Pretty much as soon as I uploaded my blog post on DIY Gel Manicures the other day, I realised that I hadn't actually mentioned how to remove soak off gels. Six months later and I am still suffering from baby brain!!!!
Well, I don't usually get the 2 weeks wear out of my gel manicure as promised by the salons and I do confess to peeling my polish off occasionally, but please don't try this because it takes a layer of nail off with it. My gel manicure usually lasts around a week before a few pop off, although this is a vast improvement on the standard 48 hours I get with a regular manicure. Even if the gel polish does last longer, then usually the nail regrowth at the bottom, will make me want to soak the polish off and start afresh.
To do this, all I use is ;

• Some household acetone ( nail polish remover isn't usually strong enough) you can get this from pharmacies for about £1.
• Aluminium foil torn in to 10 strips of of about 10cm x 3cm
• 10 cotton wool balls
• An orange stick/ cuticle stick

Then, all I do is soak the cotton wool in acetone and place it over the nail, wrap the aluminium foil around the finger and sort of squish it together at the ends to keep it in place, repeat this for each finger and then leave on for about 15mins.
After the time has elapsed, the polish should be almost brittle and I can usually remove it quite easily with a cuticle stick. If I find that it isn't coming off easily then i usually reapply the acetone soaked cotton wool and leave it on a little longer.
The foil wraps should look something like the picture below. Yep- very attractive!!!:


Even if you aren't confident enough to do your own gel manicure, you could still get it applied at a salon and then remove it yourself afterwards using this method. It's much cheaper this way, plus it saves you going back to the salon if you aren't going to have another manicure straight away.