As I said in my last post, I love the idea of having pretty nicely polished nails. Unfortunately, that means when the polish gets messed up, or if it lasts long enough to have outlived it’s welcome (I think that’s happened about 3 times in my adult life), then you need to get the polish remover, some paper towels, cotton balls, jack hammer, etc. to take it off. OR if you’re like me, you need to remove what’s left after picking off the edges or pealing off as much as possible. I know… I know… It’s absolutely horrible for your nails. One of my bad habits.

At least it was until I saw this great pin on how to remove nail polish with only one (1) cotton ball, only one (1) cap full of remover, and all in only 5 minutes.

This sounded too good to be true, but according to Anne from her blog, Gingerbreadmanne, it was not only possible, but totally doable. Since I had two hands with chipped/picked at nail polish, the cotton balls and the remover, I decided to give it a shot.

Here are the tools. Ignore the polishes and sponges. They’re for another post.

Unroll the cotton ball.

Tear into two strips.

Tear one strip into 10 pieces, save the other for wiping any polish left behind.

Dip the edge into a cap full of polish, then place on each nail. I did one hand at a time, as instructed on the blog, then waited one or two minutes. I had pink polish on, so it’s not easy to see through the cotton, but it’s noticeable in the next picture.

I used a part of the remaining cotton ball strip to wipe off the cotton pieces on my fingers. See the light pink on the cotton?

The Pintest results for this Tuesday Tip are as follows:

Overall Rating: 5 Pins

Accuracy:  This method allows the polish remover to do it’s thing. I’ve tried it a few times, and it gets the polish off really well. If you have glittery polish, it might require a little bit more wiping, but much less work than using the traditional method and gentler on the skin than soaking your fingers. 5 Pins

Difficulty:  It was easy to unroll the cotton ball, and that was the hardest part. 5 Pins

Time:  Normally it takes about 15-20 minutes of dabbing cotton balls or paper towels with polish remover, then wiping and wiping. This really takes roughly 5 minutes for both hands.

Cost:  Using only 1 cotton ball (and still have leftovers), and a cap full of polish remover is much less waste than the traditional way. I get the big bottle of pure acetone from Sally’s Beauty Supply Store when it’s on sale for about $4 and a bag of cotton balls is roughly a buck. 5 Pins

Practicality:  This method saves time, money, supplies and is very easy to do. 5 Pins