Wallpaper paste damaged brushed chrome sockets

[Sparkle20]

Hello, I wondered if anyone could help me, I am decorating my 3 boys bedrooms (only 2nd time I've papered, it was always my ex-husbands dept!!) and have had quite a bit of electrical work done including extra sockets and switches which are brushed chrome. I was told to be careful not to damage the sockets brushed finish so I totally masking taped them up. The first two I did were within straight forward straight lengths and I successfully papered around them without any damage even though the masking tape became a bit saturated, but then had a really awkward corner that took me almost 2 hours to get right and therefore the saturated masking tape was in contact with the socket for much longer and it has brought off the surface finish in patches I'm assuming it's the paste rather than the sticky on the masking tape that caused it, but now I'm freaking out about doing the same to the others. So after all that waffling, I am basically asking if anyone can give me an idea how to protect the sockets/switches to prevent this happening again?

Many thanks

 

[joe-90]

Never heard of that before, are you sure it hasn't dried on it rather than taking it off?

You need a nice man to take off the other sockets and switches while you wallpaper.

 

[Sparkle20]

Hi, thanks for the reply. No, I'm afraid it definitely isn't, I thought that at first, but the surface finish is dull and if you scrape it, it comes off to reveal the shiney metal underneath.
I do know a nice man but he charges rather a lot!

Thanks anyway

 

[joe-90]

You shouldn't be scraping it - just wetting it with a sponge (with the circuit switched off).

 

[Sparkle20]

I only scraped it a little bit to workout if it was just stained or whether the surface had actually come off, but then I could see it had lifted off and was on the back of the masking tape.