Nail Polish Remover Clips Make Manicures a Breeze (and They're a Secret Disability Aid)

Please know, if you are moving through life with chipped nail polish, I think you are the most cool, carefree person EVER. And I don’t mean that as some kind of backhanded compliment. When I could say “I could never do that” it’s not because I’m snooty, it’s because I’m persnickety. I can have completely clean or completely painted nails and there can be no inbetween. My brain will not tolerate it. And I love wearing nail polish! So this means when my nails chip, I need that polish off immediately. Sadly, in addition to having the kind of brain that abhors tiny flaws like chipped nail polish, I also have hypermobile, arthritic hands.

I used to remove polish by taking a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover putting it on my nail, then wrapping my finger in a piece of foil (2000s beauty mags sold this as the best way to remove glitter polish, but I used it for all nail polishes). This was a surprisingly involved process, because you need to get all your foil pieces ready beforehand, and then when you’re done you have a distressingly large pile of trash, all for clean nails. It just wasn’t worth the trouble. But rubbing my nails with a cotton ball was HELL on my troublesome joints. Luckily, there is a solution:

These nail clips are marketed toward acrylic and gel nails that need to be soaked in remover for a long time, but there’s no reason you can’t use them for taking off regular old polish, and they’re actually a great tool for disabled people who like to have their nails done (in this case un-done) with ease. I thought I might need to get thin cotton pads to use these, but they work great with regular old cotton balls. It is a tight fit, so it may not work on all fingers, but I have decent sized digits and it worked fine.

I didn’t even have to rip or cut them - That’s a whole cotton ball in each clip.

I use nail polish remover in a pump bottle (another secret accessibility hack), and I do two pumps on a cotton ball, then put it over my nail and secure the clip. Since I’m using regular polish, it only takes a few minutes for the remover to do its job. I do one hand at a time (ie, I never have clips on every finger) just so I have some dexterity and can use a hand if I need to. I probably leave the clips on for 3-5 minutes, then when I take the clips off, I press down on the cotton ball and swipe it over my nail as I take it off. Using this method I have NO nail polish left on my nails, and I didn’t have to put any undue stress on my delicate finger joints.

Even though this is a product made for more complicated nail art, if you have limited hand mobility, but still like nail polish, I cannot recommend these clips enough. For just $6 you can save your joints and still maintain a cute manicure.