Sooner or later, it's going to happen. You will drop a bottle of nail polish, it will shatter, and you will experience a quivering out of body anxiety attack as you watch the shiny color cover the (probably white) surface.

We say this: Don't Panic!

It's happened to us (see photo, sigh, that was our favorite color) and we're happy to share our research findings with you.First, get out the shop towels and mop up as much as you can. If it's already dry, try to scrape it off with a dull knife or wooden tongue depressor.

The next step depends on the surface. You can use acetone nail polish remover on many fabrics, doing a spot test first to make sure the colors won't run or other wise get totally ruined. You should be okay with cotton, linen, acrylic, polyester and spandex.

If the stain just won't come out, you can also try rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, Simple Green, hair spray or shaving cream. If none of those work, you are probably out of luck, but you can try dry cleaning solvent. That's some scary chemical stuff, so read the directions carefully, and consider just replacing the item.

For porous materials like cork, linoleum or vinyl, work fast to get as much off as possible before it gets in there. You may be stuck with some stains, because nail polish sticks. If you can't easily replace the item or area, like if it's wallpaper or the kitchen floor you can try amyl acetate. Again, this stuff is freakishly chemical, so use caution!

Carpet is tough because it gets into the pile. Like fabric, you may be able to use acetone, so do a quick spot test, but hurry. Once the polish dries, you have fewer options, and will have to resort to the chemical solvents like amyl acetate. Dab gently,and remember to open a window!

Glass is the best surface for spills because you can just let it dry and scrape the dried polish off with a razor blade. If you have another kind of surface, like brick or alabaster or grout, check out Howstuffworks for amazingly detailed instructions for everything, including removing nail polish from pretty much every kind of surface.

Good luck!