How to Remove Acrylic Nails at Home Without Causing Mass Destruction
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When you want to add length, rock impressive art, or score a long-lasting mani, acrylics are unparalleled. Their major drawback? Figuring out how to remove acrylic nails at home can be a real pain in the butt. The proper method—that won’t destroy your natural tips—is seriously time-consuming and, ideally, should be done by a trained tech, celebrity manicurist Elle Gerstein tells SELF. That’s because these professionals know the correct way to use electric nail files to help speed up the process, she points out. (E-files are a no-go for DIYers; we’ll explain why shortly.)
But we get it—sometimes a trip to the nail salon just isn’t in the cards. So to ensure that your at-home strategy is efficient and doesn’t do serious damage, we tapped experts for a step-by-step guide to removing acrylics. The secret sauce? Patience.
Are acrylics bad for your nails?
There’s really nothing innately problematic with acrylics. “It’s the application, maintenance, and especially removal that can cause trauma to the natural nail,” Supriya Rastogi, MD, a board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in New York City, tells SELF. One caveat: Some people can be allergic to acrylates, a group of chemicals commonly found in fake nails, adds Dana Stern, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City specializing in nail health. Symptoms include immediate burning upon application and/or subsequent inflammation, Dr. Stern tells SELF. (You might see swelling and redness or darkening of your skin, and experience itching, peeling, and discomfort.)
If you notice any of these reactions, take acrylics out of your manicure repertoire, she advises. FYI: They can also be found in polish, adhesive, and other nail products, so if you’re consistently experiencing reactions, it may be worth going completely bare and seeing if that helps.
What happens to your nails if you remove acrylics the wrong way?
When you take them off aggressively—via overzealous filing or serious scraping with a cuticle pusher, you can wind up with white spots, bumps and grooves, and thinner nail plates (the hard, visible parts that most of us just call nails), Dr. Stern explains. While chalky patches—which are damaged granulations of keratin, the protein that makes up hair and nails—and surface irregularities typically go away once your nails grow out over several months, they’re decidedly not cute. And the problem with thinner plates? They’re more susceptible to breakage; you can also accidentally file them down so much that they become painful, Dr. Stern notes.
Above all, do not—we repeat, do NOT—attempt to pry or pop off your acrylics. (The dental floss hack that’s all over TikTok is also a no good, very bad idea, warns Dr. Rastogi.) You run the risk of lifting your nail plate off of the underlying nail bed, a condition known as onycholysis, Dr. Stern cautions. This can be painful, naturally, but also puts you at increased risk for infection.
How to take off acrylic nails: A step-by-step guide
Ready to DIY? Grab a nail file and bottle of acetone, queue up a mindless show or chill podcast, and settle in—Gerstein says the acrylic nail removal process can take up to an hour.
Step 1: Cut them down with nail clippers.
If the falsies are extra long, Gerstein says it’s a good idea to trim them down to where your natural nail starts underneath. This will make them easier to remove.
Step 2: Start filing—carefully.
Remember those e-files we talked about? They’re the go-to for professional nail techs because they’re extremely effective for removing most of the acrylic, a process known as “de-bulking,” Gerstein explains. However, all of the pros we spoke with caution against e-filing at home. It’s extremely easy to accidentally go too hard and end up thinning your nail plate and/or cutting your cuticle, Dr. Stern cautions. And that puts you at risk for both an infection and can make it harder for your nails to grow out in the future, she notes.
Stick with an old-school nail file, but a coarse one. Gerstein recommends an option with 100 grit or less. (The lower the number, the rougher it is.) Here’s where things get a little tricky, though: You’ll have to use a little elbow grease, but still practice restraint. “You can always file more, but if you overdo it, you can’t go back,” Dr. Rastogi says.
Granted, it’s challenging to tell exactly where the acrylic ends and your natural nail begins. And again, you only want to file until you’ve made your way through the majority of the acrylic. So, to give yourself a guideline, Dr. Rastogi suggests painting on a thin coat of regular polish before applying acrylics. When it comes time for removal, you’ll know that once you see that polish color it’s time to stop, she says.
Step 3: Safeguard your skin.
Before step four (which, spoiler, is going to be very drying), Dr. Rastogi recommends applying a cuticle oil to the skin around your nails. It will act as a bit of a barrier against the harsh acetone you need to dissolve and soak off the acrylics, she explains.
Step 4: Soak in acetone.
Wrapping each nail with an acetone-soaked cotton ball and aluminum foil, the way you would to remove gel polish, isn’t really an option here. It’s simply not enough liquid saturation to fully break down acrylics and would add way more time to the removal process, according to Gerstein. Instead, she advises filling a small bowl with acetone and soaking all five fingertips at once. (FYI, choose straight-up, 100 percent pure acetone, and not acetone nail polish remover, which often contains other ingredients.)
Want to speed up the process? “When the acetone is warm, it works faster,” she notes. MAJOR WARNING: Do not, under any circumstances, heat the acetone directly—it’s extremely flammable. (Like, set your house on fire flammable.) Rather, you can set it over another bowl of hot water to gently warm it up. It’s also a good idea to cover the whole set-up with a towel to minimize some of the fumes (which can be dangerous to inhale), Gerstein points out.
Step 5: Check and scrape (gently).
Perform a status check every five to 10 minutes; you should start to see the acrylic bubbling and lifting off, Gerstein says. Once you do, use a wooden orange stick—metal is too harsh—to gently and lightly scrape whatever is coming off on its own. Then dip your fingers back in the acetone, click “Yes, I’m Still Watching,” and repeat until all of the acrylic is gone.
Step 6: Moisturize, moisturize, and moisturize some more.
Given that acetone is extremely dehydrating to both skin and nails, it’s imperative to load up on moisture as soon as you’re done removing acrylics, per Dr. Rastogi. The protocol she recommends: Wash your hands with soap and warm water to remove any lingering acetone, then swipe cuticle oil all over your nails and surrounding skin, then finish with a mega-thick hand cream. Don’t get hung up on looking for particular formulas or ingredients. “Anything that will add back moisture is going to do the trick,” she says.
Want to up the ante? Slather on your cuticle oil and hand cream before bedtime, add a top layer of petroleum jelly (Vaseline), then put on a pair of cotton gloves to seal in all of that much-needed moisture overnight, she adds.
What are other ways to remove acrylic nails?
Unfortunately, there really aren’t any. Again, yanking, pulling, and scraping are definite no-nos. And if you want to speed the process along with an electronic file, it’s best to see a nail technician.
One important note: Some salons, particularly ones where a full set is shockingly inexpensive, may use acrylics that contain MMA (methacrylate monomers), Gerstein says. These chemicals were popular ingredients in acrylics in the early 1970s but proved to be very damaging to both nails and skin. As a result, the FDA pulled products made with 100% MMA off the market, but there’s currently no regulation that prohibits companies from using them in acrylic nails.
If you aren’t seeing any peeling or bubbling of the acrylic during your acetone soak but do notice a sweet, pungent scent, your falsies very likely contain MMA. “My advice is to stop trying to take them off and see a professional nail tech,” Gerstein says. “It will take you hours and hours to remove MMA, and it may not even be possible at all.”.
If you made it to the end of this article, you get the takeaway: Removing acrylic nails at home is definitely not a quickie activity and you shouldn’t go rogue. But if you resign yourself to investing an hour or so and following the expert-backed techniques outlined above, you can DIY without destroying your real nails. It just takes restraint, patience, and a boatload of acetone.
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Originally Appeared on Self
