Acrylic nails are absolutely beautiful, and they can make you feel like a total boss. But, there’s no denying that they can be a pain to take off. As they are designed to last, acrylic nails tend to form a tight bond with your natural nails.
This is why they can, sometimes, quite literally be a pain to remove.
The best and safest way to remove your acrylic nails is to use pure acetone. For this, you should fill a tray or bowl with 100% pure acetone, and hold your nails in the liquid for a minimum of 5 minutes.
Once the 5 minutes have passed, you should then take a cuticle pusher (preferably made with metal) and push the nail varnish off of your nail. Ensure that you start at your cuticles, then push down.
Once you have done this, you should then put your nails back in the acetone, and soak for a further 5 minutes. After this has passed, you should then repeat the pushing process with your cuticle pusher to remove even more of the acrylic.
You should continue to do this until the acrylic nails have completely soaked off.
This can take a long time, and it can be quite tedious. But, following this method is the safest way to remove your acrylic nails without causing any damage to your natural nails beneath.
Can hot water remove acrylics?
Yes, hot water can remove acrylics. This is why it is often that you avoid hot water once you have acrylic nails, and that you wear gloves to do simple tasks, such as washing the dishes.
So, while using acetone is the best way to remove acrylic nails, it is also possible to use hot water to remove them. Let’s take a look at how.
If you thought using acetone to soak off acrylics was a tedious process, using hot water takes even longer. So, you might want to consider this before you use the hot water method to soak off your acrylics.
You should fill a bowl with warm water, and then add your hand to it, ensuring that your nails are completely submerged in the liquid. You will then need to keep that hand in the water for 20 minutes.
While it can be tempting to do both hands at the same time, we would recommend doing them separately. That way, you always have a spare hand if you need to do anything during the 20 minutes while your nails are soaking.
After the 20 minutes have passed, you should find that the nails become loose, and you will simply be able to remove them with your other hand.
Once you have done this for the nails on one hand, you should then repeat with the nails on the opposite hand. After about 40 minutes, the hot water will have removed the acrylic nails off of both of your hands.
Can you remove acrylic nails at home?
While a lot of nail salons offer the ability to remove old acrylic nails, it is perfectly safe to remove your acrylic nails at home.
A lot of people choose to do this if they do not plan on having a new set of acrylic nails fitted, as it can seem expensive to pay to simply have your old nails removed.
There are lots of different ways that you can remove your acrylic nails at home. We have already looked at how you can do this using both acetone, and hot water, so let’s have a look at some of the other methods that are available to you.
Another popular way to remove acrylic nails at home involves using acetone, but it does not involve soaking your nails. Instead, this method requires you to soak cotton wool balls in acetone and then secure them on each acrylic nail.
On top of these cotton balls, you should add a layer of silver foil to secure the balls in place.
You should keep the cotton wool balls on your nails for roughly 10 minutes, after which you should remove them to find the bond of the acrylic has softened. This allows you to simply remove the old acrylic nails, like you could in the hot water method.
Can you use rubbing alcohol to take off acrylic nails?
Another method that you can use to remove your old acrylic nails involves rubbing alcohol. In fact, this method is very similar to the acetone method that we looked at earlier.
Except it involves soaking your nails in rubbing alcohol, rather than acetone. But be warned, it does take a little longer to use this method.
If you want to remove your acrylic nails by using rubbing alcohol, you should begin by filling a bowl with it. You should then hold one hand in the bowl of rubbing alcohol, ensuring that your nails are completely submerged at all times.
You should keep the hand that you are soaking in the alcohol for 30 minutes to ensure that the rubbing alcohol completely penetrates the glue bonding the acrylic to your natural nail.
After 30 minutes have passed, you should take your hand out of the alcohol and pat it dry. Following that, you should take dental floss and try to pry the nail off.
During the 30 minutes, the false nails should have lifted, allowing you access to the area beneath the nail. This will give you the leverage to pull it off.
Once you have done this for one hand, you should then repeat the procedure for the opposite hand. After this is done, your acrylic nails will be gone, and your natural nails will be left.
Does vinegar remove acrylic nails?
This might seem like a strange prospect, but, yes, you can use vinegar to remove acrylic nails. It isn’t as effective as some of the other methods that we have looked at.
But, if you have acrylic nails that you want to remove, and are limited on resources, then you can use vinegar to remove your acrylic nails.
To use vinegar to remove your acrylic nails, you will also need to have lemon juice at hand. Taking both of these ingredients, you should mix them in equal parts in a bowl.
Once you have mixed the ingredients, you should then add your hand to the bowl, ensuring that your nails are fully submerged. You will then have to keep your hand in the mixture for approximately 20 minutes. Then repeat on the other hand.
As we have mentioned, vinegar isn’t the most effective option to remove acrylic nails. So, if you want to speed up the process, you can do so by soaking your nails in warm water for 10 minutes before adding them to the lemon juice/vinegar mixture.
This will speed up the process, and shorten the amount of time that you have to soak your nails in the vinegar.
So, vinegar shouldn’t be your first choice for removing acrylic nails. But, if you haven’t got any other resources at hand, it will be able to remove your acrylic nails. It will just be a slower process.
How do salons remove acrylic nails?
We’ve spoken a lot about how you can remove your acrylic nails at home, but how do salons remove acrylic nails? You might expect the process that they used to be completely different, especially when you consider the price tag attached to it.
But, in fact, most nail salons follow similar procedures to the ones we’ve spoken about above.
The most common way that salons remove acrylic nails is by using acetone. Just like in the method we gave you, most salons will have their clients sit with their nails in a bowl of acetone for up to 20 minutes. Throughout the process, the technician will regularly check your nails to ensure that the glue is breaking down, and keep track of the progress.
Once the glue has broken down, you should expect a nail technician to use files and other nail tools to pry the acrylic off of your natural nails. But, you can expect the nail technician to be a lot more gentle when doing this than you probably are when doing it yourself.
So, in most cases, nail salons will use acetone to remove acrylic nails in the same method that you would use to remove your acrylic nails at home.
How do you get acrylics off without acetone?
If you haven’t got any acetone at home, then there are lots of other methods that you can use to remove your acrylics. We’ve already looked at some of these methods, and they include using warm water, lemon juice, and vinegar to loosen the nail glue before removing them yourself.
It is also possible to use a regular nail varnish remover to remove your acrylic nails. But, this won’t be as effective as using a nail varnish remover that contains acetone. Due to this, you will likely need to soak your nails for longer, and you might need to use more force when prying the acrylics off of your natural nails.
Another method which some people use to remove acrylic nails is petroleum based jelly. This acts like a lubricant, and can make it easier to pry the acrylics off of your natural nails. However, no method is going to be as effective as using acetone.
So, there are lots of different methods that you can use to remove your acrylic nails if you do not have any acetone available. But, if possible, it is always best to use acetone as this is the safest method for your natural nails.
