Painting one’s nails is a weekly ritual for many people. It’s common to keep a bottle of nail polish remover on hand to clean up any mistakes, but what about big mistakes? Recently, I had a nail polish spill and it left my carpet in an awful mess.
I was lucky that I was able to use my nail polish remover to get my carpet looking like new. It’s important to act quickly when you have a nail polish spill. If you wait too long, the polish will start to dry and it will be much more difficult to remove.
Hair Spray and Rubbing Alcohol
The safest way to remove nail polish from a carpet or rug is to spray the hair with normal, aerosol style hair spray immediately after your spill. Give it a good spray, about 5 seconds, and then sprinkle the area with rubbing alcohol. If you don’t have rubbing alcohol you can try hydrogen peroxide, which isn’t quite as effective but it’s better than water.
Blot and dab the area with a clean, white cloth until you have most of the nail polish color removed. If the area starts to dry you can repeat the process as many times as necessary until the color is removed.
Just make sure to keep using clean rags or the clean sections of your white rags so you aren’t adding the nail polish color back to the carpet.
Nail Polish Remover
Nail polish is an important staple in most people’s beauty routines. It can be a serious dilemma when you get nail polish on your clothes, but for some reason, people don’t often worry about getting nail polish on their carpet. You probably have some nail polish remover at home, but don’t worry too much — there are other ways to get it out of your carpet. Nail polish remover is the simplest, easiest way to get nail polish out of carpet. The remover will dissolve the polish, so you just need to blot it with a cloth and then rinse it clean.
After you’ve had a spill and you’ve cleaned up the mess, use a cotton ball or cotton swab to apply nail polish remover to the area of the spill.
Use a light circular motion to work the remover into the carpet. Continue doing this until the nail polish is gone. It’s a good idea to use a cleaner on your carpet after a nail polish spill. A cleaner will help remove any leftover polish from your carpet and will refresh it.
This method is effective, but not as good as hair spray and rubbing alcohol because the nail polish remover is a good deal harsher than those and has a higher chance of damaging the rug. Plus the nail polish remover can leave strong spells on the carpet.
Nail Polish Remover Alternatives
You can also use white vinegar to coat the area with the nail polish and then blot it dry. The vinegar should dissolve the nail polish. You might need to shampoo the carpet, but make sure to use a colorless shampoo if you want to get the nail polish remover out.
Make sure you stop the polish from drying, and wear gloves. Pour baking soda or kitty litter on the stain, spread it out, then pour vinegar on top. (Note: Some types of carpet may bleed when saturated with vinegar. You may want to test a hidden area first.) Allow to sit for at least an hour, then vacuum it up.
If you can’t get it up, try using a commercial carpet stain remover.
Goof Off
You can also try “Goof Off” which is a cleaner for all kinds of stuff. I just dabbed a little on the stain with an old white rag and let it sit a few minutes and then rubbed vigorously. The nail polish came right up and you couldn’t even tell it had been there. Just make sure you use “Goof Off” or “Goof Off Household” and not “Goof Off 2” or any other kind.
I hope these tips will help you the next time you have a nail polish spill.