{"id":3665,"date":"2013-08-23T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T17:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nailcarehq.com\/?p=3665"},"modified":"2018-11-08T19:58:42","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T02:58:42","slug":"polish-stain-removal-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/polish-stain-removal-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish Stain Removal Tips &#8211; How to Remove Immediate Polish Stains"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 class=\"none\" style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #999999;\">POLISH STAIN REMOVAL TIPS<\/span><\/h6>\n<p>Are you constantly afraid of removing polish only to discover your nails are now a permanent unnatural color?<\/p>\n<p>In this article, you&#8217;ll learn:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How to reduce the potential of color staining<\/li>\n<li>How soaking, rather than scrubbing, is a better way to remove polish<\/li>\n<li>How manicure clips can help the process even more<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_3975\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/nail-stain-china-glaze-blue-bells-ring.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3975\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-3975\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/nail-stain-china-glaze-blue-bells-ring-150x150.png\" alt=\"nail stain Image of china glaze blue bells ring\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/nail-stain-china-glaze-blue-bells-ring-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/nail-stain-china-glaze-blue-bells-ring-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/nail-stain-china-glaze-blue-bells-ring.png 270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3975\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">China Glaze Blue Bells Ring<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Polish Stain Removal Tips<\/h2>\n<p>You&#8217;ve <strong>just removed<\/strong> a gorgeous, dark blue and look down in <strong>horror<\/strong>\u2014your nails are now a lovely shade of blue!<\/p>\n<p>This recently happened to me with\u00a0China Glaze Blue Bells Ring #1119.<\/p>\n<p>Of course instead of panicking, <strong>I get all geeky!<\/strong> &#8220;Oooo, this will make a great article!&#8221;<span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Since I&#8217;ve read just about every nail blog post about polish stain removal, I thought I would <strong>share my insights<\/strong> gained by de-bluing my nails.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also including the stain removing<strong> methods I don&#8217;t recommend and why they&#8217;re a bad idea.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>My Steps For Preventing Polish Stains<\/h2>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>1. In spite of using two coats of basecoat to protect my nails, expensive polishes can stain too.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>2. It&#8217;s extremely critical to use my Soak and Swipe\u2122 method of polish removal, using pure acetone, with plenty of soaking time\u2014especially if you&#8217;re dissolving 5 to 10 layers.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>3. Remove polish in ONE firm, clean stroke.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>4. Remove any remaining polish with a CLEAN piece of cotton and A LOT more acetone.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>5. If the nail plate looks stained a lighter shade of the color, use a clean cotton piece saturated with A LOT of acetone and keep wiping\/scrubbing. Focus on wiping nail tip to proximal fold (&#8220;cuticle&#8221; line), since nail cells grow layered like house roof shingles, you want to go against the grain.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>6. Use Q-tips saturated in acetone to get staining at the proximal fold curve.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>7. Wash hands with warm water and soap.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>8. Scrub nails top and bottom with a nail brush. Rinse. Dry.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>9. Apply your favorite penetrating nail oil generously and rub it in.<\/strong> (Blue stains are all gone. \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n<h2>Soak &amp; Swipe\u2122 Polish Removal<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Acetone saturation<\/strong> is very important key to remove polish quickly\u2014and it&#8217;s <strong>extremely COLD!<\/strong> It feels like you&#8217;re soaking in ice because acetone evaporates so quickly.<\/p>\n<p>This is why I recommend adding a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myblisskiss.com\/simply-soft-acetone-additive\/\">moisturizing additive acetone<\/a> or to\u00a0<strong>coat your skin<\/strong> with a cheap kitchen oil <strong>before removing<\/strong> your manicure.<\/p>\n<p>It <strong>blocks<\/strong> some of that <strong>numbing cold<\/strong> and <strong>prevents<\/strong> acetone from dissolving your precious body oil and <strong>drying out your skin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I also love using manicure clips to hold the cotton on the nail plate. The clips trap in your body heat to warm the acetone which makes it dissolve lacquer faster.<\/p>\n<p>I unroll a cotton ball and cut it into small pieces. Saturate the cotton with acetone, apply to the nail and soak for one to three minutes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Then saturate\u00a0a second\u00a0piece of cotton<\/strong> with acetone to wipe off the first piece of cotton. This is <strong>an important step<\/strong> as well you help you get a firm grip to remove the polish in one, clean swipe.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t use your soaking cotton to remove any remaining polish. You&#8217;ll start scrubbing. Just get a new piece of cotton.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JF2zCQXpbVE\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/polish-stains-Wacky-Laki.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3948 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/polish-stains-Wacky-Laki-173x300.png\" alt=\"polish stains Image of Wacky Laki Polish Stain Removal Tutorial\" width=\"173\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/polish-stains-Wacky-Laki-173x300.png 173w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/polish-stains-Wacky-Laki-500x866.png 500w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/polish-stains-Wacky-Laki-591x1024.png 591w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/polish-stains-Wacky-Laki.png 604w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2>In Desperation &#8211; Removing Immediate Stains <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If your nails are still tinted after trying all of my tips, you may need to bring out the big guns&#8230;.. or big goop.<\/p>\n<p>Anutka at Wacky Laki has put together a <a title=\"Polish Stain Removal by Wacky Laki\" href=\"http:\/\/wackylaki.blogspot.com\/2012\/10\/tutorial-tuesday-nail-polish-stain.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">great tutorial using whitening toothpaste<\/a> for immediate polish stain removal.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, I haven&#8217;t had to use this technique, but it&#8217;s nice to know it&#8217;s an option as a last resort.<\/p>\n<h2>No Buffing Please!<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s surprising to me how many established nail bloggers recommend buffing the stain out\u2014even though this is a <strong>horrible idea<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s quite understandable why they recommend it though.<\/p>\n<p>Immediate polish stains usually are because polish pigment has settled into the top few layers of nail keratin.<\/p>\n<p>This happens really easily with the <strong>traditional polish removal method<\/strong>\u2014saturate a cotton ball and <strong>scrub the heck out<\/strong> of it until the polish is dissolved.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_159\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Nail-Keratin-magnif-frame.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-159\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Nail-Keratin-magnif-frame-300x240.jpg\" alt=\"Nail Care HQ and brittle nails\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Nail-Keratin-magnif-frame-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Nail-Keratin-magnif-frame-500x401.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Nail-Keratin-magnif-frame.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-159\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nail Keratin Cells Under Electron Microscope<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Even though our nails appear smooth, under an electron microscope, it&#8217;s possible to see that our nails are made up of hundreds of thousands flattened keratin cells.<\/p>\n<p>As in the photo to the right, you can see the <strong>microscopic gaps<\/strong> between the cells.<\/p>\n<p>Polish pigments are <strong>small enough<\/strong> to settle into those gaps with enough force.<\/p>\n<p>The acetone is <strong>dissolving<\/strong> the colored lacquer, but your scrubbing action is <strong>driving the dissolved pigments<\/strong> into the top layers of keratin.<\/p>\n<p>The traditional thinking is, &#8220;I&#8217;ll just buff the stain out, since it&#8217;s only in the top few layers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But like I addressed in my <a title=\"Polish Stain - Why Buffing Nails Makes them Weaker\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/ridges-in-nails\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previous article about why buffing out ridges is actually making our nails weaker<\/a>, the same holds true when buffing out stains.<\/p>\n<p>You only have about <strong>50 layers of keratin<\/strong> in your nails.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a misconception that buffing a few layers won&#8217;t hurt. In truth, it only makes your <strong>nails thinner, weaker, and more prone to breaking.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3952 alignright\" style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Nail-polish-stain-300x279.jpg\" alt=\"Image of fingers stained by polish\" width=\"300\" height=\"279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Nail-polish-stain-300x279.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Nail-polish-stain.jpg 464w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Who&#8217;s Guilty?<\/h2>\n<p>The photo to the right by <a title=\"Polish Stain - Girly Things Bye website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.girlythingsbye.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GirlyThingsBye<\/a> demonstrates perfectly how scrubbing can even cause the pigment to be pushed into the top layers of our skin too!<\/p>\n<p>This photo was taken <em><strong>after<\/strong><\/em> <strong>several rounds with acetone<\/strong> and she says it took <strong>several days<\/strong> for her skin to return to normal flesh color.<\/p>\n<p>This is leads me to think . . . who&#8217;s the real guilty party with most polish staining?<\/p>\n<p>You know that saying&#8230; &#8220;When you&#8217;re pointing at someone else, you have four fingers pointing back at you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Should polish brands be condemned for causing staining? Hummmmm.<\/p>\n<h2>Be Careful with the DIY Whitening Soaks<\/h2>\n<p>There a couple of other methods recommended by bloggers <strong>which I don&#8217;t recommend.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>They are soaking your nails in hydrogen peroxide, lemon juice or denture remover tabs.<\/p>\n<p>These techniques may work, but <strong>at what cost to the health<\/strong> of your nails?<\/p>\n<p>One of the <strong>very worst things you can do<\/strong> to your nails is to soak them for 5-15 minutes in a water-based solution with some additives.<\/p>\n<p>Even though our nails can soak up three times their weight in water, it&#8217;s very damaging to the keratin layers.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Where does that water go? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>In between every single nail layer, slowly <strong>pushing the layers apart. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our nails are resilient, but not for long. I explain this process in more detail here:\u00a0<a title=\"Polish Stain - How Water Damages Nails\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/How Water Damages Nails\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/How Water Damages Nails<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>In Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Hopefully, this clears up some confusion about polish stain removal.<\/p>\n<p>The best method is <strong>prevention<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It starts with using <strong>two coats of a high-quality base coat <\/strong>and to <strong>completely dissolve the polish<\/strong> before using only one stroke to remove it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POLISH STAIN REMOVAL TIPS Are you constantly afraid of removing polish only to discover your nails are now a permanent unnatural color? In this article, you&#8217;ll learn: How to reduce the potential of color staining How soaking, rather than scrubbing, is a better way to remove polish How manicure clips can help the process even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,18,3,4,20,289,228,217,6,136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brittle-nails-nail-problems","category-nail-care-2","category-nail-problems","category-peeling","category-polish-removers","category-polish-stains","category-ridge-filing-base-coat","category-ridges","category-solutions","category-yellow-nails"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nailcareheadquarters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}