Removing gel that you’re unfamiliar with is a terrible experience. I now only remove my own products. Bravo for your initiative Toni. Explain to each client that it’s always difficult - even for experienced nail techs to manually soak off unknown gel. Smile and chat away and do not share any of the negative, critical thoughts in your head with your client. Compliment the colour choice, say how much you have enjoyed painting her nails with the colour. Thank them for their patience as you build up your confidence.
I did something similar to improve my waxing. It worked really well for me and a handful of clients returned. Most were just deal hunters and happy to get a cheap offer. Win win for everyone.
my tip is to buff well into the colour layer. Make sure your filing dust is the colour of the product. Just do one finger (not the thumb) wrap it using really wet cotton wool, that’s practically dripping and then file the rest of the hand. Then check the finger you wrapped and prod the gel with your gel remover pusher. If it hasn’t shifted at all, consider that it might be hard gel and not a soak off product! By checking how easy it is to remove you can decide whether to go back and rebuff the other nails before you wrap them. If you let partially soaked gel dry out, it toughens and becomes almost impossible to remove in my experience so filing gel that’s been partially soaked is never very successful for a newbie. Some gel comes off really easily, and others you basically have to file off.
For tough gels I recommend a soaking dish which has a base that you can fill with warm water to warm the acetone. The Edge make one and they cost around £3. Keep an eye on your client because they don’t understand that their nails have to be immersed
Good luck