Excited to share our feature in Better Homes & Garden’s article “The Best Ways to Remove Any Type of Nail Polish at Home, Without Causing Damage.” Celebrity Nail Artist Jess Alexander-Snyder, @omg_jess on Instagram, speaks on her favorite butter LONDON nail treatments, Nail Scrubbers, Horse Power Base Coat and Quick Dry Drops and their powerful effects.
“As I’m approaching week three of my dip nails, it’s when I’d normally head to my salon to get the old color removed while enjoying a relaxing manicure appointment. However, things are a bit different now, so I’m going to have to take it off myself and do my own nails at home. Although I’ve visited my technician plenty of times, I’m certainly not an expert on the process, but I know that if done incorrectly, the removal process causes damage. (And the last thing I want to do is damage my nail beds after overcoming my bad biting habit.)
So, I enlisted the expertise of celebrity manicurist, Jess Alexander-Snyder (who’s worked with actresses Mindy Kaling, Amber Heard, and Aidy Bryant, among others) to find out the best ways to remove any type of polish, including regular, gel, dip powder, and acrylics, right at home. She offers step-by-step instructions for how to remove nail polish and enhancements the right way to help keep our nailbeds healthy.
How to Remove Regular Nail Polish
Although traditional polish doesn’t last as long as other options, it’s by far the easiest to take off. “The best tip with regular polish is to soak a cotton ball in acetone and hold it on your finger for a few seconds before rubbing your nail bed,” Alexander-Snyder says. (You can buy a bottle of acetone for just $.99 at Target.) She adds that dark colors, reds, and glitters can be stubborn, so soak those shades with remover for at least a minute. She often uses Butter LONDON’s nail scrubbers that come in packs of 10 for $10, which have a rough side for scrubbing to get off those problematic colors.
Once your nails are naked, Alexander-Snyder recommends applying a nail strengthener, such as Horse Power Nail Rescue Base Coat from BUTTER London, $18. She says you’re free to add polish as soon as you’d like. “There is no such thing as letting your nails breathe,” she explains. “There are no pores. Nails are made of dead tissue.” However, she does recommend moisturizing “like crazy” before and after you apply polish with BUTTER London’s P.D. Quick Dry Conditioning Drops, $18. “After all of that soaking in acetone, you need as much moisture as you can get.”