Guest Blogger Post!
Hey, so I am currently in Japan! With many updates soon to come!
Which is posted below!
Thank you Jen!
Tutorial: How to remove gel nails at home
beauty blog. I love anything crafty or creative and love the nail art projects on About a Nail, but as
my nail art attempts are nowhere near as good as Helen’s I have a slightly different type of post for
you.
Last month I had my first gel/shellac nails applied and I loved how long they lasted and how
they still looked fantastic even when it was time to take them off (when they’d started to peel up at
the base). But I didn’t want to spend any extra money to have the salon remove them, so I thought
I’d share with you how I removed my gel nails myself without causing damage to my own nails.
What you’ll need
• Pure acetone (not just acetone nail polish). I bought this bottle from Amazon which worked
perfectly
• Foil cut into squares
• Cotton wool balls or pads cut into small pieces
• A decent amount of time and something to do while you wait (best done in front of Netflix
or something)
First of all you’ll need to resist the temptation to pick gel nails off as this can really damage the nail
underneath!
Soak a cotton wool balls or piece of cotton wool pad in the acetone and place onto the nail, fully
covering all the gel polish.
Create a tin foil wraps around the fingertip to hold the cotton wool in place using one of the foil
squares.
The tin foil wrap not only holds the acetone-soaked cotton wool pad in place but also contains the
body heat from the fingers, which helps things along. I also decided to hold my hands over a bowl of
hot steamy water for extra heat.
Repeat on all your fingers. I suggest doing one hand at a time.
You’ll then need to wait patiently for about 20 minutes while the acetone does its job, and if you are
doing one hand at a time (which I did) you’ll need about an hour to spare overall.
Remove each foil wrap one at a time so that they aren’t all exposed to the air at once (as the gel
could harden again). The gel nail should be visibly falling off as soon as you remove the wrap and will
slide off very easily and cleanly. There should be no need to pick at it, so if it doesn’t come off cleanly
then it just isn’t ready yet and you should reapply your acetone foil wrap and wait a bit longer. If
it’s still not coming off easily you can also use a nail file to scuff the coating of the gel polish before
reapplying the acetone foil wrap – this creates breaks in it, which will help the acetone penetrate the
polish. I had to be patient with quite a few nails but in the end they all came off very easily with no
damage to the nail bed.
Then your newly naked nails should be ready to go. I’d recommend following this process up by
buffing the surface of the nails to remove any remaining base coats or primer and then applying
some nail oil to condition the nails after using acetone on them. I also decided to let them breathe
for a day or two before applying any new polish, but this was just a personal choice.
I hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial and find it useful if you’re a fan of gel nails.
Thank you for the post Jen!
Many Japanease updates to come!
Currently dying from the humidity and heat!
But having a lovely time, managed to do a nail paint yesterday,
post up soon! :)
x x
