Put Nail Polish On Your Broken Phone Screen And Watch What Happens

Have you ever dropped your phone and picked it up, only to find — oh no! — this time the screen is cracked? Perhaps you've dropped that phone numerous times before (who hasn't?), and it's come through without a scratch, but this time, finally, your phone screen just gave up.

Good news — at least if the crack is a small one. Home maintenance site Puls.com advises that cracks can be prevented from spreading by applying a substance called cyanoacrylate, which, in common household terms, is the stuff found in both super glue and nail polish.

Should you go the nail polish route — well, the first thing is to pick a clear shade. Your phone might look cute with a pink stripe across the screen, but it's bound to get annoying. The next step, according to phone resellers TheWhizCells, is to wipe the surface clean of any dirt, and then to apply just the tiniest drop of nail polish along the crack using the brush or a toothpick. 

Tilt your phone back and forth so the polish seeps down into the crack, then wipe off any excess before allowing the polish to dry thoroughly. If you've done it correctly, you should have a not-too-noticeable repaired phone crack, and its seal will help keep the inner workings of your phone safe from rogue dust mutes and moisture droplets — although it's still probably a good idea to keep your phone away from any damp places since you can only trust a drop of dried nail polish so far.

Sad news though — nail polish cannot repair a shattered screen. Basically, it can only fix a small crack — or at least stop it from spreading. What you should do, if you pick up your phone only to find that what once was your screen is now a spiderweb, is to take a large piece of clear packing tape and carefully smooth it down over your former screen. Will you be able to use the phone in this state? Again, no. It will just keep your phone's innards (the expensive part) safe and intact until you can get that phone to a repair place, which you should do ASAP.

You can also, should you be the handy type, attempt to replace that shattered screen yourself, since screen replacement kits are readily available for many phone types. If you're kind of a klutz, however, and/or this is your first time attempting to replace a phone screen and it's a relatively new, expensive phone that you really want to save, it's probably better that you leave the screen replacing to a professional. If you manage to mess up the screen replacement (which isn't that hard to do) there's a chance you could damage the phone beyond repair, so maybe practice on an old, dead phone first if you really, really want to learn DIY phone repair.