5 minutes nail polish removal tutorial
Disclaimer: I am definitely recommending this method. I do not claim
this as my own. I learnt it from Deborah Lippmann so I'll recognise her
as the original source. However, the true origin of this amazing 5
minutes method is yet to be discovered.
Step one. Gather your equipment. You'd obviously need nail polish
remover, I like mine acetone-free. It is purely psychological because as
long as you're not consuming acetone, it won't do much harm. You nail
polish is actually killing you more than your remover. Now that you've
gotten your remover, get some cotton balls. They have to be BALLS. Not
buds, not tissues, BALLS. Go out and buy a packet if you don't have any.
They are so cheap and will last you forever. I only need 1 ball to
remove both of my hands.
Now grab your ball. They're so fluffy. Unravel it into a strip.
It should come apart easily as the ball itself is produced by ravelling a strip like a snail shell.
Split your strip down the middle vertically into 2 strips. I am saving you money!
You
can continue to split but I like mine with a little bulk. So now tear
them into little pieces that are nail-sized. No need to be neat since
this is all going to go into the rubbish bin anyway.
Keep
tearing until you have a lot. I usually have 12-15 pieces. 10 for my
nails and the others for wiping and cleaning up any bits of nail polish
left behind.
Now you have the cotton pieces ready. Get your nail polish remover and pour it into the lid and fill it up like so.
Nice
and smelly. Now take one of those cotton pieces (let's call it CP) and
dip it into the remover. Don't dunk it in. Just dip in the edge because
the remover will travel up the CP. Too much remover on the CP will
dribble like crazy when you're pressing the CP onto your nail. It could
travel up your hand all the way to your elbow. Happened to me before.
Not a pleasant experience.
Press the wet CP onto your nail gently. It should be completely wet and cover your entire nail.
Do the same for all the other fingers. I like to do mine one hand at a time because I need the other hand to wipe the CP off.
Leave
them on your nails for 1-2 minutes, give or take. That's the time where
the remover is doing its job. This is similar to soaking your nails in
remover but a lot less harsh on your skin. You nails will not absorb the
remover. Like I said before, your nail polish would've killed your
nails more than the remover. Next, grab a new piece of CP and wipe off
the wet CP from your nail while pressing down with some force. Put some
muscle into it! Do it from your nail bed to your nail tip. This way,
your nails will not be damaged.
If you do it correctly, almost everything (if not everything) should come right off your nails.
I
only have some polishes remaining on the sides because my thumb is
flat, not curved like my nails, so I couldn't apply enough force to wipe
the sides. Now repeat this for all the other nails.
This
is with only one swipe. My index finger, middle finger and pinky are
completely clean in just one swipe! This would've taken forever with
cotton buds. Use your remaining CP to do the other hand and clean up any
bits that maybe be left on your nails.
In the end, you'd have beautifully clean nails.
I even have a strip of CP left over. So that means I've used less than 1 cotton ball to remove all my nails.
I
did time myself and found that I've completed the whole process in
under 5 minutes, including the soaking time. So I don't think I'll ever
return to the primitive cotton buds method ever again.
Just a few important things before I go:
♥ Never use tissue to remove nail polish. Tissue is actually quite coarse and will damage your nails.
♥ My nails used to peel even when I used cotton buds. With this method, my nails don't peel nor dry out anymore after removal.
♥ Always wipe from nail bed to nail tip. Swiping back and forth and/or in the opposite way will make your nails peel.
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