Acetone or Nail Polish remover?

Most nail varnish remover contains a more dilute form of acetone, so in essence you're using the exact same stuff.

You could try acetone free nail polish remover which contains isopropyl alcohol, and is less harsh on the plastic itself. It will cause less smudging but not if you use it wrong.

I'd avoid acetone all together, unless you ONLY use it on the softer plastic (arms, legs..). Do not use it on the hard plastic used on the torso, crotch etc. Because it'll start to break the plastic down causing irreparable damage.

Use a soft cotton cloth/paper towel that doesn't leave fluffy parts behind as you wipe, otherwise it'll cause the smudging you don't want. After every other wipe, use a new clean piece/part of the cloth to prevent any of the paint smudging. Wipe in ONE direction only every time.

It'll still cause some amount of smudging and dulling, because it's not perfect on factory paint. But you can minimise it right down by using these techniques and going really SLOWLY.

Hope this helps.

I know this is old, but still:

It's the same thing. I use 100% acetone and dilute if I have to, though I usually dont.

Use beauty sponges to swipe at the paint, they don't leave annoying little hairs or whatever like cotton balls do.

Want to reply to this as I came here to ask for help, but think I can clear a few things up in case anybody is confused. Living with two different fiances over the last 10 yrs who both always did their nails and spoke about it, I know quite a bit more about nail polish than I should vs. the common guy. I dunno if that's a good thing though, but let me try to break it down.

Nail polish remover- almost all of it(and I would take a pic of the 3 types I have next to me if I wasn't lazy, but it's usually in a bottle with a pink or yellow hue or whatever, etc. etc.)-- has some amount of acetone in it. I know there are certain type that simply do not contain it for people with super sensitive skin and/or allergies b/c one of my ex's had this issue and I had to check the content % every single time I bought nail polish remover for her, long before I started using it and/or acetone on customs and paint mishaps or to remove things, etc.

I've found a few things over time... a few bad accidents that left the figure(s) I'd been working on stripped down so badly, they were just horrible. This was generally when using 100% but the few times it has happened, I hadn't realized I had my 100% out...
I buy bottles of it (or use my ex's who I stay on-and-off with still for a bit longer, til June) and it comes in 50%, 75%... etc. Then they have the clear stuff that is 100% acetone. I buy that for particular projects now, or when I need to strip something down (e.g. boxes for when I do a photoshop job, and then repackage my custom in the box... I need 100% or near-100% to get the residue off of the plastic from opening the box as carefully as i can, even... and if not for 100%, even 75 took me nearly an hour the last time I was out of pure acetone nail polish (or 100%, whatever).

I think I may have a 25% acetone nail polish remover as well, or had. Sometimes the lesser levels work better for different typed of paint.

and definitely no-no to using a cotton ball, agreed on that one.

I generally use acetone for my customs when making amiibo customs, and stripping down parts of the paint I'll be repainting anyhow. Sometimes I don't type it up so well and it will leak in, and or just get in the wrong place, and it really does smear whatever it touches fast- so be careful. If you're trying to strip something, without knowing how 100% would react to say, a peach or darker skin-toned figure and it's pigmentation... I know 100% would definitely clean the paint, and if you had little brothers or cousins who scribbled on your old figures, it works nice to remove old text as well... without smearing it like ~75% does/did. But just don't scrub too hard or you'll smear the figure's paintjob in itself, if that isn't your prerogative.

If it is.... just so long it won't ruin the figure's skin tone, or you can kinda move around it with some type of sponge or something small ...100% acetone works well to strip paint. And if you're just repainting it, I'd say buy 100% or at the least 75%. I find myself using 50% or below less and less lately... I just hate that sometimes I have thought I was using 75% and had the 100%, ruining the figures I was working on... oh well.

But acetone is a main ingredient in nail polish almost anyway you cut it. The idea of buying 100% and just diluting it a bit if needed seems like a pretty solid plan to me, esp. if you wanna save $ and not buy a buncha different amounts. I have a ton just lying around b/c of my ex and most are half full or still have some in 'em and then the 100% is pretty cheap and can be bought @ a Walgreen's or cvs or whatever. I'd go for that if just removing paint from the figure. Just be careful if the torso & skin parts like legs, arms etc. is subjective to fading (not too savvy on how the body parts are or if they would run or not... I just know for sure that it will remove the paint great for you if you're just painting over it but I've spilled and ruined stuff i didn't want to put acetone on. So that's all I can say about that. 100% is the best if you're careful with it.

Also... magic erasers can work for some odd things. I dont know if it would work in a situation when it comes to removing paint from the figure, BUT, perhaps if you get it going with the acetone or nail polish of choosing and it starts to come off, so it doesn't smear or leave residue, perhaps the magic eraser would work well and help buff the light paint thats usually left over a bit?.... I know the few times I've used a magic eraser it has worked great. It surely wouldn't smear as badly as a cotton ball would as mentioned above.

Hope my weird knowledge of nail polish remover acetone levels. I'm still figuring out which type works for which figures best and yada yada to boot....

Very good comp. in a magic eraser to sandpaper. Just for different materials, but in essence, they do the same things.

Obviously though you can add a liquid or solvent or w/e to the magic eraser. I sometimes will put a little nail polish remover or acetone on an old and beat-up magic eraser that's near being thrown out when I don't want to take too much time scrubbing down residue on a box that I'm going to repackage something in. It may come out a bit sloppy and eventually need to be touched up but it works much quicker than say, regular dawn, which I also have learned works (along w/ sprays and soap spray etc.)......

Just try diff. stuff. but my comments about acetone, albeit some typos or words I must have backspaced on accidentally when posting that, I stand by. hope they helped ya