A little PSA about Gel Polish Removal

     How is everyone doing today? About a month ago I was talked into trying gel polish by a girl at my favorite nail salon. So far I had avoided gel polish because I like to change my nail color a few times a week and gel just didn't make sense for that. What really changed my mind about giving gel a try was simple, what kind of nail polish blogger would I be if I didn't try out different types of polish and share my experiences with you. Well this post isn't exactly about the gel polish itself. Although I do have to say it held up fabulously for the week I had it on my nails. This little post is a PSA about the removal of the polish. But first let me show you what my nails looked like with the polish on.




  
     Now I have to say that I didn't really like the way this turned out at all. It's hard to see in this picture but my nails had a greenish tint to them from the polish she removed before starting this and it showed through horribly in real life. After a week it was bothering me so much that I decided to remove it myself instead of going back in.

     I knew what I was doing, or so I thought. After cutting up all my tin foil and getting my cotton balls ready I got started. For anyone who hasn't tried the foil technique for polish removal let me just tell you that wrapping your own fingers once you have a few done is no easy task. I wasn't able to get my right hand wrapped very tightly and the foil kept slipping off my fingers, and every time I tried to squeeze it tighter I had remover run down my hand. It was a very messy process to say the least. After about 30 minutes of this I decided to remove the foils and try using just a cotton ball with pure acetone and letting those sit on my finger tips for another 20 minutes.

      I was making progress but it was slow going and I'm not exactly know for my patience.Out of pure exasperation I took my cuticle pusher and started to "scrape" the softened polish off my nails. BIG BIG BIG mistake! Even though I wasn't using much pressure I ended up removing some of the top layer of my actual nail. What I was left with after this long and messy process was a nail blogger's nightmare.

     So long story short my advice for all of you is simple. When it comes to the removal of gel polish if you don't know exactly what you are doing, or have little patience, you should probably leave it to the professionals. After this little fiasco my bottle of pure cuticle oil and I were inseparable for about a week and I'm happy to say that my nails are almost back to a healthy state. I still have some weak spots near the tips that want to peel but in another week it should be grown out enough that I can cut the bad parts off and be back to normal.