Nail Care Series: Nail Polish Remover

Lately I've had some questions asking what nail polish remover I use so I thought I'd incorporate it into my nail care series. (I've also made a 'nail care' tab on my blog so you can now easily find all my nail care posts).

I try to keep a few different polish removers on hand.

Non-acetone generic remover

I don't use a non-acetone remover too often but when I do, it's always just whatever one is cheapest. I like to have one handy for a few reasons.

If I have patched a broken nail, I'll need to use non-acetone remover on it so that I don't remove the patch. (If you're interested in seeing how to fix a broken nail, check out this post from Lacquerheads Of Oz which includes a tutorial). I don't break nails too often though, to be honest. I've only broken one or two in the past 6 months.

I also sometimes use a non-acetone remover when my nails/cuticles are feeling especially dry and I don't want to expose them to acetone which will obviously dry them out even more.

100% Acetone

I use 100% pure acetone, mainly for cleaning up my cuticles. I have tried using regular polish remover for clean up but it takes at least double the time it takes to do clean up with acetone and it doesn't do a very good job.

I also use pure acetone to clean off my plates and stamper while stamping. :) And it's also helpful for cleaning nail art brushes and other tools.

I buy my acetone at either Big W or a hardware store, in a huge 1 litre bottle for about $10 (great deal considering 150mL bottles of normal polish remover cost about $5!).

Acetone + Glycerin mix

When I first heard about using a mix of acetone and glycerin, I thought 'pshhh, there's no way that would be that good'. But it is! You can see a tutorial on how to make it at here at LabMuffin.

It takes off my polish just as fast as using straight acetone but doesn't leave my hands/nails dry and icky looking!

PVA Glue

I talked about PVA glue in my base coats post. It's a base coat for easy removal! :) So that's why I'm talking about it here too. I always use PVA glue under every glitter mani I do. It makes removal SO fast and easy and my cuticles are much happier since I stopped doing the foil method. Using a PVA base, could also be good for a long holiday if you like to change your polish a lot because you won't need to bring nail polish remover with you.

I hope that this post helped you if you're on the hunt for a new nail polish remover! Let me know what your preferred remover/method is. :)

If you're interested, I have a video tutorial on the foil method for glitter polish removal and a demo video showing you how I remove my polish (it saves a lot of cotton balls and remover too!), so you can check those out if you like!

Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || YouTube