How to Get Gel Polish Off Your Nails at Home

If you're anything like me, you're obsessed with gel polish. It lasts longer than regular polish, it's super shiny, and it comes in a million different colors. But there's one downside to gel polish: removing it is a total pain. You can't just pick it off like regular polish, and if you try to remove it without knowing what you're doing, you'll end up ruining your nails.

Don't worry, though—I'm here to help. In this blog post, I'm going to share with you my tried-and-true method for removing gel polish at home. With this method, you won't have to go to the salon and spend a fortune on getting your nails done. So let's get started!

What You'll Need

Before we get started, there are a few things you'll need to gather up. Here's a list of everything you'll need:

- A bowl of warm water

- A nail file

- A cuticle pusher

- A orange stick or a toothpick

- A cotton ball

- Nail polish remover

- A towel

Once you have everything, go ahead and set up your workstation. I like to do my nails in the kitchen because that's where all my supplies are, but feel free to do yours wherever you're most comfortable. Just make sure everything is within reach so you don't have to get up every two seconds. Ok, now let's get started!

The Removal Process

Start by filing your nails. You want to file them down as much as possible because this will make removing the polish easier. Once your nails are filed, use the cuticle pusher to push back your cuticles. This step is important because it gives you more surface area to work with. Now that your nails are prepped, it's time to remove the polish!

Soak a cotton ball in nail polish remover and press it onto your nail. Make sure the whole surface area is covered. Once the cotton ball is in place, wrapped your finger in a small piece of foil and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. The foil helps speed up the process by trapping in the heat and allowing the acetone to penetrate the polish better.

After 10-15 minutes have passed, check to see if the polish has started to lift away from your nail bed. If it has, gently start scraping it off with either an orange stick or a toothpick.

If the polish isn't coming off easily, put the foil back on and let it sit for a few more minutes before trying again. Once all the gel polish has been removed from your nails, wash your hands with soap and water to get rid of any nail polish remover residue.

Finally, apply cuticle oil or lotion to moisturize your hands and nails (they're probably feeling pretty dry after all that acetone!)

And that's it! You did it! Now enjoy your beautiful bare nails!

Final Thoughts

Removing gel polish at home is totally doable—you just need to know what supplies and steps are necessary. So next time your gel mani starts looking a little worse for wear, don't head to the salon immediately—try out this method first and see how easy it is!