I knew it was going to be hard to remove after watching some other women get theirs taken off while I had mine done at the salon. I figured if it took the professionals that long, it would take me awhile. However, I did not want to drive back down to the salon to get it taken off and figured I would just pop in a DVD of friends and get 'er done. I had googled the process and was optimistic I could do it myself without damaging my nails (which supposedly just chipping it off will do) and without investing too much money. All I would need is some 100% acetone and an orange stick.
So I ran to Walgreens to get supplies and of course forgot to pick up an orange stick. I wasn't convinced that would make a huge difference so I decided to carry on. I got all my other supplies ready: acetone, cotton balls, small bowl, Friends DVD, rag, cell phone, water (because I knew I wouldn't be moving for awhile), and a plastic spoon (my orange stick-substitute).
I then soaked my first hand for 10 minutes in the acetone like the interwebs suggested.
After 10 minutes, almost nothing would scrape off, but I could tell the shellac was getting softer. So I continued to sit and soak. At about the 15 minute mark I began to scrape my nails with the spoon while they stayed in the acetone (another suggestion from google). It was slow work, but the shellac was coming off. I scraped for about 5 minutes (now I had spent a total of 20 minutes on 1 hand) and this is what they looked like:
Clearly there was some stubborn spots, but I was getting sick of this and decided to move on to the next hand. I repeated the process, soaking for 10 minutes, trying to scrape, resoaking. This time I discovered that just scraping with my nail worked better than the plastic spoon. I cut my scraping time almost in half by discovering this and was able to go back and clean up the other hand. So now I was about 40 minutes into this project my nails looked like this:
Clearly there was some residue left from the shellac but I wasn't concerned as the internet informed me that this should wash off. So I go wash my hands and almost none of it budges. The chalky stuff washes away, but there are still bumps left on several nails. However, I was over this and just decided to paint over what was left and call it a day. A man on a fast horse will not be able to tell that some of my nails have bumps under the new polish.
So in summary, I still think the shellac manicure was kinda worth it. It lasted 2 weeks easily, with the only real problem being the growth that showed at the bottom of my nails. Even though it was so time-consuming to remove, the time I would have spent painting my own nails in those 2 weeks makes up for that (and it looked better for those 2 weeks than I could have done). However at $30+ a pop I don't think I will be making this a regular occurrence, but it will be a nice treat every once in awhile.
And if you are thinking about getting one, be forewarned that it might not be as easy to remove as other online tutorials would have you think. Or maybe I am just unlucky.
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