I know I promised this last week and clearly failed >_< I also failed at even getting a post up on Monday. Frankly I was a little lazy over the weekend and had some camera problems so I slacked a little bit, sorry! Anyways, my friend Maggie, who runs T8slady's Polish Party that you should go check out, asked me to create a tutorial for reusing polish bottle and decanting. So here it is!
P.S. This is my first ever tutorial so feedback is appreciated! I'm sure there was a thing or two I forget, please forgive me if I did. It's not easy taking pictures of this process. :P
Please click "Read more" to see the full entry.
First and foremost, make sure you are doing this in a well ventilated area. Polish fumes are stronger doing this than they are just painting your nails. No one needs to faint from polish, squealing like a fan girl when you get your polish in the mail is ok though! ;)
Things you will need:
A hand or two ;)
Tin Foil
Cotton Balls
Something to pour polish into
Polish you would like to empty
Optional:
Tweezers
Pipette or dropper
Pens and labels
Step One:
If you specifically purchased polish to reuse the bottle in open them up! I bought these sets at Walgreens on sale for $1.50, you may still be able to find similar sets clearanced from the holidays.
Step Two:
Pick out which ever color you want to start with.
Step Three:
Pour out the polish into something you don't mind throwing away. I used the top of a tin (I am using the tin itself to store brushes in and really didn't need the top). Alternately you can use a piece of paper, food packaging you are throwing away anyways or really anything. Make sure to let the polish dry out somewhere well ventilated before disposing of whatever you are using.
Step Four:
If the polish contains mixing balls they should appear once the bottle is empty. While this polish only contained one, yours can have 1, 2, 3 or sometimes none. Once the bottle is empty you should either see them in the poured out polish or in the bottle.
Step Five:
Pour some acetone into the bottle. I opted to use a pipette to make it a cleaner process. I purchased this one at Walgreens in a two pack. If you do opt to use a pipette with a rubber top make sure you don't get acetone into the rubber part, it will eat into it.
Step Six:
Shake it up! After shaking it up I let it sit for a few minutes so the acetone can do it's job.
Step Seven:
Remove the mixing ball(s) from the poured out polish and place it into some acetone. I used the cap of my acetone bottle and tweezes to remove it from the polish, you just use your fingers/nails if you don't mind. ;)
Step Eight:
Pour out the acetone from the polish bottle.
Step Nine:
I can never seem to get all the polish out in one go of acetone, so add some more acetone to your bottle, shake it up again and let it sit if needed.
Step Ten:
While you are letting your bottle sit, remove your mixing ball from the acetone and set it aside. I again opted for tweezers, but do whatever is easier for you!
Step Eleven:
Empty your bottle again. If you have really stubborn polish, you made need to do this a third or fourth time. I know polishes with a ton of glitter can be a pain to empty!
Step Twelve:
If the cap of the polish is junked up with dried polish, put some acetone in to the cap. I once again opted using a pipette, but you can just pour it from the bottle if it's easier.
Step Thirteen:
Grab a cotton ball and tin foil and unravel your cotton ball.
Step Fourteen:
Dip your cotton strip into some acetone and then wrap it around your bottle
Step Fifteen:
Place your burritoed bottle into your tin foil and roll it up.
Step Sixteen:
You should have something that looks like this. Probably better to use a little less foil then I did though. ;) Set it aside for about 10 minutes.
Step Seventeen:
Pour out the acetone from your polish cap.
Step Eighteen:
Clean off the brush in acetone, if needed.
Optional:
If your polish cap has a lot of dried up polish in it, you may need to remove the brush. This is simply done by giving a nice tug on the brush, it should remove from the cap and look like this. You can clean it out with some acetone and q-tips. To put connect the two back together you can either push them back together or the easier route is to place the brush into the bottle like normal and screw the cap back on.
Step Nineteen:
Unravel you polish from the tin foil.
Step Twenty:
Remove the cotton ball. When I do the I push down on the cotton ball to start the process of removing the label.
Step Twenty-One:
Scrub!! Some labels are harder to remove than others, so it will depend on how much scrubbing will be involved. If the label is really being a pain try reverting back to step 13 and rewrapping the bottle.
Grab your mixing ball and put it in your bottle. If you are just interested in a bottle to use for frankening or to put cuticle oil or remover in, you are done! Woo hoo!
If you want to decant, read on!
Step One:
Find a polish you would like to decant and let the empty bottle meet it's maker. :P
Step Two:
If the polish has been sitting for awhile give it a good shake to mix up everything.
Step Three:
Open up both bottle and start pouring! I chose to use the tin foil from removing the label to do this on, just in case I made a mess. ;)
Don't lie you know you laughed at this! :P
Step Four:
Clean off the bottle neck of the original polish. Dried up polish around the neck can make the bottle not close completly and allow air into the bottle, which will cause your polish to thicken up quicker.
Step Five:
Clean off the neck of the bottle you decanted into and put the cap on. Make up a label if you wish, I used little yard sale dot stickers. ;)
Voilà you are done! Give it your friend and make someone else happy with some pretty polish! Side note: I shouldn't have tried to put such a lengthy polish name on those darn little stickers. :P
I have tried removing the labels from a few different brands like China Glaze and Seche. Some labels are harder to remove than others, but they have all eventually come off. I haven't tried every brand out there, so I can't 100% guarantee they all will but it's worth a shot! :)
