Expert: Maggie Franklin - 6/3/2008

Question
I have been wearing acrylic nails for several years and would like to know how to remove them so that I could do without them and just have my natural nails manicured. Thanks.

Answer
The best way to remove your acrylic nails at home is to purchase 100% pure acetone from your local hardware store. The smallest size available will still be far more than you need, but the type found in hardware stores seems to work much better than what you find in beauty supply stores.

Since I don't know what type of product has been applied to your nails or how thick your acrylics are, I can't give you a fair estimate on how long it's going to take to soak them off. So, just in case it takes awhile, find a couple of hours that you can dedicate to the process without interruption.

Put your favorite DVD into the player, pour enough acetone into a metal, glass, or ceramic bowl to cover your nails when you put your fingers in the bowl.

Cover your fingers with Vaseline (this will help prevent drying of your skin), press "play" on the dvd player, put your fingers in the bowl with the acetone, and cover your hands and bowl with a towel (this will slow the evaporation of the acetone and keep the smell of the acetone in the bowl.)

Watch the entire movie without taking your hands out of the bowl!

If all goes well, the acrylic will dissolve and melt off of your nails well within this time. If MMA has been applied to your nails, 2 hours should be sufficient to soak it off if it isn't too thick.

Cosmetic acrylic will get "fluffy" and flake off as it soaks in acetone, MMA will get gummy and you may have to soak for half an hour, then file the top gummy layer off, soak for half an hour, file, soak, file, etc until the acrylic is completely gone.

When you are done, make sure you apply liberal amounts of cuticle oil (Olive oil will work very well!) to your nails and cuticles several times a day and use lots of lotion until your nails rehydrate and start feeling less "naked."

Disposing of the acetone is a controversial matter. I have called my city several times to ask how they want me to do this in the salon and they repeatedly assure me that I do not produce enough waste acetone to be required to do anything "special" with it and they tell me to dump it down the sink while running water, or go ahead and dispose of acetone-soaked cotton in the regular trash. You may want to call your city and ask about hazardous waste disposal to see if you should drop off the used acetone at a local haz-mat site-- usually where ever you take used motor oil if you change your own oil in your car.

DO NOT! EVER! UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! HEAT acetone! Don't microwave it, don't put it in the oven, don't put it on a stove burner, don't heat it!

You can wrap the bowl of acetone in a towel that has been microwaved or put the bowl into a larger bowl that has been filled with hot water-- this will warm the acetone slightly and increase it's effectiveness.