How does your nail technician remove your gel nails?

[NorthernPud]

Just started getting gels again after a several year hiatus. My technician does a great job but to remove them, after lightly filing with an electric device, she warms up a bowl of acetone and has me soak my fingers for 10 mins. Is this normal? I hate to think how much acetone my skin absorbed and I'm figuring out how I might remove this set myself to avoid going through that on my next visit. Thanks in advance.

Mine has started using a paint on remover which does the job at lot faster than the soaking.

Mine soaks cotton pads in acetone, wraps round finger and wraps tin foil on top of that.

That’s normal for gel and acrylic removal. Other than filing it off which risks nail damage if you take too much or the gel
remover that you paint on (which can be hit and miss) there’s no other ways really

Thats what mine does too

Lots of my skin peeled off over the next few days when I had that done (the soaking). Never again!

Mine files the nails, then clips on cotton pads soaked in acetone over the nail with special plastic clips. There is no way you should be soaking your fingers like that!

Yes this.

Same for me. By the time she's put the last nail on, she starts removing the first, so the whole process doesn't take that long.

I have had this many times too, but had one who literally sanded them off with a nail file and it was horrible!

Soaks cotton wool pad in acetone and wraps in foil! No way am I soaking my fingers in acetone for 10 mins!

Thanks all. I won't be letting her remove them again!

The soak off method is a completely normal way of removing gel polish. Nail techs are taught to file off as much as possible and then soak the rest off either using the bowl/steamer method or cotton wool method. Soak off gel can’t be filed off completely. Apply moisturiser afterwards if you want.

Is it neat acetone, or acetone nail polish remover? Does anyone know? I've just started doing mine at home.

Neat acetone.

Thank you! I'm hoping to mainly infill, and replace when each one pops off on its own. I'm sure I'll need the acetone at some point, though!

I went to a place where the gel nails were practically bomb proof and grew out - never chipped but getting the stuff off was awful. The guy filed mine off and my nails were bendy for weeks and weeks. I've started using regular polish now

Nail tech here!

Wrapped in foil with acetone is the standard method, usually we'd file off a.couple of layers first to decease the soaking time but file should never touch your natural nail.

Soaking is the old fashioned method, it works but some people are sensitive to it. You might want less exposure so you can ask for a different method.

Never, ever, let someone put the paint on burst/magic/peeling style removers on you. These are not recognised as either safe or professional, they are just a gimmick used as a shortcut.

How to avoid gel polish removal wrecking my nails?! My nails bend, split vertically and take months to grow back!

Interesting MrsPickles! I was just about to browse for them!

I gather I need nail oil, when should I apply it?

That sounds like MMA and shouldn’t be on nails :/

Thanks so much all. I'll either try to get these off myself or will go to a salon which removes with a bit more care.

Only tried gel nails once. I had them removed with the cotton wool soaked in acetone then covered with foil method but the skin around some of my nails especially thumbs was sore for weeks afterwards. I developed vertical cracks in the skin at the edge of the nail and had to wait for nature to take its course and for them to heal over time. What went wrong?

Thanks for sharing this useful information.

I’ve sometimes wondered at the effect of such procedures on peoples’s natural nails.

I've used the same salon for 4 years, they were fantastic and I never had any complaints about my gel nails. They always used to use the cotton wool/foil soak of method and again, no issues for me.

My regular nail tech left the salon in March so I've been using different ladies depending on who is available. All of them have been using an electric drill/file to take off the old polish and whilst there were no issues at the time in the last few weeks my nails have started to lift from the nail bed and are obviously very unhappy. Currently 4 nails on one hand and 3 nails on the other have lifted. I've been to the Dr to rule out any other causes (diet, hormones, fungal infection, etc) and she said she's 99% certain it's due to the nail drill.

I've now got no choice but to wait for the nails to regrow. I'm trying to help them out with supplements (Dr did say she can't advocate that they will help but no harm in trying) and Vit E oil so hopefully that will help them to recover a bit faster.

I'm in two minds about whether I will resume getting my nails done. I might have a chat with the salon and ask if I can request that they are soaked off and that they don't use the drill, but I suspect that they may have been told by the salon owner to use the drill to speed up appointments. It's something I won't have to think about for a while as it's likely to take 6 months for my nails to totally regrow.