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View Full Version : Quick nail polish removal



Ellie
05-01-2006, 07:57 PM
Most evenings I get to dress for only a few hours and since I have to work most mornings there can be no trace of my nightly activities left over from the night before. Often I am so tired at the end of the evening that I will leave my nails painted overnight figuring that I can clean them off in the morning.

As many of you have experienced nail polish can be difficult to remove completely when one is in a rush. Like when I woke up late last Thursday morning and spent ten minutes cursing up a storm :Angry3: while trying to get all the hooker red polish off :eek:. In the end I figured that if anyone asked I would just claim that the red stains were from playing with red modeling (filmo) clay.

Since then I have renewed my search for a way to quickly strip off my nail polish without the need for remover. There used to be a paint-on, peel-off nail polish sold by Avon but that appears to be discontinued.

Another peel-off nail polish that is currently being sold is Aqua-nails. (http://www.cosmeticbag.com/cgi-bin/cm.cgi?target=cool_new)

Of course they don't have all the colors that I want and being the creative type, I just had to find a way to do this myself, at least until my shipment arrives. :D

I tried this last night, leaving the polish to be removed this morning and it worked surprisingly well:

1.) Paint your fingernails and any other area around them that you want protected with a layer of standard ol' Elmer's white school glue. Just a single drop of glue was needed for my wide thumb nails.

2.) Let this dry until clear with your hands flat on the table. Takes only a few minutes and makes a smooth base for the polish.

3.) Paint on your favorite nail color and clear coat.

Once the polish dries you can easily trim around the edges of the nail by using a pointed nail file (or other thumbnail) to gently cut through the polish and glue. The excess can then be easily peeled away from the portion that you want to keep leaving no stain and a very clean edge around the nail.

When you are done with that nail color, simply pick up one corner of the polish and peel it off. Not only did the polish come off in one strip but there was no staining of the nail or surrounding skin!

While this works for pictures and hanging out at home, I suspect that these Glulish (tm) nails won't last past a single good hand washing and may even start to peal off if they are rubbed too hard when dry.

I'm going to try it again, this time on both hands, and do some robustness testing. If anyone else tries out this technique, please let me know as any feedback will be appreciated.

p.s. I've added a poll to the thread to see just how far out this idea is :p

EricaCD
05-01-2006, 08:18 PM
goddess. I never knew that this was such an issue for girls! I have no problem getting polish off. It just takes me a couple mins with some nail polish. Occasionally a slight trace left on a cuticle, but no more than that. Did I wind up winning some sort of girly lottery without knowing it?

Erica

Ellie
05-01-2006, 08:40 PM
Perhaps I'm just putting my polish on too thick or it is just plain too cheap (usually < $2/bottle) but several of the colors are very difficult to remove from the edges and they stain both the nail and the surrounding skin.

Kate Simmons
05-01-2006, 08:47 PM
I just use the trick that was mentioned before. Polish remover with cotton balls. Then touch it up with Q-tips for the cuticle. If it's really red, I may have to use 5 or 6 Q-tips but I only use red on the wekend when I'm going out to the club. The rest of the week, I use clear, pearl or pink, so it ain't a big deal. Take care, Ericka

Ellie
05-01-2006, 10:11 PM
I've also tried both a coat of clear before the color and an honest to goodness base coat for nail polish. Both of them helped but still required remover to clean them off and if I am going to bother with a base coat then there is not much difference between putting on clear polish and putting on glue.