How To: Safely Remove Soak-off Gel Polish (2 methods)

"How to Safely Remove Your Soak-off Gel Polish"

1. SOAKING ~ Soak-Off in a bowl of acetone, sitting on a larger bowl of warm water (15 minutes)
2. FOIL-WRAP ~ Soak-Off using a piece of cotton saturated with acetone, placed on top of the nail and wrap with a piece of foil (20 minutes)

1. Soak-Off in a bowl of acetone, sitting on a larger bowl of warm water.

 For this procedure, I took a small bowl and filled it with enough acetone (the size of a Chinese tea tasting bowl).  The acetone is just enough to cover all my nails when placed inside the bowl.  Then this tiny bowl is placed in a bigger bowl filled with warm water.  I did not use a lot of acetone since I used this tiny sized bowl. 

Soaking alone took about 15 minutes in total.

2.  Soak-Off  using home-made Foil Wrap Method

     I cut up tiny squares of foil (enough to wrap around my fingers) and cotton pads (just enough to cover my nails). This method took 5 minutes more than dipping the whole finger into the acetone.  Making my own wraps is money saving as the pre-made ones are very expensive.  Yes, it may consume some time, but not a lot... and when you do it while watching your favorite show, you might not even notice the time ;)

     MY CONCLUSION: 

    The Soaking method I find takes lesser work than the foil wrap method.  It is a lot more convenient specially when you're doing it alone.  It's easier clean-up too :)


     *With the aide of a little scraping, the polish was removed without any major damage to my nails and cuticles.  This is true for both methods.  Thing is - you need to be nice and gentle with your nails and do not force the polish out if it's not willing to go.  Just soak a little bit longer. 

     *There were visible signs of stress and trauma, from the scraping, but no ripping or chipping of the nail plate.  My nails remained thick and strong.  Of course, I left my nails to rest for a week or two before applying my next polish.  

     *To protect my skin, I applied cuticle oil all over my fingers before soaking.
     I aslo apply a generous amount of cuticle oil after the removal process and I make sure I apply some hand-cream on my nails and cuticles too, after washing my hands.  Yes, that makes my touch screen phone and tablet very greasy, haha.  But I also keep a lint free cloth to wipe it :D.... So long as i have healthy looking nails, the extra work don't matter, does it?

How about you?  Which of these two methods do you use or would prefer to use?

Have a great day pretty ladies!