How to remove gel polish at home without special tools?

Gel polish for nails is becoming more and more popular: this coating has a bright saturated color, lasts up to three weeks, allows you to grow your nails and not worry that the manicure will quickly deteriorate. Nevertheless, there are also disadvantages in the use of the gel - in particular, removal at home is problematic, since the coating adheres tightly to the nail plate, there is a risk of damage to the nail. But with due care and following all the rules, you can remove gel polish at home even without special means.

To remove the coating from the nails, it is not necessary to go to the salon: you can remove the gel polish at home without harm. In the salons, it is removed in two ways: they are cut off with the help of an apparatus or a remover is applied, and then fingers are held under the foil. However, there are other options: at home, you can remove the gel without an apparatus and without a special liquid. You can apply for such purposes the most common substances - varnish, alcohol, acetone or a hard nail file for manicure.

Surely any modern woman in the apartment has a colorless varnish. Few people know that it can be used not only to strengthen nails, but also to remove any varnish layer. To do this, follow these steps.

• Wash your hands and degrease the surface of the nail with gel polish. It is important that the clearcoat adheres tightly to your current coating.
• Smudge clear varnish on top of the gel. You need to make some fairly dense layers. The thicker the coating, the easier it will be to remove.
• Now make a warm hand bath to steam your nails. An ideal solution would be water with the addition of soda. Hold your hands in a warm bath for 2-3 minutes.
• Take an orange stick and begin to slowly remove the varnish with it, moving from the base of the nail plate to your fingertips. This method will help to clean the gel carefully and without damage.
• If on the first attempt it does not work out to remove the entire gel, remove what separates easily, and then repeat the procedure - if the gel was applied in several dense layers, it may take several attempts to get rid of it completely.

For safe and comfortable gel removal, you can use alcohol or vodka. This is a fairly safe option for nails, which also helps to get rid of gel polish. The method of their application is as follows.

• Alcohol or vodka must be mixed with running water in a ratio of 1: 1.
• Using cotton wool, it is recommended to apply alcohol abundantly on each nail.
• Keep alcohol on the nails will have at least 15 minutes. but for this procedure it is important that the nails are warm and the alcohol itself does not evaporate. You can wrap each nail with ordinary food foil, as is done in the cabin, and if the foil is not at hand, you can just put on tight gloves or bags on your hands.
• After 15 minutes, try removing the varnish with an orange stick on one of the fingers. If the coating leaves easily, you can move on to the rest of the nails. If you can’t get rid of the gel, it means that your nails need more time - perhaps the layers of gel polish were applied especially tightly. Leave the alcohol on your nails for another 5 minutes.
• Waiting too long is not recommended - 20 minutes should be enough to remove any coating. Clean off softened varnish methodically, moving from the base of the plate. The movements should be vertical and smooth.

In many removal fluids, acetone is included. It perfectly breaks down any synthetic coating - in particular, and gel polish. Nevertheless, it must be taken into account that this is an extremely aggressive substance that is harmful to the structure of the nail: if used improperly, the nail will become soft and brittle. To avoid this, acetone, like alcohol, must be diluted with water 1: 1, and keeping it on your nails costs as little as possible.

The method of using acetone is almost no different from the use of alcohol: you need to apply liquid to the nails and eliminate the possibility of evaporation with foil, gloves or bags. At the same time, acetone acts stronger, so after 10 minutes you can gently begin to clean off the coating - usually this time is enough. After using acetone, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water to avoid aggressive chemical effects on the skin and nails.

If you need to remove the gel at home, you can just cut it off. In salons, a device with a high speed of rotation of the file is used for this, but at home this procedure will also succeed. Well, if you have a roller electric file designed for pedicure - it will go faster. If it is not there, the most ordinary hard file is suitable.

You just need to take the file, put it flat and methodically grind the coating from the nail. It is important to make movements in one direction. When you remove the top layers of the coating, the movements should be energetic and intense. As you approach the nail plate itself, it’s worth working the file very carefully. The finishing touches are best done with a soft file: it will allow you to correctly treat the surface of the nail, remove the remnants of the base and leave the nail perfectly smooth.

Gel Polish coating adheres tightly to the nail - it is due to this that the varnish has its own phenomenal resistance. Unfortunately, very often women spoil their own nails in an attempt to peel off their own. In this regard, the procedure for removing gel polish is especially popular in salons. Although withdrawal at home has every chance of being safe if popular mistakes are avoided.

The mistake of many women is that they begin to remove pieces of coating by hand. After long wear, the varnish may fall off in separate places, which gives the impression that it can be easily removed in one motion, but this is very deceptive. If in one place the gel moves away from the nail, in another it can still remain tightly adhered. Trying to tear off the gel layer, you will tear off the top layer of the nail plate. This will not look too aesthetically pleasing, and will also make the nail brittle, which will require a long recovery period.

Many practice removing the gel with alcohol and acetone, while underestimating the need to cover your fingers after applying the liquid. Meanwhile, the use of gloves, foil or film is a prerequisite for the success of the whole procedure. The fact is that for the splitting of the hard coating some time must pass before a chemical reaction occurs. Alcohol and acetone tend to evaporate very quickly from the surface in the open air, so if the nails are not covered, then the desired effect cannot be achieved.

Some believe that you need to keep alcohol and acetone as long as possible to get the effect, but this is also a serious mistake. These fluids adversely affect the state of the nail plate, so keeping them on the nails for half an hour is strictly not recommended. Choose for yourself the ideal minimum time for successful dissolution of the coating, but do not leave the nails with the applied liquid for too long.

Another mistake is often made in attempts to remove the gel with a nail file - some people think that it will be better if the nails are steamed. Doing this categorically should not. Steaming is useful when removing with transparent varnish, when you slide the coating with a soft wooden stick and there is no risk of damage to the nail. When you work with a file, it is contraindicated to soften the nail plate in addition - so you can easily damage it.

Some believe that when working with a file, the direction of movement is not so important, so you can cut the varnish in any direction. This is not entirely true. It is imperative that you work with the nail file all the time in one direction on one nail. This will minimize injury to the nail plate and keep the nail smooth. Otherwise, you will encounter cracks and bumps on the surface of the nail, which will have to be additionally cut, which will thin the nail and increase the risk of brittleness.

It is important to remember that even with careful removal, gel polish significantly weakens the nail. Firstly, the plate is thinned, as the master cuts off the top coat before applying the varnish. Secondly, the coating clogged the nail, depriving it of food from the outside. After removing the gel polish, the masters strongly do not recommend immediately applying such a coating. You need to take a break from one to two weeks, depending on the condition of your nails.

During the recovery period, special care is important. Make baths for nails with sea salt to strengthen, rub special oil several times a week in the cuticle. If you feel that the plate is thinning after peeling, pick a colorless hardening varnish that will withstand brittleness.

See how to remove gel polish at home in the next video.