How a simple cleanup turns complicated
The other day a customer told me she tried to remove some nail polish with nail polish remover and was left with a larger smudged mark than before she had started. The trouble is now she has smeared and rubbed the nail polish into the carpet fibers making it hard for me to remove, but there is a far bigger problem. Let me explain nail polish.
What nail polish remover does to carpet
Firstly it is rightly used to remove nail polish but from your finger nails not your carpet.
Nail polish remover or acetone is a pH balanced at 7 so it will not bleach your carpet white or yellow like a high-pH bleach, and it wont brown or redden your carpet like a low-acid pH so people think that as it has not marked the carpet it is ok but it may ultimately damage your carpet. Acetone is a solvent, an antiseptic, and is used to make plastics and as a fuel additive. If you poured some into a plastic cup to use to clean the carpet by the time you got to the stain you will have a hole in your plastic cup.
Try to imagine what it is doing to the glues that are holding your carpet fibers and carpet backing in place, it may leave you with a bald patch over time. Even products that professional carpet cleaners use to remove this type of problem will extract it out of the carpet or rinse it as the solvent can be working long after the stain has been removed.
