Acetone-free

Ebelin Nagellackentferner-Tücher Acetonfrei [Grün Tee Duft] Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - August 22, 2024

The first review for today, and we are starting off with something quite interesting! This is the Ebelin Nagellackentferner-Tücher Acetonfrei, variant Grün Tee Duft, in English: Nail Polish Remover Tissues, variant Green Tea Scent.
 
 
Ebelin's “normal” nail polish removers are pretty good most of the time, but they sometimes decide to make something entirely new, like this product. These are tissues presoaked in remover that should, in theory, be able to remove nail polishes easily. And they’re good for when you are travelling somewhere, because you don’t need a separate nail polish remover and cotton pads, since it’s both of those at once. Sounds quite interesting. But how good is this actually? I am really interested to find out, so let’s see!
 
 
 
Packaging: cardboard box with a green/black design. It’s regular old cardboard, so it is not very sturdy at all. But that doesn’t matter because the tissues are kept inside a plastic sachet, think the kind eyeglasses cleaning tissues come in. Anyways, the outer packaging is light on details, opting instead to have a bunch of text on all sides. The sachet of the tissues shares the same design as the outer packaging, it’s literally the same green/black design. Could this be packaged more safely? Absolutely. 
 
 
 

Source: www.dm.hr

The tissues are pure white. They look like little squares that are big enough for a few nails, or at least, should be. They are perforated with a mesh throughout, I am unsure why it has this when this could cause the remover inside the tissues to evaporate more easily. The material is soft enough, but it is thick and robust, so they don’t tear easily. I would like it to be slightly softer, though. It might be the mesh that’s causing it to feel slightly abrasive.
 
 

 
Ingredients: glycerine, Aloe barbadensis leaf juice for nourishment. No parabens and 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). This is acetone-free, so the solvent is the next closest thing to acetone, ethyl acetate. Ethyl acetate is typically just as effective at removing nail polishes as acetone, but it is gentler on the nails. However, it also has alcohol, so I’m worried it might be drying. I hope the Aloe is enough to prevent this. The scent is medicinal, it smells like... like, herbal and fresh and distinctly like a pharmacy. Green tea does have a sort of medicinal scent to it, but not nearly as strong as it is here. 
 
 
It’s quite a harsh scent, especially at first, before the ethyl acetate evaporates. The expiration date is not listed anywhere... I guess they assume people will buy this and immediately start using it. What’s interesting is that they listed the manufacturing date, and not the PAO or expiration date. 
 
 
 
Ethyl acetate etches plastics and corrodes metal! Be careful you don’t place these tissues on like your phone or your keyboard or something. It will remove the oleophobic coating on phone screens and it will strip plastic. And be doubly sure that it doesn’t get into contact with any golden connectors such as USB cables or charging ports! This is less of a problem with these tissues as the remover evaporates rather quickly, but still!
 
 
 
 
The remover is completely absorbed into the tissue, so I cannot say what it looks like. I suppose it’s colourless and completely liquid like most nail polish removers. I will say that the remover stays on the tissues for quite some time, so there’s no need to hurry. Although it does evaporate faster than the standard removers when applied to a cotton pad.
 

These tissues are used in much the same way you’d use wet tissues to clean glasses. Tear open the sachet and take the tissue out and then just rub it against the nails until the nail polish comes off. This is the idea, at least. In practice, it doesn’t really work that well. I find that there is just not enough remover on one pad, so I have to use multiple just to remove polish off of all my nails. And since this contains only 10 pieces, they get used up very quickly. I usually need 2-3, sometimes 4, for all my nails. As you can imagine, this means that one box lasts me approximately one week, like this. 
 
 
 
Anyways, the tissues work best when you press down on the nail and then hold for a few seconds, before rubbing the nail with them. But even so, I need to rub my nails a lot just to break through the polish, and then rub some more to completely remove it. This is not at all good for my nails as it mechanically damages them, all that rubbing back and forth can cause the layers of keratin in the nail to split. And this is with glossy nail polishes! As you can imagine, these tissues are just not capable of removing anything shimmery or glittery. At least, not without causing massive damage. While they are not useless, ‘normal’ removers are far better.
 
 
My nails felt dry after I removed nail polish with these pads. I believe that this is not so much the ethyl acetate + alcohol causing the dryness, as much as it’s the excessive rubbing. The Aloe really helps here! I fear that my nails would be terribly split and brittle without the Aloe. But it manages to salvage the situation to some extent. Still, a nail oil is more than recommended because these tissues are not gentle on the nails.
 
 
 
In conclusion, eh, an interesting concept. But it doesn’t work quite as good in practice. The tissues come presoaked in remover, but there simply isn’t enough remover for me. And the mesh fabric of the tissue means it evaporates more quickly. The tissues themselves aren’t too abrasive against my nails, they are soft enough. But they also feel firm, which is good! This means that they rarely – if ever – tear. I’d say that the quality of the tissues themselves is better than how they perform. The only kind of nail polish they can remove is glossy nail polish, everything else is an exercise in futility. The only thing you will accomplish is damage your nails so much you’ll need days of intense treatment just to get them back to feeling okay again. And even with glossy nail polishes, I need to use multiple tissues for both of my hands. This isn’t economic nor good for my already sensitive nails. So, like, this isn’t the worst idea ever, it works... kinda... but it should work much, much better. As it is, I won’t give it a recommendation as it just damages nails too much because it requires too much rubbing to remove nail polish. Eh.
 
 
 
Rating: 4/10
 
 
Would buy again? NO (I’ll go back to normal removers)


  • Share:

0 comments