How I clean up after Nail Smooshes / Watermarbles / Decals (Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Earlier)

This is a very rough, phone camera tutorial of me cleaning up the following mani:

I see a lot of questions in facebook groups asking how, and apart from the general 'acetone and a brush' response I couldn't find something that went into detail. I'm writing this from a 'what I wish someone had told me' point of view - by no means am I any sort of expert at how to do this. This is just how I do my clean up, and it took me a while to learn to get a clean, neat line.

Anyway, enough rambling. Without further word vomit, I present the inaugural 'Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Earlier' (TIWSHTME).

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1. Lay down cuticle barrier. Do nail art. If this is a problem for you, that is a whole other kettle of fish.

This is what the nail generally looks like after a smoosh / WM / decal. You can see there is a layer of polish that overlaps the nail and surrounding skin in one continuous piece.

2. When polish is approximately 70% dry, use a wooden cuticle stick to gently trace around the nail shape. If the polish is too wet it will just drip back into the 'moat' created by the stick; if polish is too dry the polish will not separate easily.

If doing a decal I use my titanium Body Toolz cuticle pusher to trace as the polish is hardened. If it is too hard to push through I then dip a clean up brush in some acetone, trace around the nail edge, and then try again with the pointy end of the pusher.

3. Start to peel off your cuticle barrier / latex. For best results wait until polish is fully dry. I use a pair of tweezers so I don't get polish on my other hand.

4. What it looks like with the barrier peeled off. This saves a lot of clean-up time and also prevents my mani getting lint fibres in it from the cotton ball / pad I would have used to clean up the area.

5. The polish HAS TO BE FULLY DRY before this next bit. It will smudge and be a giant mess if not. I dip my clean up brush into acetone and slowly create a line around my nail art. After I swipe a bit off, I clean my brush on a lint-free pad or a piece of paper to get the polish I've taken off my nail off the brush, then swirl it in acetone before going back to the next bit. This ensures I don't add more polish to the line or smear and transfer colours.

The most useful thing I've learnt is: don't worry about the polish directly on your skin that is hard to remove or the bit on the nail skin fold. Just create a clean line you are happy with. Make sure there is a gap between your polish and your nail wall.

6. Now cover your nail art with your top coat. Make sure you overlap the very edge of the polish a little bit, especially if your top coat is a shrinker. This is why you need a slight gap.

7. After your top coat and polish is FULLY DRY, then go back in with a clean up brush and try and get the polish on your lateral and proximal nail fold.

Here I have covered my smoosh with an iridescent glitter top coat, aka 'All the Feelings' by Emily de Molly. 

And a close up of a much neater line.

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And here's the final images photographed not with my crappy phone camera. The polish base is 'Fluffykins' by Pretty Serious cosmetics and I used some random cremes in primary colours for the smoosh. The shiny clear iridescent glitter topper is 'All the Feelings' by Emily de Molly'. There are more images on my instagram if you want to see them. Hopefully this has been helpful to some.