Acetone ignites while client is soaking

[JesseDavidNailDesign]

Woman Burned At Nail Salon - Baltimore News, Weather, Breaking News | WMAR-TV

 

[chriscavell]

wow thats scary, as a newbie why would you heat acetone?

 

[Beautification]

who in the right mind for any reason would heat acetone?

 

[JesseDavidNailDesign]

wow thats scary, as a newbie why would you heat acetone?

Short answer, I wouldn't heat the acetone. You can warm it with a double bowl method. IMO this is a dated procedure and in my experience takes ages.

So, I would recommend filing the nails first to remove most of the material. Buffer the skin of the cuticle area with lotion so it doesn't dry out. Then wrap each nail with acetone soaked loose cotton and covering each nail with aluminum foil. First of all you waste less acetone, second its safer.

 

[ValencianNails]

who in the right mind for any reason would heat acetone?

When soaking off enhancements it's a quicker process if the product remover is 'heated' slightly, however, it has a lower boiling point than water (@ 56C) so it has to be done with care. 'One way' is to place a bowl of product remover in another bowl containing warm-med temp water and place a towel over the hands.

edit to add: For the record, I use the same method as Jesse :wink2:

 

[Poshfloss]

Now that is scarry :cry:

 

[littlegrohl]

speeds up the process.. i put a warm wheat bag over my clients hands while they are wrapped in foil..
I would never use a hot plate or flame though.. has to be some bizare reason it ignited!!

 

[Jolicatellas]

That poor woman! Can't see her getting her nails done again any time soon... she'll be too scared/scarred!!
I get that warming the acetone helps lifting... but putting your clients hands in a bowl of acetone to soak... is this normal?
I was taught to soak a cotton ball in acetone and place it on the nail and wrap it in foil.
I like littlegrohl's idea of using a heat bag.

 

[Olivia Dawn]

wow that is crazy. I had never known anything like that could happen. We learn a lot more of gels here, but do do some tips and some acrylic, we were taught to soak off in a jar of acetone too.. never to warm it though and i did not know that speeds it up or that it can burn.. anyway that is very unfortunate but good to know.. i will definately try the cotton soaked thing though I think .

 

[NSINAILS]

When soaking off enhancements it's a quicker process if the product remover is 'heated' slightly, however, it has a lower boiling point than water (@ 56C) so it has to be done with care. 'One way' is to place a bowl of product remover in another bowl containing warm-med temp water and place a towel over the hands.

edit to add: For the record, I use the same method as Jesse :wink2:

You can also heat a bowl of craft sand and place a bowl inside of that. You'll find that the sand will retain the heat better than water. Apparently, there are electric bowls meant for heating Acetone to remove acrylics, but in my mind - why risk it?

Acetone = Very Flammable; therefore electricity seems like a BAD IDEA.

 

[mely-bely]

That's crazy - I use warm water to slowly heat up the acetone - I actually heat it up in the bottle before I put it in the remover trays - I can't imagine using any kind of electrical machine to heat it up - way dangerous. That poor woman.

 

[thinkpink2008]

that is really scary!i use the easy soak and put hot but not boiling water in and enough acetone to cover the nail only

 

[bellabeautie]

Yes that is scary I use either the finger soak bowls, put into another bowl of warm water, so it gently warms up, but my preferred method is wrapping the fingers in tin foil way xx

 

[jojosnails]

omg! how awful is that! Imagine the pain!?!

 

[gillian w]

I too lay a warm wheatbag across their hands it also stops them fidgiting about which sometimes loosens the foil wraps and the cottonwool loses contact.
If they want to read a mag i find them a page,go and make them a coffee and generally when i come back their nails are almost done.

 

[~Emmsybabes~]

What is scary I think, is how many people are not aware of how to handle acetone correctly,
Usually not their own fault though,
I wasn't taught the ins and outs of acetone in college, in fact we barely touched upon it.
I learned from here, which is a good thing obviously, but a bad thing that I wasn't taught the correct handling of acetone at the beginning of my course.

I think it should be taught at the beginning of training,
I remember doing an awful set of nails at the beginning of my course, then thinking Hmmmmm now how do I get these off ???
I didn't know, so used my teeth , Not only for this one set...but the rubbish set after that, and after that, and yup after that...
By the time I learned about removal it was near the end of the course, and I had already trashed my nails.
Shocking !

I know not every case is like mine, But its just so wrong
I'm not saying I know everything now, But I should have been taught in my initial training.

(and I soak off in those little trays that look like egg trays, placed in a bowl of warm water, I just find it works quicker for me personally)

 

[Annie23]

During our college course we were taught both the soak off and foil method. But to speed up the foil method we were told to place hands in electric heated mittens, after reading this thread I'm assuming that this is a big no no

anne xx

 

[geeg]

I have always used the double bowl method to soak off if I am asked to soak off a FULL set. Takes about 15-20 minutes only and of course warmed product remover works much faster than if it is not warmed.

I use the foil method if I am soaking one or 2 fingers only which helps me to get on with working on the other fingers, saving time. Otherwise I find the foil method too time consuming and fiddly for full sets. Depends on the job I am doing.

I always use professional product remover which is buffered acetone so I do not have to worry about protecting the clients skin with lotions and potions.

Sounds like a freaky accident but a reminder none the less that we all need to understand what we are doing when working with chemicals in the salon. I hope the salon has good insurance!!! It will be interesting to hear the rest of the story.

 

[VHunter]

One of my clients who is also a friend since highschool, started coming to me for her nails about 4yrs ago.
At the time, she had L&P. She had been seeing a lovely tech, who I presume is NOT NSS. They weren't MMA, but she had lift issues, and the work wasn't the greatest... etc..
Anyway, one night, she popped over to soak them, but it was taking awhile (I had a client, and she popped over out of the blue...so I couldn't file them down a bit first). She asked about putting it in the microwave and I told her vehemently NO. I explained that it was dangerous, and she kept repeating that her old tech did it. I did fetch her a bowl of warm water to sit the acetone in.
I let her take the soaker home so that she could go watch a movie (also, I was busy with client...).
The next day, she called to tell me that she had put it in the microwave AGAINST my instructions... and it caught fire.

Guess who I just emailed the link to?

No one was hurt, but it scared me and her.

I think I'll put that link in my next newsletter to clients, with the title "Why Faster isn't safe".

 

[geeg]

Acetone will almost immediately blow up into flames in the microwave.