Red Nail Polish~Oh No!

Red Fingernail Polish. That may not interest many of you. Men, especially you, but don't stop reading if you've happened on this hub by mistake because this could happen in your house. It never interested me. I was such a "casual user". I don't paint my fingernails. I'm a gardener. I paint my toenails in the summer so they'll look pretty. No danger there. I'm usually sitting in the grass or on the bathroom floor. Well, it happened. There were a few warm days and even though I was rushed that day I decided to quickly paint my nails so that I could wear sandals that evening. The phone rang in the middle of my painting and I grabbed the bottle dashing into the carpeted bedroom. The bottle flew out of my hand and across the floor. I had not screwed the lid on to the bottle. The entire bottle of paint spilled across the white carpet leaving a huge red stain about 4 feet long. I was absolutely shocked. I had heard of this happening to others before over the years, but never to me. I knew that they had replaced their carpet, bought area rugs, had pieces cut out. Was that my ownly choice?

I love the internet. I immediately read every single article I could find on removing red fingernail polish. I combined all of the knowledge I found and though it took me over an hour it worked! There isn't even a hint of red left in my carpet. Here's what I did. I just had to share this!

First I poured an entire bottle of non-acetone fingernail polish remover on the red polish. Open a window near where you are working because the fumes are terrible. Then I used old towels that I later threw away to rub this spot and soak up the polish and remover. I know this sounds really funny, but to get liquid out of a rug I have found that if you stand or even jump, yes I said jump on a bathtowel, you can get a lot of moisture out of it.)  After that I used my carpet steamer and steamed the rug. Then I poured an entire bottle of hydrogen peroxide on the rug and used a heavy duty scrub brush to scrub this out. The trick was in the scrubbing. It worked like a dream. I followed that with another steam cleaning with my carpet cleaner. While that was still wet I went to the store to get a second bottle of the polish remover and one of the hydrogen peroxide. When I got back I repeated the process and it was amazing! 

I thought when my husband came home from work I'd be telling him we needed to replace the bedroom carpet, but instead he admired how much I'd gotten done that day, that I'd even shampooed the bedroom carpet, my new sandals and......I never did mention the red polish. I'll save that for another day.