Decanting Nail Polish From A Nic's Sticks Polish: Part 2

Read my post here for part 1.

Let's do it! Liberate the polish!

Now you have a bladder full of polish that won't slip out the bottom!
Drat!

So you need to cut the top off.

To Recap

You've got the plastic housing and a bladder full of polish which slides freely, but won't release out the bottom:

Cutting and Releasing

Now take your box cutter and fix your blade at it's short position, about 1/4 to 1/3 inch maximum, you really don't need much.
Reminder: It is IMPORTANT to have a fixed blade knife. A folding blade can collapse and cause serious injury to your hand. My art instructor told me about how he figured he could get by with a pocket knife and cut the hell out of his hand. There is not a great deal of pressure, but one wrong angle and it could fold back on your fingers. OW!

Then pierce the side near the top of the housing:

I chose to insert it by the label to use as a sort of guideline, without going into the thick plastic that forms the roof of the housing, which would be a waste of time.

Then continue to pierce the top by sequentially inserting the knife. No need to hack, saw or crush it with the pliers.

If you are afraid of using a blade, or just don't want to, at this point you can poke your straw/pencil/whatever, down the mouth of the housing and push the bladder toward the bottom and use the pliers to crush the top.

Just be safe!

:D

Here is the ultimate result of whatever method:

Finishing the Extraction

Easy slide down hill from here!

Get your stick item out, I used the bottom of a small lab spatula:

Then push from the bottom up through the top and liberate the bladder/tube of polish!

You are left with housing and a plastic bladder full of polish!

Opening the Vault

Note in all this handling with the brush/dispenser off, nothing has leaked:

Now take your pliers and remove the white lid:

It twists easily off.

The result:

You can see a little leakage around the edge, because the valve is set in and easily removes, nothing to fret about!

Out it comes:

The last pieces you will have are the bladder of polish, the valve, and the cap.
You can actually recap it if you need to at this point: it won't leak.

Part 3 tomorrow!

Update 04/05/2014

Link back to part 1

Link to part 3

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!