Beauty experts often stress how important it is to keep makeup brushes clean—and rarely discuss how important it is to keep other tools clean, too. In this case, we’ll tell you just how often you should be cleaning your nail clippers.
Step back, take a second and guess how often they need to be cleaned. Surprisingly enough, you should be washing them before every use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You might not be thinking about it when you’re prepping your nails for a mani, but throughout the day, there’s a lot of stuff that collects in your fingernails—germs, dirt, bacteria… you get the idea. And when you’re not disinfecting those clippers, all that gunk just… stays there, leaving the potential to cause major infection. Ew.
Fortunately, cleaning them doesn’t take long. For a deep clean, soak them in a bowl of boiling hot, soapy water for two minutes. Rinse, and then wipe them down using a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol. In between washes—after each use—wipe them down with rubbing alcohol. In all cases, make sure to dry them off with a paper towel so your nail clippers don’t rust!