At an event last month, I made the mistake of wearing stylishly sheer tights under my very cute above-the-knee white-and-black polka dot dress – only to get a small rip in the tights within the first few hours of pulling them on.

I was in charge of helping with setting up the event, attending the event, and taking down the event. I would thus be wearing these sheer tights for a total of about 17 hours, and, worse yet, I didn’t have a spare set of tights in my bag.

I was pretty much asking to get a rip in them!

As most of us know from first-hand experience, a tiny rip or tear in a pair of sheer tights can lead to disaster. It doesn’t just end at that little hole. Instead, it riiiiiiiips up until you’ve got a gigantic run down your leg. Classy, right?

It was an amateur mistake on my part, but luckily a friend had some nail polish in her emergency bag. Something about the ingredients in nail polish make it the perfect solution for preventing a tiny rip from turning into a sky-high run in your sheer tights!

A few quick swipes of the nail polish on and around the rip did the trick in no time, and my sheer tights survived the event itself, even if they did get several more rips in them during take-down.

Moral of the story: don’t wear sheer tights unless a) you have three extra pairs in your bag, or b) you have emergency nail polish to swipe on the rips that will inevitably appear!

How do you deal with rips in sheer tights? Do you have any other tricks for using nail polish (besides on your nails)? Share in the comments section below!