Soaking off gel or acrylic

Ok, now you have those beautiful nails done with gel (or acrylic) and you are ready to take them off.  What to do now?  FIRST, NEVER EVER EVER EVER, PEEL OR PRY OFF YOUR GEL/ACRYLIC.  Doing this will damage your nail, and can even completely peel off your nail tips.

The only way to take them off is soaking with pure acetone.  This is the one I use from Sally's, but any pure acetone is fine.  There are many ways to do this and I am going to tell you about the one's that I have tried and how they work.

First, I tried soaking my finger in a little dish of acetone.  Having to leave it soak for 10 - 20 minutes, really irritated my skin.  Didn't like this method.

Next, I tried soaking a cotton ball in acetone then hold it on my finger.  Eeh.  Same results as before.  Skin irritation.

This time I did a little research.  Mind you, I'm trying to do this with things on hand.  Didn't want to buy those special wrap things that are made for soak off gel.  I saw some videos on YouTube and tried the foil method.  I cut some strips of aluminum foil ($1.00 at the Dollar Tree or most dollar stores).  Soak a cotton ball in acetone.  Make sure it is very wet!  Put the cotton ball on your finger (nail side) and wrap foil around finger and cotton ball to make a cap.  Leave soak for 15 minutes.  Some fingers needed a little longer.  Kind of twist the cap and pull off.  It takes off 90% of the gel. Positives - Effective, cheap and easy.  Can't beat that.  Only negative - had to make sure foil was wrapped tightly or foil cap would fall off.

Image from Google Images

I went on my weekly browse session at my local Sally's store and found these ASP brand Soak Off Gel Polish Caps and Foam.   I picked up a pack and headed home to try them out.  Soak the foam pieces, that came with the package, in acetone.  Same method as above,  Place foam over fingernail and slide on the caps.  Leave on anywhere from 15-30 minutes.  Take off caps and remove foam.  My foam stuck to every nail.  I had to do the foil method to now get the foam and gel off. When working on my other hand, I used soaked pieces of paper towels.  This worked so much better.  But using the caps again, the rubber loosens up and doesn't keep them very secure. Positives - Fits better than aluminum foil method.  Negatives - caps looses tightness, don't like the foam pads recommended for them.

Image from Sally website

While searching on Amazon, I happen by these plastic soak off caps.  They were a great price and were plastic.   So I decided to give these a whirl.  I read the reviews and most suggested to use a piece of paper towel soaked in acetone to put on the nail, under the cap.  I used the paper towels and I couldn't have been more happy.  The caps stayed put.  It still took the same amount of time to soak off but it came off easily and the caps held tight.  Positives - Fits like a dream.  No negatives.

Image from Amazon listing

So, there are my methods of removing my gel.  You can also see my pros and cons to each method.  Hope this helps you or pass the info to someone that might need it.

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

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