One of a beauty addict’s worst accidents is a nail polish spill. And not just a nail polish spill, but the crushing death of not only your favourite polish, but also the white/taupe/beige carpet or rug it fell on. Now you have nail polish on your rug.
So how do you remove nail polish from a carpet? Read on for more!
A quick Google search for “remove nail polish from carpet” quickly leads you to a tip sheet including the following points:
- Upon discovering any nail polish stains on your carpet, wet the stain with cold water.
- Spray 15-20 pumps of hair spray, followed by three to five small splashes of rubbing alcohol. This is the best approach when you’re wondering how to remove nail polish from carpet.
- Using a small scrub brush, scrub the nail polish stain directly for about a minute. While you’re scrubbing, keep pouring clean, cold water onto the stain throughout the process.
- Repeat this process until the nail polish stain is no longer visible.
I tried the above “how to” tips to remove this polish from the carpet, but didn’t quite get the results I was looking for. So I added non-acetone nail polish remover. And blotted. And blotted some more using clean paper towels… Still not quite removing the hot pink polish mess on my carpet. That’s how I landed upon the following tricks guaranteed to remove your polish from your carpet!
Here is what you will need:
- OxyClean or similar non-bleach stain remover
- Hot water
- Non-acetone nail polish remover
- Hair spray
- Sponge
- Paper towels
- Brush or old toothbrush
- Blot the polish spill to remove any wet nail polish, using clean cloth or paper towel each time so as not to spread the mess. Do not rub!
- Apply some nail polish remover on the spill, and blot, never rubbing. Blot using clean paper towel each time, otherwise you will transfer polish onto clean areas.
- Mix a scoop of OxyClean into about 2-4 cups hot water, preferably in a bucket.
- Apply this OxyClean mixture, using a sponge, on the stain. Rub this in, but only one small polish-stained area at a time. (This prevents spreading the coloured foam this creates, and prevents your spreading the stain.)
- Spray a good dose of hairspray onto the stain.
- Blot and repeat blotting the small area you just worked on.
- You can also scrub the small stain using a brush/toothbrush to work the stain remover in, but blot between scrubbing to prevent foam/coloured water from spreading the stain.
- Your polish stain should start to fade to a different colour–in my case, it became orange.
- Now pour some non-acetone polish remover on the small area you are working… Blot. You will see polish transferring onto your paper towel.
- Continue blotting, using a fresh piece of paper towel each time.
- Scrub using OxyClean mixture again. Spray hairspray. Blot again.
- Apply polish remover and blot again.
- This does take some scrubbing but your stain will start to fade, until it is no longer visible. The key is to blot. A LOT.
- Once you are happy with the result, blot using clean towels or paper towel to absorb as much of the fluid as possible.
- Et voila!
Here was my result after scrubbing once with the OxyClean mixture:
A little better:
Until finally, the nail polish stain was gone from the carpet:
I am pretty confident that if I was able to remove this hot pink (with shimmer!) nail polish, my tricks will help you clean your light-coloured carpet or rug with some help and elbow-grease. 🙂
Let me know if this method worked for you! Good luck!
