Everyone has done it once or twice, maybe more in their lives, and spilled nail polish on the carpet. Don’t Panic! There are a few things you can do that will save your carpet and hopefully get your security deposit back if you’re a renter. Okay, now panic, because in order to get the stain up, you need to make sure you act quickly!

The first thing you can do is to use clear acetone to get it up, just make sure it’s clear. Remember do not push the polish in deeper into the carpet because it will only make matters worse. Use something absorbent, like a paper towel, then pour acetone on the paper towel and get ready to dab. It’s going to take a lot of dabbing. You are dabbing for the life of your carpet, so keep on dabbing even when you get tired. Put on “Eye of the Tiger” if you need some motivational music for it or make an exercise out of it. Depending on the amount spilled, it may become tiresome,  but you can do it. Keep on dabbing, keep on dabbing!

Another method that’s really popular that you can try if the polish has dried is to wet the stain with cold water. Spray approximately 20 pumps of hair spray followed by three small splashes of rubbing alcohol. Use a small scrub brush and scrub the nail polish from the carpet while pouring small amounts of clean, cold water onto the stain throughout the process. Do this until the nail polish is no longer visible. You don’t want to soak the carpet, just make it damp enough to make the dry polish pliable enough to scrape and/or rub off. In order to get the carpet dry again, place a couple of paper towels on top of the wet spot and weigh it down. This will absorb the liquid in about an hour depending on how much is on the carpet.

You could always try using a strong carpet cleaner, maybe even a pet odor one because they include stronger chemicals that could aid in getting the nail polish up. One of these methods will work, but you will have to work at it in order to get the nail polish stain up.