How To Grow Out Acrylic Nails Without Removing Them

Hullo, hey—come a lil closer for a VIP message from yours truly: Delight, for the dearest of all things beauty, please terminate trying to take off your acrylic nails past picking them, peeling them, or biting them off. You know who you are, and you know how damaging that sh*t is. Yous probably also know that the safest fashion to remove your acrylic nails is past going to a salon and seeing a trained nail tech. Still, I fully understand that 2021 (...and '20) is a weird year, and sometimes we must resort to DIY methods for taking off acrylics—which is where I come in.

Because permit's exist honest: If you're here, your nails are probably already in a sad, sad land of abound-out. "Your natural nails abound out regardless of how long your acrylics last, and you'll first to see growth at your cuticle beds after 2 weeks," Rita de Alencar Pinto, founder of Vanity Projects blast salon in NYC, has told Cosmo. Which means unless you're ready to go your acrylics filled once again asap...information technology'south time y'all master the art of at-home acrylic removal.

Lucky for you lot, I parsed through the questionable earth of nail advice to observe the best tutorials on how to remove your acrylic nails without the damage—or, well, without as much impairment as yous'd probably inflict on your own. Keep reading and watching, and maaaaybe consider the easier-to-remove gel nails for your next mani?

The basics you'll need to remove acrylic nails

Acetone

Eternal 100% Pure Acetone

Cotton balls

Cliganic Organic Super Jumbo Cotton fiber Balls

Tin Foil

Reynolds Wrappers Aluminum Foil Pop Up & Sheets

Nail scraper

Utopia Care Cuticle Pusher and Spoon Nail Cleaner

What's the easiest fashion to have off acrylic nails fast?

Make it a car and drive thyself to a nail salon. Sry, only had to remind you one last time of the best—and honestly, probably fastest—solution. But if you lot're at home? The easiest way to accept off acrylic nails fast is to cover them with a cotton ball soaked in pure acetone, wrap your fingers in tin foil, and permit them sit for 30 minutes. The acetone will help pause down the acrylics, then you tin can buff or scrape off the rest with an orange stick or cuticle pusher.

Confused? I gotchu. Stock upward on the essentials in a higher place, and then proceed scrolling for more than in-depth tutorials.

How to take off acrylic nails at home with acetone

Ah, yes, the classic removal technique for the average DIYer. As a ~hot~ tip (literally), try warming up your acetone before starting, which will assist information technology work faster and more effectively on your nails. (Note: Acetone is incredibly flammable, so don't microwave it—just run the bottle under warm water for a few minutes.)

The steps:

Carefully clip off your backlog acrylics, cutting them equally close as possible to your real nails.
Using a nail buffer, rough up the surface of the polish until the shine is completely gone. Removing the top layer helps the smoothen soften faster in the acetone.
Pour 100 percent pure acetone into a tray or bowl and soak your nails in it for five minutes.
With a metal cuticle pusher, gently push the polish off your nails, pushing from your cuticles downward.
Redip your nails for 5 mins, then gently button again. Repeat until your acrylics have completely soaked off.
Buff off the rest of the smaller pieces with your blast buffer.
Massage cuticle oil into your nails to rehydrate them, so buff information technology into your nails with the soft side of a buffer. Finish with another layer of cuticle oil.

The merely 4 nail files and buffers yous'll need

Mischo Dazzler Glass Nail File

Breukelen Polished Stay Polished Nail Kit

Breukelen Polished Stay Polished Blast Kit

Tweezerman Neon Buff & Smooth Block

HeeYaa Nail Files and Blast Buffers

How to accept off acrylic nails with an electrical file/smash bit

If you're both lazy and an acrylics addict, you should seriously consider picking up an electric boom file to brand the procedure way easier and safer on your nail beds. Yes, technically, this is the ~professional~ style to do it and it's definitely a skill to learn, but that doesn't mean y'all tin can't endeavor it at home (at your own hazard and by watching a ton of tutorials).

The steps:

Gently and carefully sand downwardly the acrylics with a sanding bit, taking off the top layer of your acrylics.
Then soak a cotton swab with 100 pct acetone, wrap it effectually your nails, and cover information technology with tinfoil, until all your digits are swaddled in foil.
Subsequently 10 to xv minutes of soaking, unwrap your fingers, and then remove the excess acrylic with a cuticle pusher.
Rinse your hands and end with a cuticle oil.

The 4 best cuticle oils to try rn

Pear Nova Growth Green Tea Cuticle Oil

Nash + Pino Hydrate Cuticle Oil

Dr. Hauschka Neem Boom & Cuticle Pen

CND Essentials Nail & Cuticle Oil SolarOil

How to soak off acrylic nails

If an eastward-file sounds similar manner too much work and y'all don't exactly accept a ton of spare nail trays hanging around your business firm, try the ultra-piece of cake—admitting not exactly environmentally friendly—way of removing your acrylics with a plastic handbag.

The steps:

Cut off your acrylic nails (once more, go as close to your real nails as possible without actually snipping them off).
Cascade 100 pct acetone into a big Ziploc baggie, filling it up only enough to be able to fully submerge your nails.
Tilt the bag to the side so the acetone pools into one corner, and then stick your paw in the handbag, letting your nails soak in the acetone.
Let them sit for 15 to xx minutes (probably a adept time to start a Netflix serial), then gently scrape off the acrylics with a wooden cuticle stick.
If your acrylics don't push button off hands, resoak them for another five minutes, so try once again.
Buff off any remaining residue to stop.

The four all-time nail clippers always (really)

Hawatour Nail Clippers Fix

Tweezerman Combo Clipper Set

Morgles Acrylic Nail Clipper

Makartt Acrylic Nail Clippers

Chloe Metzger Deputy Beauty Managing director Chloe Metzger is the deputy beauty manager at Cosmopolitan, obsessively writing well-nigh new makeup launches, the best hair products (curly girl here; whattup), and the skincare formulas that actually work for every skin type (follow her on Instagram to encounter backside-the-scenes pics of that magazine life).