Tips and tricks Tuesday-Watch your acetone!

Acetone is a VERY strong chemical

This post is to alert you about the perils of acetone. Yes, of course, we need it for many nail related things, but I want to share something I wish someone had told me earlier in my journey into lacquer.  

*BE REALLY, REALLY CAREFUL WITH ACETONE.* REALLY

Over time,  I learned through the blog world that acetone dissolves plastic. It´s what nail technicians use to remove acrylic nails. It´s really strong stuff that acts more quickly than you´d expect and can end up causing a good amount of damage. Join me after the jump for a few of my sad stories!

The acetone damage in my car's gear shift area.

1) A long while back, I brilliantly decided to paint my nails while driving. Amazingly, this didn´t go well and I ended up spilling acetone on my gear shift.  Not knowing about the "acetone eats plastic" thing at the time, I thought, I´ll use the strongest remover I have to get rid of this nail polish and my car will go back to being lovely and beautiful. Not so much. I ended up having a permanently discolored, foggy looking streak everywhere I had put acetone. 

2) Later, I knew about the acetone effect and I decided to put newspapers down at the nice table at my house and then do some nail art. Unfortunately, the newspaper was not thick enough and the nail polish still leaked through. The table had a plastic based varnish on it and the place with the acetone spill now has been eaten through and looks very dull. I´m lucky I have a friend in construction who told me how to fix it. Otherwise, I might have ended up buying a whole new table. 

3) I have a girl friend who´s not a nail polish fan (crazy, I know, but she's got other redeeming qualities), I convinced her to try on some nail polish. I wanted to save her the expense of buying her own bottle of remover and cotton balls since she wouldn´t have much use for them otherwise. I gave her a tiny plastic container full of acetone and cotton balls. I thought that though acetone eats through acrylic nails, acetone also comes in a plastic bottle. I figured that if the plastic was thick enough, the acetone would be fine. It´s not like she would be using it a lot anyway. Unfortunately, the friend left the container of acetone on her boyfriend´s table and forgot about it, and the acetone ended up eating through the entire container and leaked onto the table. Another table ruined! 

Friends, protect yourselves from the heartbreak of acetone damaged tables (or other stuff). Be REALLY CAREFUL anytime you´re using acetone and recognize it for the powerful chemical that it is. Remember that a spill or leak could be disasterous and protect your belongings accordingly! 

Do you have a story of acetone caused heartbreak?  Share your thoughts in the comments!