How To Remove Acrylic Nails At Home

Acrylic nails are popular around the world because it’s a quick way to make your nails look longer then they are and make them sturdier than usual. It also opens up the world of way more intricate designs you can do. Acrylic nails also last longer, keeping the nail polish looking good for weeks at a time. The only issue with them is that it’s not as easy to take them off as just a regular coat of nail polish. In most cases, you’d go to the nail salon and have the nail technician remove them. However, we’ve all been in a situation where you just don’t have the opportunity to go to the nail salon but you also can no longer deal with your grown out acrylics.

There are a few methods of removing acrylic nails at home and it all depends on the materials you have available to you and the amount of time you’re willing to invest in this process. Removing acrylic nails at home should be done with utmost care. You definitely should just try to peel them off or rip them off. That can severely damage your nail bed and in some cases just rip out the actual nail along with the acrylic too. No one wants that, right? So here’s how you do it without causing damage.

Acetone and Foil

This is the safest and most efficient way to remove acrylic nails at home. You will essentially be doing the same thing most nail technicians do at the salon. At first, you need to decide if you want to keep the length of your nails or if you want to keep them short. If it’s the latter — clip them off as short as possible. Take a nail file and file off the shiny topcoat layer of your nail, this will speed up the process of dissolving the acrylic. Then take some cotton balls, soak them in acetone and put them on your nail. Try to keep the acetone off the cuticle or surrounding skin, use a piece of aluminum foil to wrap around your finger to keep the acetone-soaked cotton ball in place.

Repeat with all of your nails and keep that on for about 15 minutes. Afterwards, take one foil off and see if the acrylic nail is ready to be removed, it should peel off from your nail relatively easily. You can use an orange stick to help peel it off. If It’s not coming off easily reapply the acetone and wait a little longer. Once you’ve peeled off the acrylics shape your nails with a nail file and buff the top with a buffing nail file. Apply cuticle oil and a nice moisturizer and you’re done.