Nail polish remover woes

[vgqn]

I'm ready to change my toenail polish, but I'm having a terrible time removing the current polish! First I tried a non-acetone remover. It took forever to remove the tiny amount of polish from just my littlest toe, and my hands reeked from the smell for over 24 hours. It didn't seem like that bad a scent when I was using it, but it just wasn't going away despite many hand washings.

So then I tried an acetone remover, an old bottle, admittedly, but does it go bad? This time, nothing was coming off. I have midnight blue polish with sparkles and I was using white cotton balls. Believe, there was nothing getting transferred to those cotton balls. Could the acetone have lost strength? Would a new bottle help? My thumb and forefinger where I was gripping the cotton ball got all dry and rough (which I suppose is why some people favor the non-acetone remover), so some ingredient was still active. But it sure wasn't removing polish.

Am I doomed to have midnight blue nails until they grow out?! Help me, those of you more conversant in these matters.

Comments

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

My black glitter nail polish was terrible to remove.

Sometimes I use sellotape, press it on the nail, pull it off with a chunk of polish, but I suspect people would scream at me for doing this.

[webbob.livejournal.com]

Stuff I found in Google suggests that non-acetone nail polish remover is fairly useless on polish with glitter. On the other hand, acetone-based nail polish remover specifically dries the nails, so not a good idea if you're removing polish frequently or have dry nails to start with.

As to your problem, acetone-based polish remover contains acetone, water, and moisturizing agents. Acetone has the lowest boiling point of these substances, and will tend to evaporate and lessen the strenght of the remover. So yes, the polish remover could have lost strength.

[webbob.livejournal.com]

Also, consider using something like a cosmetic pad instead of a cotton ball. It might shred less on the corners of the chunks of glitter as they appear above the surface of the lacquer.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Which must indeed be what happened. Thanks for the sleuthing!

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I actually like the impregnated pads and impregnated sponge tubs best (though dunno if toes would fit!) - I haven't tried on glitter polish but the pads tend to get everything off...

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I would try a fresh bottle of acetone before giving up. I find the non-acetone polish removers fairly useless in all weathers, but I haven't worn polish in *forever*. I keep thinking about doing my toes but then I remember how much I dislike the sensation of suffocating nail beds.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Yup, fresh acetone worked.

The sensation of suffocating nail beds? Huh, I must have insensitive toenails.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Or, I could be a freak. It's actually not as bad on my toes, but with nail polish on, I tend to feel like my nails "can't breathe". I don't claim it's natural or rational, I just don't like the feeling.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

At this point I think I'd treat it like a home painting job. You remove any loose paint and then paint over whatever is stuck tight.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I'll be very tempted to do this with the gold that's going on next. But I'm afraid it would have taken far too many coats of gold to cover the midnight blue. You know, kind of like a home painting job....