What is the best way to remove gel polish?

3 min reading time

What is the best way to remove gel polish?

If you have applied gel polish correctly, you will enjoy it for a few weeks. After 3 or 4 weeks, your nails will have grown enough that a considerable amount of regrowth will be visible. A good time to provide your nails with a new gel polish colour. Of course, you will first have to remove the gel polish.

Is gel polish bad for your nails?

Removing gel polish with acetone is something you want to do without damaging your nails. Sometimes people say that your nails become thinner or even damaged by gel polish, but that is not true. Your nails do become thin from, for example, filing the nail plate or picking at your gel polish.

Removing gel polish. What do you need?

Make sure you have the following products ready:

File 100/180
Remover
Foil wraps
Nail clips
Wooden sticks

Step-by-step plan for removing gel polish

Peeling off gel polish is harmful to your nails, because you always pull off some layers of the natural nail, making them thinner. If you want to remove gel polish the right way, without damaging your own nails, follow the steps below.

Start by filing the top coat. Make sure there is a part where the top coat has been filed away. The top coat is a protective layer that ensures that you can enjoy your gel polish for a long time. The gel polish remover does not penetrate this protective layer. By filing away part of the top coat, the remover can reach the gel polish later. Always check the instructions of the brand and the top coat that you use. For example, there are top coats that do let remover through and in that case you do not have to file the top open.
Take a foil wrap and apply gel polish remover to the wipe piece. Don't be too stingy.
Wrap the foil wrap tightly around the finger and then fold the top piece of the foil down. Make sure the piece of wipe is on the nail.
Open the removal clip and slide it over the fingertip with the foil and squeeze the clip firmly closed so that you feel the pressure. This way you ensure that the piece of wipe with the gel polish remover can work well on the nail.
Let the gel polish remover soak for about 7 to 10 minutes. Check the instructions of the brand you are working with for the soaking time.
Remove the clip and then peel the foil wrap from the fingertip.
Take a wooden stick and gently push the loosened gel polish.

If there are any bits of gel polish that are still stuck, repeat the steps above. It is not a good idea to pick or file them off as this will damage your natural nails.

Buy gel polish at Pretty Polish

Traditional nail polish is often only of short duration. It chips and wears off quickly and after a few days you walk around with damaged painted nails that look very unkempt. Do you also find that annoying? Then consider buying gel polish from Pretty Polish. If you apply gel polish correctly (read our blog about applying gel polish here) you will enjoy it for a few weeks. And you can also easily remove the gel polish yourself using the steps above.