Removing polish needs to be actioned as soon as possible.
Be patient as this will take some time. The amount of cleaning required will depend on the amount of nail polish spilt and the fibres of the carpet. You will need to be prepared to spend some time removing big stains. Regardless of the size of the stain, the removal method remains the same.
What you will need:
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bottle of clear nail polish remover or acetone (coloured nail polish remover may leave a stain)
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Clean white cloths (preferably terry towelling).
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1 teaspoon of dishwashing detergent diluted in water
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a sponge
The steps:
Step 1: If the nail polish is still wet, scrape off or scoop up as much of the nail polish as possible with a butter knife or spoon. Take care not to spread the stain further.
Step 2: Using a towel, blot on the stain. Do not rub as the stain will just spread. Roll your finger across the stain as if placing a fingerprint using mild downward pressure. Continue this until there is no further colour transfer to the towel.
Step 3: Put acetone or nail polish remover on a piece of towel wrapped over your finger and blot the stain. As in step 2, roll your finger over the stain. You’ll need to continue this process using fresh pieces of cloth to slowly extract the nail polish from the carpet and remove nail polish effectively.
Attack the stain from different angles and as you progress you will need to work separate the carpet fibres to get to the bottom of the pile. This is a time consuming process and may take an hour or so for one stain. Continue until there is no further transfer of colour to the towel.
Step 4: Dip a sponge into the dishwashing detergent and water mixture and sponge the stain. This will help flush out any remaining nail polish remover and help to remove the polish.
Step 5: Blot up the solution using paper towels. Try standing on the paper towel for better absorption.
Step 6: Repeat step 4 & 5 with fresh water.
Step 7: Speed dry the carpet using a fan.
CAUTION: If you apply too much nail polish remover it can break down the glue in the backing of the carpet causing delamination. It is very important to do a colourfastness test if your carpet is coloured. If the colour comes out, immediately call the professionals for help. If not, you may proceed by blotting on the stain. Be careful to not put too much acetone into the carpet as it may bleach the carpet.
It is nearly impossible to totally remove a nail polish stain, but you should be able to reduce the stain to a faint mark that hopefully, you can live with. You will tend to find that some of the nail polish will run down the carpet fibres when it comes into contact with the nail polish remover, affecting the entire carpet fibre and the backing. You will decrease the possibility of this occurring by using small amounts of nail polish remover, however, this is often inevitable.
If in doubt call the professionals at Electrodry Carpet Dry Cleaning. We use dry cleaning technology to remove all kinds of stains. But act fast - nail polish stains get harder to remove if left for too long.
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