@homedecor1 First, I'm not a nail tech. However, my love of indie regular nail polish led me to to an international nail expert, a chemist whose expertise involves development and usage of nail products. I ended up finding the field extremely interesting even tho I enjoy changing my polish far too frequently for gel polish to make any sense for me.
Do you only have only gel that was cured under a lamp over your natural nail? Or was the gel polish applied over some other enhancement (such as acrylic, soak off gel, hard gel used to reinforce and/or extend the nail)?
If it's simply gel polish, you should be able to just file to shorten (might want to use a coarser grit file than you would on natural nails). I would recommend the following video by The Nail Hub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di2UYsFOX0o You can use aluminum foil and cotton balls. Based on my experience removing glitter polish, I would suggest heavy duty foil if you have it. Also unless your cotton balls are really small, you'll probably need to cut them at least in half, maybe even thirds or quarters.
Err on the side of leaving on for a longer time rather than increasing the risk of damage by scraping too hard in an attempt to speed up the process. Plenty of available time now anyway, right? Also, the longer gel polish is on the nail, the more difficult it will be to remove. You want 100 percent acetone, preferably a brand specifically marketed for polish removal (my understanding is that there will always be a small amount of contnaminents; what those are could vary in acetone marketed for other uses).
It's normal for nails that have been covered for a long time to be a bit soft immediately after product is removed. Think of what happens when we've had a bandage on for a while...takes a bit for the skin to get back to normal. But most actual damage is related to poor application and/or removal techniques.
If you do have something between the gel polish and your nail, do your best to describe what it is and I'll see what I can find.
Also, do NOT fall for any of the "magic" "burst" "bubbling" gel polish removers. Some are still showing up on Amazon. Some brands were tested a few months ago and were found to contain a chemical formerly contained in varnish remover, a chemical now banned even for that use. There were also cases of inaccurate ingredient lists and fake msds/sds sheets. The expert I mentioned above was very active in getting the dangers documented. Unfortunately, it looks like the products are still available, just with different brand names. Best to just avoid.
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