Do you know how to take of gel polish? Because I don’t. Let’s learn together.
I don’t always get my nails painted but when I do, I get something complicated that I know I can’t do on my own. Otherwise, what’s the point, right?
A week before Thanksgiving I received a gel manicure at the salon with my mom. (Oof, that was awhile ago.) More than a month later I still have the polish on! It’s slowly been growing out, and I’ve trimmed my nails but I didn’t want to destroy my nails beds by using the wrong removal methods.
Well enough is enough! Otherwise I’d be looking at 3 more months of this nonsense. This video is helpful on how to safely remove your gel polish at home, but I have a few more comments I’d like to make aside from these instructions.
Step 1: Get nail polish remover, cotton balls, some foil, and a stick of some sort.
Silly me, I used regular polish remover and not 100% acetone like this girl in the video. However, I had the same results, so if you don’t already own 100% acetone, regular remover will also do the trick.
Also, I am not that bougie to own little nail clamps or rubber finger pockets (seriously, where am I going to find that? You think I’m not going to lose one? Ha. ) so foil is just fine. Even the woman doing my nails at the time told me to use foil so… it’s all good.
I did agree that you might not want to use a metal nail thingy, and opt for wooden stick (if you have that) but fortunately in my bag of hoarder goodies, I had a rubber nail stick (is that the term?) and it worked just fine. If you have none of these nail instruments, I would recommend using the handle of a metal utensil or a metal spoon. 😉 #lifehack
Step 2: Rip the cotton ball into smaller pieces, soak in remover, and place directly on nail bed (not all over the finger). Then wrap with foil.
I don’t know if she mentions this, but if you can get the cotton to sit as directly as possible on the nail without touching to much skin, this will help not dry out the rest of your fingers.
Step 3: Wait 10 minutes.
Totes agree. If you haven’t had the polish on as long, you might not need a full 10 minutes. But since I have been sporting this color for over a month, some of my nails needed double the attention.
Step 4: Scrap off with fancy tool.
It’s hard not to be aggressive and impatient with your nails. If you go ham like I did and feel bad about your dry nails afterwards, the last step is vital.
Step 5: Apply nail oil.
Well I’m ballin’ on a budget, so I used olive oil (after googling it was safe and fine to do so). You can drizzle it on your nails and refresh your fingers, but then you’ll feel super oily and end up washing it off anyway. (Which I did.) But then they still looked dry so I got a Q-tip and dipped it in a small amount of olive oil and applied directly to my nails. This was much cleaner, and made me feel less oily.
Hope you’ve learned something new! I realize I should have done this much sooner. Time for a new nail color!
