How To Remove Acrylic Nails At Home With Foil

Need to get your acrylic nails off, but don't have the fourth dimension or patience to get to the salon? We've all been there — but it pays to remove that manicure correctly instead of, say, prying them from your natural nails (ouch!) or mindlessly biting them off while absorbed in a Goggle box-watching session. If you lot're wondering how to take off your acrylic nails quickly at home, we've got y'all covered — and we've even got an acetone-gratuitous option.

Unfortunately, removing acrylics forcefully means removing some of the many layers of your natural nail plate, too, according to Savannah Walker, a professional nail artist and possessor of Manifest Nail in New York City. "Usually this results in sparse, flimsy, damaged nails, which last for months until they abound out," she says. And that's the all-time possible scenario! Then, if you lot choose to wear acrylics, we suggest keeping this handy tool kit at domicile for a impairment-free removal:

Tools Y'all'll Need to Safely Remove Acrylic Nails

100% Pure Acetone Nail Polish Remover

EC Labs amazon.com

$12.99

Cotton fiber Balls

Heaven Organics amazon.com

$v.99

Wrap Aluminum Foil

Reynolds amazon.com

$17.56

Small Bowl

Youngever amazon.com

$xv.99

How to remove acrylic nails at dwelling house with acetone

Keep in mind, even if you follow these five steps, you may be left with somewhat compromised natural nails, depending on how the technician applied them the acrylics in the first place and how carefully y'all execute the removal. Yet, "if the acrylic process is done patiently, information technology can be virtually damage-free," Walker says. At present, follow these simple steps from nail pros to take acrylics off fast without impairment:

1. File off every bit much of the acrylic nail as possible

Instead of filing your nails in the usual fashion (forth the top edge of the nail), you'll demand to thin out the entire area the acrylic covers. "Using a fibroid grit file , file off as much of the acrylic product every bit possible," Walker says. "You lot demand a really good file for this; an emery board would be useless." Look for a 100-grit smash file, which is coarse plenty to file downwardly the surface of the acrylics, or a blast drill.

Pro safety tip: "Exist conscientious not to cut the skin around the nails with the edges of the file," she advises. "Always 'flavor' a new file by using some other file over the edges to soften them."

ii. Soak off whatsoever remaining acrylic nail

Close up of woman's hand in bowl of soapy water

altrendo images Getty Images

Once the acrylic has been filed down much equally possible, Walker recommends soaking the nails in 100% acetone nail shine remover for every bit long as it takes to deliquesce the product.

There are ii ways to do this. One method is to place an acet0ne-soaked piece of cotton over each nail, so wrap each fingertip in foil, Walker advises. "This is the superior technique," she says. Otherwise, you can endeavour soaking fingers in a bowl of acetone. It's simpler, but "the basin technique is very harsh on your skin and takes longer," Walker notes.

If yous do go this road, "just dip your nail tips in the basin to avoid drying out the skin on your fingers and hands," says Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab Managing director Birnur Aral, Ph.D. "Be sure to only utilize acetone in a well-ventilated expanse, because it is very volatile and tin hands irritate your respiratory system."

three. Gently scrape or vitrify off the last bits of acrylic

Subsequently soaking in acetone, check nails "every twenty minutes or so to scrape off the softened acrylic using an orange stick or cuticle pusher, repeating this process until all the product has been dissolved," Walker says.

There may be a few small areas of acrylic that remain, but don't go crude with them! "If in that location are any piffling $.25 of acrylic that won't budge, a soft foam nail buffer can be used to buff those little stubborn $.25 smooth," she says.

5. Protect your nails from future acrylic damage

Acrylic isn't necessarily bad for nails, but it can accept a cost on natural nails. For acrylics devotees, endeavour to accept a weeklong break from them every month so your nails' health doesn't completely dwindle. During that time, castor on one coat of a strengthening blast handling every day to prevent breakage, similar this moisturizing oil created past nail creative person Deborah Lippmann.

To give them an fifty-fifty more intensive treatment, "cover your nails with cuticle oil and cuticle cream, then wrap each hand in a warm washcloth for 5 minutes," says manicurist Deborah Lippmann, founder of Deborah Lippmann boom collection. The consequence: shinier, stronger nails in no fourth dimension.

How to remove acrylic nails at home without acetone

Y'all tin can remove acrylic nails without acetone using an acetone-free boom polish remover every bit a soak-off solution. But know that "if you wish to avert acetone, it will take longer to remove acrylics," says Anastasia Totty, a LeChat Nails Educator in Saint Johns, Florida. Hither's how:

Start past trimming the actress length of the enhancement using nail clippers to cutting downward on the soaking fourth dimension, she advises.
Use a 100-grit nail file to remove as much product as possible without filing into the natural boom. "This volition remove whatsoever top coat, gel polish or smash fine art making information technology easier for the solution to penetrate the enhancement," Totty explains.
Soak a piece of cotton wool in the remover and wrap your fingertip in a piece of foil about two inches long, with the piece of cotton in direct contact with the acrylic, repeating on each finger. Wait fifteen to 20 minutes, so remove the foil and cotton and gently push button the soaked product away from the cuticle using an orange woods stick or cuticle pusher. "Exist patient and don't scrape or peel any of it if it'south not soaked enough," she says.
If yous have acrylic left on nails, wrap them again using more of the remover.
Utilize the file to shape nails, gently buff if necessary, and wash hands to remove any remaining solution.