I get asked questions about how to clean nail polish off of things all the time! I have gathered the questions and I thought I’d try to tackle the a few of the most commonly asked questions, starting with hardwood & laminate floors.
Question: I am wondering if you know of any way to get nail polish off laminate flooring? My twins decided one day to dump a bottle on the floor and smear it around. I found it pretty quickly, but it dries so quickly that it is just a big mess. I have to cover it with a rug. I have tried a few things and asked many many people but no one has any ideas. I am thinking we may just have to replace the floor. I thought there is no harm in asking you.
Answer: I can honestly say that I’ve never had this problem before, I’ve had someone spill nail polish on my tile floor, but never my wood flooring. So I started by doing a little “Googling” and came across this forum that gave me a couple ideas, then I set out testing my theories.
In order to test the theories first I had to “spill” some nail polish. As much as I believe in what I do, I didn’t think my husband would appreciate me painting nail polish on our floors so I grabbed a piece of our leftover flooring and painted that. I painted 3 separate spots because I wanted to try out three different ideas.
Armed with these cleaning products I set out to find the answer to this reader’s question.
#1: De-Solv-It
De-Solv-It is great for cleaning up all kinds of messes so I figured, why not try it on nail polish? I sprayed the De-Solv-It on the nail polish and let it set for a few minutes. Then, using a piece of felt, I attempted to scrub off the color. I was actually surprised that a little color came off and thought, this must be the answer! However after a few more minutes of scrubbing (and I mean really scrubbing) I gave up because the polish wasn’t really coming off. I managed to get some of the color off but it was not a complete success.
Just for kicks I also tried the WD-40 on this same spot because it is also a greasy product, but I had no luck. Trial #1= fail.
#2: Hydrogen Peroxide
Next I tried hydrogen peroxide. Online I had read that a 50/50 mix of water and hydrogen peroxide would work but I really hate to dilute a good thing so I thought I’d try the full strength hydrogen peroxide, and then if I worked then I would try diluting it.
First I soaked a piece of felt in the peroxide and let it sit on the nail polish for a couple minutes. Then I scrubbed… and scrubbed… and scrubbed.
The hydrogen peroxide didn’t even touch the nail polish stain, after a couple minutes of scrubbing this is all the color it took off! Trial #2= epic fail.
#3: Rubbing alcohol
At this point I was beginning to think I ‘d have to write a post and say, “The answer to getting nail polish off wood flooring is… still unknown!” But I had one more thing to try, the rubbing alcohol.
First I soaked a piece of felt in rubbing alcohol and laid it over the polish stain, just as I had done with the hydrogen peroxide. After a couple minutes I began scrubbing and something magical happened, the polish came right off! I barely even had to scrub and the polish came right off!!!
I was able to get up all of the polish without even really “scrubbing” and the best part is that rubbing alcohol is also great for cleaning and sterilizing so now the wood flooring is probably cleaner than it was before!
So the answer to getting nail polish spills of hardwood and laminate flooring is: Rubbing alcohol!
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Did the rubbing alcohol take the shine/polish/lacquer off of the flooring?
I don’t have a shine on my floor but it shouldn’t. If you have real hardwood floors and it takes the wax layer off it would be easy to just re-wax that spot. :)
Love it! Rubbing Alcohol has saved me a number of times with permanent marker but I’ve never tried it on nail polish :-)
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Good to know! I’ll have to try it on that too!! :)
This is great to know – I would never have guessed rubbing alcohol.
It was kind of a lucky guess. :) That’s what makes my job fun!
Great investigative work !!! I wanted to ask, though, if the rubbing alcohol removed any coloring of the flooring?. Your picture makes me think that the alcohol may have worked a little too well. Was that a problem?
Nope, not at all! I did the rubbing alcohol last so what you see it all the grease and grime from my other trials! The rubbing alcohol left it perfect and clean! :)
what about goof-off. I cleaned dried on oil paint out of brushes with this. I am just wondering.
Goof-Off and De-solve-it are basically the same thing. It took the color off but it was a lot of scrubbing to get just some of the color off.
can you use any rubbing alcohol?
does it make any damedges?
I didn’t have any damage on mine. I’ve used it on a few different types of wood with no damage to any of them. :)
Dear Anna- Thank the lord above for your website and post on how to get nail polish off laminate wood flooring! I have tried EVERYTHING to remove some spilled nail polish (note: do not try to paint your nails after a few glasses of wine!). Nothing could get this darn nail polish off, and my boyfriend mentioned it EVERY DAY. Finally, I tried your rubbing alcohol remedy and BOOM, GONE!! Thank you thank you thank you. As a tip, be sure to use a scrubbing brush or tool, this worked wonders when used with the rubbing alcohol!
Awesome!!! I’m so glad I could help! That’s good advice, I won’t try to paint my nails after wine. :)
Thanks!! I had gotten BLACK nail polish on my bedroom dresser. My dresser is very dark so it’s not easily noticed, but still. I lost hope. Then I found your site and tried the rubbing alcohol. It worked!! And to answer peoples questions about the finish; maybe try in a place on your furniture that wont be noticed to see what happens. My finish DID get dulled but it didnt come off completely, in fact I just used some furniture polish on the dulled area and it was almost as though the nail polish accident had never happened! Thanks!
Awesome!! I’m so glad you were able to finally get it off. :)
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