The results are in! I’ve completed my test of the Hydrogen Peroxide and Baking Soda method of whitening yellowed nails. (If you missed the first post, look here!) I’ll detail my results and photos after the break, but first…

Let’s recap!

My goal was to test whether the common DIY home remedy of Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate – NaHCO 3 ) mixed with Hydrogen Peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to un-yellow nails actually worked worth a damn. I started with nails that were not super yellow, but yellow enough that I constantly noticed their discoloration when not wearing polish. I have certainly seen worse yellowing, but I wasn’t willing to let my nails get more yellow before starting my experiment. I’m a bad scientist, I know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Getting the right consistency with the paste was problematic. Peroxide is more viscous than water, so it pours much more quickly. I found that pouring the peroxide into the bottle cap, then using the cap to dribble the liquid into my mixing dish was the way to go. My first two paste mixes were far too thin and I had to add more baking soda to thicken it up, which just wasted material. Even so, I didn’t get the consistency I was looking for until the LAST treatment. Of course. The measurements that worked best for me were 1 heaping teaspoon baking soda, and one capful of peroxide.

Here’s what my best paste consistency looked like:

Results: I actually performed this treatment four times in a seven day span. During the length of the experiment, I did not paint my nails at all, nor did I alter my nail care routine from its previous crappy state. I wanted the peroxide paste to be the only variable. I had originally intended to repeat the treatment as many times as it took to get solid results, but I stopped when the paste started doing more harm than good.

Let’s have a look, shall we?

Conclusion: Meh. I wasn’t that impressed with the results of this experiment. As you can see from my comparison pictures, the yellow was toned down a smidge, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere near the result I was expecting. I see ladies online that swear by this method and claim that it whitens their nails right up. Maybe if I had started with much, much yellower nails, I would have seen a more drastic change.

When the benefit of very slightly clearer nails was outweighed by my fear of actually damaging the surface of my nails, I stopped the experiment. After the fourth treatment I could see some surface peeling. (Note: I clearly had surface peeling in my before pictures, but I felt that they worsened after treatment.) Exposure to cleaning agents and chemical solvents (like acetone-based polish remover) can damage the nail surface and cause surface peeling like I was seeing after treatment. I made an educated guess that the oxidizing nature of the hydrogen peroxide was causing minor corrosion, and thus the peeling.

In short, I can’t call these completely negative results. I did see some small improvement in color, but I strongly caution you to use this method sparingly. My nails are, admittedly, thin and weak already from mistreatment. If you have stronger nails (good on you!), you might be able to use this treatment more often with less deterioration.

-RG