Tap forward and repeat after us: do! not! peel!
You’ll need 10 pieces of aluminum foil cut into 2 1/2-inch squares, cotton balls, cuticle oil, nail clippers, a nail file, an orange stick or wooden cuticle pusher, and a double-edged buffer.
"The first thing you want to do is break the gel polish seal on your nails," Hanna explains. Start by filing or clipping your tips, then use the coarse side of the buffer to gently remove the top coat from the entire nail.
After breaking up the gel top coat from all 10 nails, wash your hands to clean them of dust — this step will also minimize the soaking process.
Hanna swears by this step, even though it's not typically done in salons. "I always apply a heavy coat of cuticle oil on the skin and cuticles around the nails to form a seal and protect it from the acetone soak that's to come," she says.
Start by saturating a small piece of cotton with acetone before resting it atop your fingernail. "You just need just enough to cover the surface of your nail," Hanna says.
Next, tightly wrap a piece of foil around your finger to cover the cotton, and repeat the process on all five fingers (not 10). "Even when I do it on myself, I do it one hand at a time," Hanna explains.
After your nails have soaked for 10 minutes or more, gently remove the foil and cotton from one finger, being careful to preserve its shape (you might need it later). Next, use a wooden cuticle pusher or orange stick to gently scrape the gel from the nail.
"There shouldn’t be too much resistance. If there is, and you're really having to dig and scrape at the polish, then nails needs more time to soak," Hanna explains.
Now that your nails are gel-free, there's one more step that will help restore them to their natural state: Use the smoother side of the buffer to gently get rid of any roughness left on the surface of the nail. You did it!
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