To remove gels quickly and without damaging the nails, you have to understand how gels adhere to the nail plate.
How do gels stick to the nail plate?
- The more area that the gel can cover, the stronger it can stick. For example, If I have a 10 foot sticker, it would be much stronger than a 1 inch sticker.
So in order to remove gels, you have to do things in reverse.
- Using a nail file, file the gel down to thin it out without hitting the actual nail plate.
When you file, make sure to break the gels up to where there are no large pieces. Those large pieces are harder to remove because it sticks to a larger area(it has more gripping power). Use a checker board style of filing.
If you look at the pic here, the large pieces are still on. You can see that the surface of the pieces were never hit with the file.
This is why CND Shellac is so easy to remove. When acetone hits shellac, it automatically breaks up the gel into very small pieces. As I stated above, small pieces of gel cannot adhere to the nail because it doesnt have enough power to grip the nail.
Lastly, I like to wrap the feet individually because when you wrap the whole thing with a large cotton piece and foil, the contour of the toes doesn't hit the cotton pad. Just my opinion.