DIY: Make your own nail polish remover dipping bottle - Cosmetopia Digest Beauty and Makeup Blog

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Friday, August 09, 2013

DIY: Make your own nail polish remover dipping bottle

You've seen the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover (read review here) and some dupes - they made waves over the blogosphere when they came out and the Bourjois polish remover is my Holy Grail. I love it and will continue to buy it, but thought it would be fun to try making a homemade version. Here's how.
Ingredients:
A sturdy plastic jar, ideally cylindrical and with a narrower mouth than body, though large enough for a finger to pass through. Mine is an eight-year-old travel bottle from The Body Shop which I seem to have kept for sentimental reasons.
Large kitchen/cleaning sponge(s). I flicked some old sponge I found in the garage.
Nail polish remover, preferably scented and with moisturiser/oil but acetone-free.
Scissors

Steps:
1. Clean and dry the jar.
2. Pour nail polish remover to fill one-thirds of the jar. You can always pour in more remover if it isn't enough.
3. Cut the sponge so you have long rectangles (think chips, only lots thicker than usual) that should be placed all around inside the jar. Or if your sponge is already cylindrical and the right size (lucky sod!) just bore a hole at the top in the centre. Forgive the pink hue in the picture, I have no idea what went wrong with the camera settings.
4. Once the "sponging" is done, the sponge should tightly fill the container with a bit of gap for your finger, and the top of the sponge should be just a tad damp with remover. If not, pour in more with a syringe.
5. Dip in polished finger and wriggle it around - if it comes up clean, well done! I forgot to take a snap with polish; it was the Layla pink from my previous post. If your finger doesn't come out fully clean, you need a tad more remover.
6. Whatever you do, do NOT turn the bottle upside down!
7. The Bourjois version contains almond oil and fragrance - I don't know about fragrance, but do not attempt pouring almond/other oil into the sponge! It prevents the polish from being efficiently removed (believe me).
8. If you want to add an essential oil/almond oil, add just the ONE drop after you pour in the remover, before you put the sponge in, and shake it all about.
9. The sponge may need replacement once it is saturated with polish or once the remover evaporates, but that will take months!

Disclaimer: This isn't an original creation! I've read quite a few posts on the internet about this; I'm only sharing what I did.

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