How to Remove Your Gel Manicure or Dip Powder at Home

Nexgen, dipping powder or gel manicure — which do you prefer? For me, I’ve been hooked on getting manicures — it just raises my spirits and puts me in that feel-good mood. It’s what I splurge on and I’ll admit, I’ve been getting Nexgen on my nails for years (I think ever since I discovered it) – but whatever type of manicure you’re used to, one thing that they all have in common is that they need to be maintained every few weeks. When you don’t know when you’ll be able to visit your nail salon next, you’ll need to make some adjustments and come up with at home solutions.

Do you take your manicure off now, while you still can — or wait until you’re too late? If you’re waiting, how do you take off the polish without ruining your nails? I know this may not be on top of your list right now, but we know there will come a time. So, in case you were wondering, here’s our guide for you on how to remove your gel manicure (or Nexgen or Dip Powder) at home. without ruining your nails. While people often tend to peel their names after they start chipping, this is the worst thing for you to do.

Gel manicure | photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

So read along and follow these tips.

How to Remove Your Gel Manicure at Home

Prepare Your Nails

The first step is to prepare and unseal your nails. This can be done be using nail clippers and cutting them done and/or by buffing or filing down the top, shiny layer of the nails until the nail color is dull and pretty much covered in a white dust. You’ll want to buff them down enough, so that the rest of the polish is easier to remove; but you don’t want to buff them down too much, as you’ll ruin your nails.

Soak Your Nails in Acetone

You have two choices here:

1) You can pour acetone into a shallow bowl, large enough so that you can fit your nails from one hand in the bowl and soak your nails for about 15 minutes or so.

2) You can set aside squares of aluminum foil (about 2″ by 2″). Then squirt acetone on the cotton balls (after you separate them into thirds) and take each portion of the cotton ball saturated with acetone and place them on the individual nail beds one at a time (you don’t want them too thick or they’ll take longer to get to your nails). After you place each saturated cotton ball piece on each nail, you’ll want to wrap a square of aluminum foil around the top of your finger and fold the top of each piece down (helps with leakage) — and let them sit for about 15 minutes. Unwrap one nail after they’ve been sitting and check to make sure that the majority of the polish has come off. If most of the polish has been removed, you can repeat with the remaining nails. If not, rewrap the nails and wait for an additional 5 minutes or more before removing the foil.

Soak a Cotton Ball in Acetone

Use it the cotton ball to rub off the excess polish. Use a nail scraper, if needed. Wood is preferred over metal.

Buffer Your Nail Bed

Use a buffer or the side of the buffer to smooth out the nail bed.

Cuticle Oil

Apply cuticle oil to your nails to hydrate them.

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