Want to speed up the process? “When the acetone is warm, it works faster,” she notes. MAJOR WARNING: Do not, under any circumstances, heat the acetone directly—it’s extremely flammable. (Like, set your house on fire flammable.) Rather, you can set it over another bowl of hot water to gently warm it up. It’s also a good idea to cover the whole set-up with a towel to minimize some of the fumes (which can be dangerous to inhale), Gerstein points out.
Step 5: Check and scrape (gently).
Perform a status check every five to 10 minutes; you should start to see the acrylic bubbling and lifting off, Gerstein says. Once you do, use a wooden orange stick—metal is too harsh—to gently and lightly scrape whatever is coming off on its own. Then dip your fingers back in the acetone, click “Yes, I’m Still Watching,” and repeat until all of the acrylic is gone.
Step 6: Moisturize, moisturize, and moisturize some more.
Given that acetone is extremely dehydrating to both skin and nails, it’s imperative to load up on moisture as soon as you’re done removing acrylics, per Dr. Rastogi. The protocol she recommends: Wash your hands with soap and warm water to remove any lingering acetone, then swipe cuticle oil all over your nails and surrounding skin, then finish with a mega-thick hand cream. Don’t get hung up on looking for particular formulas or ingredients. “Anything that will add back moisture is going to do the trick,” she says.
Want to up the ante? Slather on your cuticle oil and hand cream before bedtime, add a top layer of petroleum jelly (Vaseline), then put on a pair of cotton gloves to seal in all of that much-needed moisture overnight, she adds.
What are other ways to remove acrylic nails?
Unfortunately, there really aren’t any. Again, yanking, pulling, and scraping are definite no-nos. And if you want to speed the process along with an electronic file, it’s best to see a nail technician.
One important note: Some salons, particularly ones where a full set is shockingly inexpensive, may use acrylics that contain MMA (methacrylate monomers), Gerstein says. These chemicals were popular ingredients in acrylics in the early 1970s but proved to be very damaging to both nails and skin. As a result, the FDA pulled products made with 100% MMA off the market, but there’s currently no regulation that prohibits companies from using them in acrylic nails.
If you aren’t seeing any peeling or bubbling of the acrylic during your acetone soak but do notice a sweet, pungent scent, your falsies very likely contain MMA. “My advice is to stop trying to take them off and see a professional nail tech,” Gerstein says. “It will take you hours and hours to remove MMA, and it may not even be possible at all.”.
If you made it to the end of this article, you get the takeaway: Removing acrylic nails at home is definitely not a quickie activity and you shouldn’t go rogue. But if you resign yourself to investing an hour or so and following the expert-backed techniques outlined above, you can DIY without destroying your real nails. It just takes restraint, patience, and a boatload of acetone.
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