Ever had a gel manicure and it begins chipping and you want to remove, but don’t have time / can’t be bothered to get them professional removed back at the salon? Well I’ve been there many times and end up peeling the gel polish off my nails (yes I know, it’s so bad for your nails!) but I decided to give an at-home remedy a go. Here is a step-by-step guide on how I removed my gel polish –

Here is what you’re going to need –

• Acetone – you can get this from pharmacy, generally over the counter
• Cotton wool or pads
• Nail file (emery board)
• Foil cut into squares

Step 1 – take a nail file and rub over the polish

Step 2 – soak a cotton wool or pad in acetone and place directly over the polish. I soak the section of the pad which came in contact with nail and wrapped the dry sides of the pad around my finger.

Step 3– Use foil to wrap around finger to hold the cotton pad in place over the nail, and leave for 15 to 20 mins

I used normal tin foil from the kitchen, but you can buy proper nail foils from amazon or ebay which I might look to invest in. Although the normal foil did do the job, it didn’t hold in place very well so I had to keep super still. And yes my fingers look crazy…ha!

Step 4 – remove foil and cotton after soaking nails and you’re left with the polish lifting from your nails. From here I simply push the polish away and with any stubborn bits I filed away with a nail file.

Step 5 – I then finished by clean my nails with some nail polish remover and washing your hands to get of any left over acetone.

Yes I’ll agreed with you, it is a lot of faff when you could just soak your nails into a bowl of acetone for 20mins but the acetone direct on my skin for a long period of time really irritates my skin. This also beats trekking back to salon and paying for them to remove gels for you.

Have you tried this method before? Would you give it a go?