How To Take Off Fake Acrylic Nails

If y'all're obsessed with your nails, then you know there'due south zero as satisfying as walking out of a salon with a fresh acrylic set. But after a few weeks with those glamorous nails, yous also know what's coming: the dreaded and tedious acrylic smash removal procedure.

"It is important to remove acrylics in a proper way past soaking, versus breaking them off your self and tearing them abroad from your natural boom, which in plow tin can damage your nails," explains LeChat Nails educator Syreeta Aaron. "When y'all choose to tear off the acrylics from the natural nail you lot are trigger-happy extra layers off the nail, or onyx, [which is] the technical term for the nail." The more than layers that are removed, the more the nails are damaged. "Nails are equanimous of hard keratin which is technically what skin is fabricated from," explains Aaron, adding that "to tear off extra layers would exist like tearing off actress skin." (Aye, eek.)

Although experts recommend that you lot seek out a qualified nail tech to remove your acrylics safely, youcan exercise it at dwelling house. Read on for DIY removal advice from Aaron, celebrity manicurist and CEO of Principal Class Blast Academy Julie Kandalec, and CND Nail Education Ambassador Vanessa McCullough.

Step one: Cut Off Nail Extensions

Start past using an acrylic nail clipper to trim whatever of the nail extensions and their acrylic coatings that extend past the length of your natural nails. Clipping off the excess product helps to expedite the removal process.

Step 2: File Down the Superlative Layer of Acrylic

Using a 100-grit coarse smash file, begin to file downward the acrylic blanket to sparse out the acrylic and to scratch upward the surface a bit. The scratches that the file creates on the acrylic are important, considering they act equally channels, which helps the acetone you're going to utilise next absorb more quickly.

Whatever you lot exercise, steer articulate of smash salons that use harsh chemicals such as methyl methacrylate (MMA) during the acrylic awarding procedure—"In order to remove this unsafe acrylic, yous would actually take to rough upwards the boom bed, causing permanent impairment to the natural nail," Kandalec explained.

Step three: Utilise Cuticle Oil

Before y'all soak off the acrylic layer of your nails, you demand to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. "Acetone remover is extremely drying so you want to be certain to utilize cuticle oil effectually the perimeter of the nail, on cuticles and even under the nail on to your fingertips," Kandalec says.

McCullough recommends a cuticle oil like CND Solar Oil, which has natural oils that serve as a protective barrier, so your pare doesn't absorb the drying acetone.

Step 4: Soak the Acrylic Off

Aaron recommends first determining whether you accept regular polish or gel on top of the acrylics. "If you lot take regular shine y'all tin begin the process of soaking correct away. If yous have gel smooth on top of the acrylic yous must first break the top layer or topcoat of gel polish and and then y'all may brainstorm to soak," Aaron explains.

Drench a cotton brawl into 100 percentage pure acetone, place the cotton fiber on to the surface of smash, and wrap each blast in foil. Wrapping the blast in foil serves two purposes: "It prevents the acetone from evaporating quickly while retaining your body estrus, causing the acetone to piece of work even faster," said Kandalec. Exist sure to permit each nail remain wrapped for at least 20 minutes to allow the acetone acrylic to fully intermission downwardly.

When you're non immediately getting another mani, Aaron also offers an additional tip. "If you are not planning on putting gel polish back onto your natural nails you lot may began to soak with 100 percent acetone mixed with a few drops of cuticle oil like LeChat CBD Cuticle Oil," which will help furnish the boom as you lot remove the smoothen.

Step 5: Gently Scrape Away Acrylic

Unwrap and work on ane boom at a time, so the other nails remain wrapped equally long as possible. "After unwrapping, check to make sure the acrylic has a soft and gummy consistency," says McCullough.

If it does, take a wooden stick cuticle pusher and gently scrape off the softened acrylic, working from the area closest to the cuticle outward toward the tip of the nail. If the acrylic isn't coming off easily, don't pry it. Instead, stop, place the acetone-soaked cotton wool back on the nail, and so re-wrap the nail for a few more than minutes.

Step six: Vitrify Off Any Remaining Acrylic

No matter how carefully yous remove the acrylic, stubborn spots may remain on the boom bed. If there are any remnants left behind, utilise a multi-sided buffer to vitrify away the concluding bits until your nail bed is clean and shine.

Step 7: Finish with More Hydration

Apply a final layer of cuticle oil to rehydrate the smash. If y'all don't plan on getting a new acrylic set immediately, finish with a keratin-based nail treatment, like CND RescueRXx. "Your nails are made out of keratin, so this boom treatment actually absorbs into the layers of the nail plate to make the nail strong and healthy," says McCullough.

CND Essentials Nail & Cuticle Oil, Solar oil

CND RescueRXx Daily Keratin Treatment

Makartt Acrylic Nail Clippers

TsMADDTs Nail Files and Buffers

Chelsea Hall is the Assistant Fashion and Beauty Editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity style, fashion trends, skincare, makeup and annihilation else tied into the world of fashion and beauty