We’ve all dealt with it – a manicure that is stubborn to remove (dark colors, glitter), or is more of a mess during removal than anything. I use pure acetone these days, but when I heard about 1st Acetone Power Gel (from Cutepolish, I think?) I had to try it out.
As far as I know, it is carried at Wal-Mart in two varieties: a regular and a Glitter formula. I went with the glitter formula because I tend to have trouble with glitter removal more than other varieties.
Here’s my nail before. There are two coats of China Glaze Wish Upon a Starfish. It’s one of those glittery, sandy-textured polishes (basically, there’s no smoothing it out without twelve coats of top coat). In short, it’s a pain to remove and an excellent polish upon which to demonstrate this product.
The non-glitter variety is in identical packaging except the pink and yellow parts are switched.
Inside is a thick, viscous, translucent pink gel. Unlike regular liquid acetone-based nail polish removers, 1st Acetone Power Gel does not assault you with a strong, chemical odor. That said, it DOES have one – don’t get curious and sniff the jar; if I had to guess it is because the gel doesn’t throw off fumes quite like liquid does.
The directions advise the user to dip one nail into the gel at a time to coat it. I prefer to minimize my skin’s exposure to acetone products, so I instead pick up some of the gel with a large popsicle/craft stick, and apply it to the surface of each nail that way.
1st Acetone Power Gel
The instructions advise to leave it in place for four minutes and then swipe it away with a paper towel. I left it on for about three. The color lifted away with ease in one swipe but I did have to rub a little to get the fine glitter off my nailbed. Still way easier than how removing this particular shade normally goes, though!
As you can see, the skin around my nail including my cuticle looks a little rough after using this. It isn’t bad, nothing a little hand cream or cuticle oil can’t fix – but given that I would not use 1st Acetone Power Gel to remove all your polishing adventures, just the exceptionally stubborn ones.
The Bottom Line
Unfortunately the, “No Rub,” claim didn’t hold up for this specific glitter polish (even though this is the glitter variety), but it did reduce the effort needed to remove it. They need to tone down the claims of grandeur, but I do think it is a good product all-in-all and would repurchase. I believe it is around $3-4 at Wal-Mart, but I have not been able to locate a website.
Also I’d recommend against keeping this in a household where small children have successfully mistaken Tide Pods for Fruit Gushers. Just sayin’.