How to Remove Acrylic Nails at Home

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Acrylic nails are beautiful and will make you stand out in a crowd, much more than just painting your nails at home. With the many shapes and lengths that you can customize to your liking and preference, they’re a must-have when getting ready for an event. However, though acrylics are beautiful, they’re a little tricky to remove once they’ve reached the end of their lifespan, and some nail salons will charge you an arm and a leg to remove them. Luckily, there are a few ways that you can remove acrylics from the comforts of your home using supplies you already have stored around the house.

Removing Acrylic Nails Using Nail Polish

Supplies Needed:

  • Nail polish remover
  • Tweezer
  • Bowl
  • Nail Clippers

The Process

  1. Trim or files down the acrylic as short as possible.
  2. Wedge your tweezers around the edge of the acrylic and gently pry upwards.
  3. Pour a generous amount of nail polish remover into a small bowl.
  4. Soak your acrylics in the nail polish remover for 30-45min.
  5. After 30min, check to see if the acrylics have loosened and gently pry them off with the tweezers. If the acrylics do not come off easily, soak for more time until they do.

Removing Acrylic Nails Using Dental Floss

This one unfortunately you cannot do by yourself, so have a partner or a family member handy to help you out. Keep in mind as well that this method can be a little painful depending on your pain threshold, so for those who aren’t so great with pain, opt out of this method.

Supplies Needed:

  • Tweezers
  • Floss
  • Another person

The Process

  1. Using the tweezers, make an inlet at the base of the acrylic for the dental floss to be inserted into.
  2. Have your partner slide the floss into the inlet and begin a sawing motion as they work down the nail. The acrylic should pop off once you get far enough.

Removing Acrylic Nails Using a Credit Card

Supplies Needed:

  • Credit card or another laminated card
  • Tweezers

The Process

  1. Use the tweezers to pry up the edges of the acrylic at the base, creating an inlet.
  2. Slide the laminated card into the inlet and gently pry upwards, working your way down the nail. Like with the floss, the nail should pop right off once it reaches a certain point.

This list is by no means exhaustive and there are many other ways to remove your acrylic nails by using other supplies such as acetone. However, for simplicity, this list only contains methods that use common household items without having to go out and buy anything. Do your research and find out which method is safest and most comfortable for you.