Nail polish remover to lift a stubborn mark

Does it work?

Supported

The efficacy claim is supported by a regulator's own description of what the substance dissolves and by a trade body naming it in its procedures. What is refuted is the word general in general solvent: the same sentence that establishes the efficacy names the material class that must not meet it. What acetone must not touch matters more than whether it works.

This is a verdict on whether the technique is effective. Whether it is safe on a particular surface is a separate question, answered below.

Where not to use it

Why it works

Acetone is a small, volatile, polar-aprotic solvent that dissolves a wide range of organic materials, which is why it removes marker dye, adhesive resin and lacquer. The same solvency acts on polymers: it can dissolve some outright and, in others, penetrate and swell the polymer chains so that a surface under mechanical stress develops environmental stress cracking — the fine network known as crazing. Both effects are established chemistry. The delayed appearance of crazing is what makes the risk distinctive in a cleaning context, because the immediate result of the wipe looks like a success.

Background

The effectiveness is not the interesting part. Acetone is the strongest solvent most households contain and it does lift marker, adhesive, lacquer and resin better than anything else under the sink. The interesting part is that the regulator's fact sheet for it names, in one sentence, exactly what it dissolves: fats, oils, waxes, resins, PLASTICS and varnishes. The fourth item on that list is the reason the technique goes wrong, and the sheet states the consequence separately and flatly — acetone attacks plastics. That covers a great deal of a modern house. A laminate worktop's wear surface is a melamine resin. An acrylic bath, a plastic appliance housing, a painted or varnished table, a uPVC frame, a phone screen coating and a spectacle lens are all in the class the sheet names. The damage is not a mark but a softening or a network of fine cracks, and it often appears hours after the wipe, by which time nobody connects the two. Where the surface is genuinely inert — glass, glazed ceramic, bare stainless steel — it is sound and quick. Everything turns on identifying the surface first, and on testing somewhere invisible with time allowed.

Conditions

• Hard, non-plastic, unfinished surfaces only
• Tested first, with time allowed before judging the test
• Ventilation, and away from any flame or hot surface

What it does not do

• It is a solvent, so it does nothing for a mineral deposit, a protein stain or a biological growth.
• The carpet trade notes that the amyl-acetate kind leaves residues causing rapid resoiling which must be rinsed with dry solvent.
• It is a flammable liquid and a dangerous fire hazard, which rules it out near a hob, a pilot light or a hot appliance.

What to use instead

• White spirit — The petroleum solvent the leather and carpet trades name for oil marks. One substance under three names, and it attacks plastic, rubber and coatings.
• Isopropyl alcohol — A solvent that dissolves oils and residues and evaporates without a trace. Useful on electronics and glass; flammable, and damaging to some plastics and finishes.
• Neutral cleaning — The default that four separate trades converge on independently: a neutral detergent, warm water, a soft tool and a thorough rinse.
• Solvent treatment — The branch that starts before water rather than after it — and it carries a warning the aqueous branch does not.