How To Get My Acrylic Nails Off

Hi, hey—come a lil closer for a VIP message from yours truly: Please, for the beloved of all things dazzler, delight end trying to accept off your acrylic nails by picking them, peeling them, or biting them off. You know who you are, and you know how damaging that sh*t is. Yous probably also know that the safest way to remove your acrylic nails is past going to a salon and seeing a trained blast tech. Nonetheless, I fully understand that 2021 (...and '20) is a weird year, and sometimes we must resort to DIY methods for taking off acrylics—which is where I come in.

Considering let's exist honest: If yous're hither, your nails are probably already in a pitiful, sad state of grow-out. "Your natural nails abound out regardless of how long your acrylics last, and you'll showtime to run across growth at your cuticle beds after two weeks," Rita de Alencar Pinto, founder of Vanity Projects boom salon in NYC, has told Cosmo. Which means unless yous're ready to get your acrylics filled once again asap...it's fourth dimension you master the art of at-home acrylic removal.

Lucky for you, I parsed through the questionable world of nail advice to detect the best tutorials on how to remove your acrylic nails without the harm—or, well, without as much harm as yous'd probably inflict on your ain. Go along reading and watching, and maaaaybe consider the easier-to-remove gel nails for your adjacent mani?

The basics you lot'll demand to remove acrylic nails

Acetone

Eternal 100% Pure Acetone

Cotton wool balls

Cliganic Organic Super Jumbo Cotton Balls

Tin Foil

Reynolds Wrappers Aluminum Foil Pop Up & Sheets

Utopia Care Cuticle Pusher and Spoon Nail Cleaner

Boom scraper

Utopia Care Cuticle Pusher and Spoon Blast Cleaner

What's the easiest way to accept off acrylic nails fast?

Get in a motorcar and drive thyself to a nail salon. Sry, only had to remind you lot i last time of the all-time—and honestly, probably fastest—solution. Simply if you lot're at home? The easiest style to take off acrylic nails fast is to cover them with a cotton wool ball soaked in pure acetone, wrap your fingers in tin foil, and let them sit down for 30 minutes. The acetone will aid break down the acrylics, and so you can buff or scrape off the remainder with an orange stick or cuticle pusher.

Dislocated? I gotchu. Stock up on the essentials above, so keep scrolling for more than in-depth tutorials.

How to take off acrylic nails at home with acetone

Ah, yep, the archetype removal technique for the average DIYer. As a ~hot~ tip (literally), attempt warming up your acetone before starting, which will assist it piece of work faster and more than finer on your nails. (Note: Acetone is incredibly flammable, so don't microwave information technology—merely run the bottle under warm water for a few minutes.)

The steps:

Advisedly clip off your excess acrylics, cut them as close every bit possible to your real nails.
Using a nail buffer, crude up the surface of the polish until the shine is completely gone. Removing the acme layer helps the polish soften faster in the acetone.
Pour 100 percent pure acetone into a tray or bowl and soak your nails in information technology for five minutes.
With a metal cuticle pusher, gently push the smooth off your nails, pushing from your cuticles downwardly.
Redip your nails for 5 mins, then gently push over again. Repeat until your acrylics have completely soaked off.
Buff off the rest of the smaller pieces with your nail buffer.
Massage cuticle oil into your nails to rehydrate them, then vitrify it into your nails with the soft side of a buffer. Finish with another layer of cuticle oil.

The simply 4 blast files and buffers you'll demand

Mischo Beauty Glass Nail File

Breukelen Polished Stay Polished Nail Kit

Tweezerman Neon Vitrify & Smoothen Block

HeeYaa Boom Files and Boom Buffers

How to take off acrylic nails with an electric file/nail bit

If you're both lazy and an acrylics aficionado, you lot should seriously consider picking upwardly an electrical nail file to brand the process way easier and safer on your blast beds. Yes, technically, this is the ~professional person~ manner to do it and information technology's definitely a skill to acquire, but that doesn't mean y'all can't try it at home (at your ain risk and by watching a ton of tutorials).

The steps:

Gently and advisedly sand down the acrylics with a sanding bit, taking off the top layer of your acrylics.
And then soak a cotton swab with 100 percent acetone, wrap information technology around your nails, and cover it with tinfoil, until all your digits are swaddled in foil.
After 10 to 15 minutes of soaking, unwrap your fingers, so remove the excess acrylic with a cuticle pusher.
Rinse your hands and stop with a cuticle oil.

The 4 best cuticle oils to try rn

Pear Nova Growth Light-green Tea Cuticle Oil

Nash + Pino Hydrate Cuticle Oil

Dr. Hauschka Neem Nail & Cuticle Pen

CND Essentials Nail & Cuticle Oil SolarOil

How to soak off acrylic nails

If an e-file sounds like mode too much piece of work and yous don't exactly have a ton of spare boom trays hanging effectually your house, try the ultra-piece of cake—albeit not exactly environmentally friendly—way of removing your acrylics with a plastic bag.

The steps:

Cut off your acrylic nails (again, go as close to your real nails as possible without actually snipping them off).
Pour 100 per centum acetone into a big Ziploc baggie, filling information technology upwardly just enough to be able to fully submerge your nails.
Tilt the bag to the side and then the acetone pools into one corner, then stick your mitt in the handbag, letting your nails soak in the acetone.
Let them sit for 15 to 20 minutes (probably a proficient fourth dimension to start a Netflix serial), then gently scrape off the acrylics with a wooden cuticle stick.
If your acrylics don't push off easily, resoak them for another five minutes, then endeavor again.
Buff off whatsoever remaining residuum to terminate.

The 4 best nail clippers ever (really)

Hawatour Nail Clippers Fix

Tweezerman Combo Clipper Fix

Morgles Acrylic Nail Clipper

Makartt Acrylic Nail Clippers

Chloe Metzger Deputy Beauty Director Chloe Metzger is the deputy dazzler director at Cosmopolitan, obsessively writing nearly new makeup launches, the best hair products (curly girl hither; whattup), and the skincare formulas that really work for every skin type (follow her on Instagram to see behind-the-scenes pics of that magazine life).