💅 Nail polish

A screener will flag it if the bottle is over 100ml. You will be offered the choice to surrender the bottle, put it in a checked bag if you have one waiting, or return it to your car. Nail polish is classified as a flammable liquid, so there is no exception for being a little over the limit — bottles above 100ml do not pass.

Nail polish in checked baggage is widely permitted and there are no notable regional bans on it. The standard international approach treats it the same as other flammable liquids — allowed in checked bags within reasonable quantities. Carry-on rules are universally tied to the 100ml liquid limit, so the restriction you are most likely to encounter is a bottle that is simply too large for the liquids bag.

The 100ml rule for flammable liquids is applied consistently — screeners do not make exceptions for nail polish based on how much product remains in a larger bottle. If the bottle's total volume (not the amount remaining) exceeds 100ml, it will not be allowed in the cabin. Keeping to clearly labelled travel-size bottles is the only reliable way to avoid this.

For carry-on, drop a 100ml or smaller bottle into your quart-sized liquids bag before you leave home — it needs to be in that bag at the checkpoint. For checked baggage, wrap the bottle in a sealed zip-lock bag in case the cap loosens under pressure in the hold. Laying the bottle flat or upside down during packing can also reduce the chance of seepage around the brush seal.