Every salon near me wants to charge almost a full new set price to remove builder gel.
How do I remove builder gel at home without damaging my nails?
8 Likes
Depends which builder gel. Soak-off: file off the top coat and most of the thickness by hand, wrap each nail in acetone-soaked cotton and foil for 15-20 minutes, slide off whatever’s gone soft. Hard gel won’t dissolve in acetone, so file it down and leave a thin, smooth layer rather than going for the bare natural nail.
The file-down step is where most people mess up.
Grab a coarse file and remove the shiny top layer along with most of the bulk. Soak in acetone for 15 to 20 minutes, and then push the softened gel off with a wooden stick. Some brands are hard gel and won’t dissolve at all, so if it hasn’t budged after 20 minutes you’ll probably need to file it all the way off. Get it thin and dull. Then it flakes off instead of forcing you to scrape forever. Put on some cuticle oil for a few days after.
1 Like
Clip the length down first, then file by hand until the shiny top layer is broken through. Vaseline around the skin, then soak in 100% acetone with the bowl sitting in warm water. Regular polish remover is too watered down for a layer this thick.
After it’s off the nails look dull and bend a little for a few days, so I oil them through the week and wait before putting anything new on.
The warm water trick really does speed things up, and I’d add wrapping each fingertip in foil afterward so the acetone doesn’t evaporate as fast.
Drop of acetone on a small filed spot near the free edge and wait a minute or two. Goes tacky and starts clouding, it’s soak-off.
Sits there glossy like nothing happened? Hard gel, so skip the cotton and file it down thin and smooth.
2 Likes