How-To Guide

I've decided to help my fellow nail fetishists by posting my favorite methods of madness.

Step-by-step instruction on how I do all kinds of things, how I paint my nails, how do I do the designs, how to remove polish etc.

So stay tuned to this page as it is new and will be updated often as I go along.

I am going to share with all you lovely people, my method of removing polish using ONE cotton ball and ONE cotton swab. Sounds impossible right? It's not! It works great even with the dreaded glitters.

I have tried all methods, soaking, swispers, foiling, and it proved to be quite rigorous and tedious. I actually hated taking off my polish, but with this method, it was done within 10 minutes and makes me want to do it more than not.

Just a photo of the things you'd need:

• Glass dish, I know remover comes in a plastic bottle but something about plastic bowls scream unreliable to me. I'd rather be safe than sorry and this little condiment/dipping bowl I got in a set of four at Dollar Tree for only $1. Yep, 4 glass bowls for $1. Not bad to me and lasts forever to use.
• Your trusted polish remover. We already know acetone isn't quite good for your skin and nails but whatever, it's what I have and I NEED that to rid my life of glitters LOL
• One cotton ball.
• One cotton swab. Those are the manicure swabs with the pointed double ends. I got them for $1.99 at Harmon Beauty Supply.
• Hand cream. I use Gold Bond Ultimate because it's awesome. Plus I'm a mom and always have my hands under running water. I need this to moisturize properly. I should seriously invest in a larger bottle though LOL this is a travel size from my purse.
• Cuticle oil. Yep you WILL need it. ALWAYS. This is by Haken and I got it for .99 at Sally's Beauty. I think they're discontinued or something because I can't seem to find them anymore. I have a BUNCH of scents. They work great and smell great too.

Of course this photo is unnecessary, but I wanted to add it, haha.
You don't need a TON of remover. A little goes a long way, trust me.

Pull apart your cotton ball. Pull it into pieces. The ones in the photo look like it's fat pieces, but they're not. This is not even HALF of the cotton ball. Pull a few extra pieces (tiny, tiny amounts. These will be your dry removal pieces)

Enlarge these photos if you must. Take one of your cotton pieces and dip the end into the remover.

DO NOT dunk them in.

If you dip the end into the remover, the cotton will absorb the remover and travel up into the piece.

It doesn't need to be overly saturated, if it is, it will travel down your fingers and onto your skin. Polish remover is not made to come directly with the skin, it will dry it out and cause sores, flaking, even peeling. None of that is healthy for your skin obviously. So you've been warned. do not over-saturate your cotton.

Apply the saturated cotton piece to your nail, with your finger over the bowl and facing down, lightly press it into place. The extra below the nail is fine, leave it be and continue the same method for the rest of your nails.

This is your ending result. Be patient now and let it sit for 2 minutes. Depending on how many layers you have  determines how long you should leave the cotton on the nails. With glitters, I leave it on for around 5 minutes.

At this point the remover is doing it's job; softening the polish to be easily wiped away.

After several minutes have passed, you are ready to remove your pieces. Take the one of the tiny, dry cotton pieces you pulled earlier and with one move, swipe from nail bed to tip using a tiny bit of pressure.

The polish should come off clean just as you see in the photo.

This is normal, if this happens to you don't worry. Just don't use brute strength trying to scrub it off. Your nails are a lot more delicate than you think. Always use one pressure, and one motion, every single time. From nail bed to nail tip, over and over like so:

<--- & --->

CLICK TO ENLARGE!

Never swipe from side to side. That can cause your nails to peel, and peeling causes breakage :( Trust me, I know better than anyone!

Last but not least, the cotton swab.

At this point, my camera's battery died (LOL) so I have to resort to craptastic cell phone pictures! BOOOO!

Sorry everyone :-\

Use that saturated cotton swab to clean the hot mess under the nail. One side of the swab per hand.

And you're done! Remember to wash your hands, use your hand cream to re-hydrate your poor hands, push back cuticles using an orange stick and apply the cuticle oil to re-hydrate your poor cuticles.

When I was finished with one hand, this is how much of the cotton ball that was left for the other hand! Crazy huh? Who knew? :)