Polish: Part 1

Ok, here we go! (all photos may be enlarged for better detail)

How do you go from a wand full of polish to a bottle of polish?

I am going to demonstrate how to decant from a Nic's Sticks Silver-ella polish:

Begin at the Beginning

First you need to get yourself a table that you don't mind some chemistry leaking onto, if you don't want any reactions on your wood stained or plastic table tops, try getting some foil or cello-wrap, aka cling wrap. In a pinch, grab a piece of cardboard and cover it with the foil or wrap.

I then lay down a rag towel to absorb any spills.

Next you need tools:

From left to right:

1. Nail polish thinner to help rinse out extra polish in the tube
2. Box cutter or X-acto knife. IMPORTANT: MUST HAVE A FIXED BLADE. No folding pocket knives. Highly dangerous, it can fold back on your fingers and disaster ensues. Fixed blade ONLY. Please!
3. Pliers, a vise grip is fine, but you don't need that much strength.
4. Small cosmetic spatula. In a pinch you could use anything thin, straight, and with a little bit of strength: nail file, straw, ball point pen, pencil, etc. All you need to use if for is to push the polish-filled tube out of the packaging, nothing dramatic.
5. Nic's Stick polish.

Take off the cap of the polish and discard.

Blowing the Top Off

Then you will see that in the conical base that holds the brush, there is a seam:

Apply the pliers just above the seam:

Twist:

There are no threads and it's easy to remove with a little bit of pressure.

The result:

Then you can just pull the brush out, it's not glued in:

Then pull out the dispensing white plastic piece, which is just set in there, too, and you have this:

A better angle.

Now you can see down into the case and the tube that holds all the polish:

What you've done is freed up that little tube of nail polish that is down inside the case. It can slide back and forth, but won't come out:

Inside the bladder, by the top, there is a valve that keeps it from leaking, so you don't need to worry. It may dry out if you don't continue to act, but it won't leak!

OK, part two tomorrow!

Update 04/05/2014
Link to part 2

Link to part 3

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!