Which Natural Nail Polish Lines Have the Best Colors for Spring?
Because I get my nails done so rarely, when I do it feels like Christmas. This past weekend I had a special event up in Canada, and my first mani-pedi plan was my usual: some kind of deep red on my toes, and a buff on my nails. But as I started to look through the OPI selection (I know, I know, big-three free but a far cry from clean), I saw myself drawn to something fresher. So I found a fun bright pink for my toes.
But then out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the new spring colors. So pop! I reached for a kind of electric coral, and after some deliberation decided I would do my hands and toes in this bright wonder.
Colors are big, we know, and I don’t think that trend is or should be changing anytime soon. But suddenly my nails have me all excited to explore, and I’m wondering: Who has the best bright shades in the natural nail sphere?
So spill: What colors do you love, and who has them? (Of course, nobody will judge you if they’re not from the cleaner lines too.)
Right now I’m feeling partial to creamy mattes in pinks and corals, though I’m ready to try a few wild card colors as well. Some that I’m jazzed about include: Sheswai’s watermelon pink; the vibrant Highland Fling (a coral creme) from Scotch Naturals (maybe even the mint creme too); this orangey number from Priti along with this one too; and the whole Gossip line from Zoya (though they have SO many colors, I find it overwhelming to choose); this one also caught my eye.
Question number 2: What’s the last color you bought, and from who?
And if you’re finding it a wee early to talk about spring, I beg to differ! Next Sunday we are springing those clocks forward, and though I was freezing my buns off in Toronto this weekend, my bright nails warmed.
Image via CNBC proving I’m not the only way craving coral
I am longing for spring in a HUGE way!! I was in North Carolina this past weekend and the daffodils down there had already sprung to life! (Sigh)
Okay… Question #1: I am really digging the cool minty green color that seems to be popping up a bit this spring in fashion – Seems like a lot is just becoming available this month, but Priti has a color, “Dusty Miller” and RGB is releasing one called “Dew” – Can’t wait to get my hands on one of them!
Question #2: The last bottle of polish I bought was a Deborah Lippmann polish called “Yellow Brick Road” – I know, yellow, it sounds totally weird and not what you want your nails to look like but this yellow is so bright and cheery. It made me think of sunny days spent lounging on the beach! I couldn’t help myself :)
http://iloveublank.blogspot.com/
I love coral and pink for spring :D
Hi friends! I’ve been reading this little corner of the interwebs for a while now, but here is my first comment. Start talking pretty nail lacquers and I can’t resist. I’m such. a. sucker. I’ve never tried Priti, but I’ve been lusting. Chester Scarlet is a looker. Has anyone tried the polish remover? I love (don’t judge me) Butter London, especially their Flawless Finish Base.
I just got Seaboard (deep blue teal) and Stiletto (bright hot red) from Scotch Naturals. I’m getting compliments on the color of Stiletto, which I put on the day it came in the mail, but it took less than 20 minutes for it to start chipping. Any recommendations for an effective nontoxic top coat? I put my toxic stuff (Revlon) on and the polish seems to have bonded to it, because it peeled off my nails in neat chunks. Big disappointment.
Also, I haven’t tried them yet but Ginger + Liz has GREAT colors.
Hi Ally. We love when a lurker becomes a talker! Welcome.
I’m smitten with the range of colours by Butter London and my most recent purchase was one of theirs just this past weekend: Dark Knight. (A blackish colour with multi-coloured sparkle, satifies the teenager and the rocker lurking inside me…) They do fabulous colours, mostly bold ones, and I have more than I care to admit because they’re just so much fun!
After more than a decade with no polish at all, I started using Zoya several months ago. They are the only brand I’m currently using. I tried Acquarella and Scotch Naturals and was not happy with the performance (like, no point in even bothering to put on polish). I’m not sure I’m convinced they are any less toxic than Zoya either. I love greys and blacks and purples. My current favorites are Kelly, Carey, Kendal, Loredana, Dovima…I’ve got my eye on Lotus from the new spring collection. Loredana and Dovima are matte finish which is very cool though they don’t last as long. The last colors I bought were several from the Zoya Feel collection (including Carey and Kendal). I’m super impressed with the colors and performance of Zoya (especially the more recent stuff – a few of the older ones don’t perform as well). I’m really sensitive to smells and whatnot, but the Zoya colors, base, top and remover are all okay for me. The remover is spectacular.
I was wondering about Scotch: They recommend you put it on at night so that the polish has a long time to set—have you tried that Liz? Or has anyone?
I’ve only tried Butter London – http://www.butterlondon.com/lacquers/3-free-lacquers/branwens-feather and wasn’t too impressed. I’m having a hard time giving up my Essie obsession. I just bought this one http://www.essie.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=21 and i’m obsessed!! so great for spring!
Alexandra, I followed all the instructions for application of Scotch Naturals. It lasted one day at most before it looked bad enough to remove. I don’t know if any of their new colors have a better formulation, as I tried them when they first came out. I think they make their own top coat now, so maybe that would help.
1. Sheswai is my favorite natural polish. Zoya takes too long to try, Butter London is streaky, and well, I haven’t tried Scotch yet. I emailed Scotch Naturals a couple of weeks ago, curious about their new spring colors that they’d been tweeting about but I never heard back from them. I think that Sheswai’s “So Cute” would be a great spring peachy color. Chanel makes the *best* performing nail polish, but I avoid it now because of the ingredients.
2. The last color I bought was Butter London’s “Trout Pout.” It’s a bright salmon.
Can we get one thing straight? There is no such thing as a “natural” nail polish. The brands you cite are made with chemicals. Maybe some of them are 3 free, but there is no natural brand. Read more at this great article I read a few months back: http://figandsage.blogspot.com/2011/09/soapbox-organic-natural-nail-polish.html
I just bought Priti Redhead Cactus at ABC this weekend for my toes. A little weird — but I received several compliments today at the airport going through security. Who knew people paid that much attention to feet?
@Deanna, agreed on the no such thing as \natural\ nail polish. Nail polish is the only product where I break my rule: if I wouldn’t eat it, I won’t put it on my skin. There are always some synthetic chemicals in polishes. I mentioned above that I’m not convinced Scotch and so forth are any less toxic than Zoya.
@Liz, put it on before bed, after you’ve showered/washed your hands for the last time for the night. It has to have time to set. Also be sure to buff in some oil and wash your hands before putting on the polish. Also, I’ve noticed that some of their colors stick better than others. If it happens even after the oil/wash/paint/bed routine, write to them and get a refund/store credit.
Whoa, I just read Deanna’s above link from figandsage. Yikes! And in the comment section, they take Priti OUT. The verdict seems to be that there is no such thing as a natural nail line, yes?
@Deanna LOVE that you posted about this. I fastidiously check EWG’s Skin Deep website for brands I’m using, which is why I don’t use RGB, even though they’re 3-free and greenwashed (they got a 5 on Skin Deep: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/search.php?query=rgb).
Scotch Naturals isn’t on there, but their ingredients (water, acrylic polymer emulsion, butoxy diglycol and non-toxic colorants) are, and you can search specific ingredients on the website. Acrylic polymer got a 0, and butoxy diglycol got a 1-2.
If I’m gonna paint my nails, I’m gonna use the least toxic product I can find, which is why I stick with Scotch even though it’s sort of a pain in the ass to prep nails, paint before bed, and remove. (And, to be fair, I actually love that it’s water-based and comes out a little differently from other brands. I’ve also found that when I apply it correctly, it stays for longer than conventional nail polish.)
@Alexandra and Anna: I started from scratch yesterday, giving 2 coats of the polish time to dry overnight. And sadly, this is what my nails looked like in the morning: http://t.co/BxMTZmml
Anna, that’s a good idea. For $15, I should get more than a fleeting moment of awesome-looking nails.
@Liz yep, talk to them. I’ve found (for some unknown reason) the darker, non-red colors (greens, purples, blues) to stick better than their reds/pinks. I had awful luck with Bitter ‘n’ Twisted, but Highland Fling was pretty good! Nothing compares to the staying power of Ceasefire.
I’ve had the same problems with Scotch that others mentioned. It took three coats [color: Stone Fence, a medium grey] to get it *almost* opaque, and within a couple hours, it was seriously chipping. By the next day, I was able to peel off the little bit that was left. For such a high price and such a little bottle, I was not happy.
I recently got a bottle of Scotch and one of Sheswai. I had the same problem as many of the people on here with Scotch – applied before bed, was peeling off in the morning. The Sheswai stayed on well, but was still “dent-able” over an hour after applying.
I did like how quickly Scotch dried, so I skipped the oil step. Instead, I washed my hands very throughly after filing, then applied. An hour later, I moisturized. That lasted much longer.
The last one that I got is “Lambs Ears” by Prity NYC, it’s exactly the color of those fuzzy leaves that you see on some spring plants. I love it!
Most of the time, I find that nail polish looks gaudy, cheap or even childish on women, so I stay clear of it. I buff my nails instead.
Despite only using skin care products that are practically edible, I have a major nail polish collection (I had > 900, but now I am trying to pare down to 400), and I think it’s just ridiculous that people still refer to certain polish brands (like Sheswai or Priti) as being more “natural” than the next. I think brands like Scotch Naturals and Aquarella would be considered the cleanest, but the one time I tried Scotch was a huge let down; it peeled off immediately, so I returned it. Companies like Scotch try hard, but it’s unfortunate in the end because they create so much waste, as they are ineffective. Brands like Zoya, Priti and Karma are no different from Revlon and Sally Hansen. They seem to come from a private label manufacturer called “Diamond Cosmetics”. The colors and even most of the names are the same. You can buy DC from their website for $2 /bottle.
Pretty much every brand of polish these days is B3F or B4F (camphor). For low-end drugstore brands, the Cast Away collection by Sinful Colors (yep, B4F) has a fantastic palette of mostly desaturated mermaid-y tones, along with a cornflower blue that looks like a dupe of Essie Smooth Sailing. SH Extreme Wear has a great formula and comes with the perfect flat brush in fashion forward colors.
I am a blue and green polish fanatic, and my favorites are by Cult Nails, Rescue Beauty Lounge, Essie, Orly and SpaRitual. The new OPI Holland collection has some great colors with beautiful gold shimmer and glass-fleck finishes. My favorites from that collection are I Have a Herring Problem, I Don’t Give a Rotterdam, Wooden Shoe Like to Know, and Pedal Faster, Suzi! A Roll in the Hague is a vibrant Dutch orange that’s super fun too.
A-England has a lot of really pretty, subtle, scattered holographic finishes, and I love the linear holo found in GlitterGal polishes, which you can get from a Stateside seller called Llarowe.
Are the owners of this blog going to comment on the natural claim? It’s even
more confusing when the experts can’t agree on what is natural and safe. (referring to the figandsage link)
Hey Lauren. Yes definitely, we’re going to post about this and properly comment.
I generally prefer water based polish, but I confess I just bought San Francisco by Kaia House but I haven’t used it yet. Based on what I have read (and I am not a chemist) Honeybee Gardens is the cleanest. I love their colors Valentine and Shiny Penny. One of my favorite tricks with the Honeybee Clear Polish is to pour any loose mineral powder (just a tiny bit) on a piece of tinfoil and dip my polish brush into the powder and make my own polish color! Since pure mineral shadows come in an endless array of colors you can have a blast! I actually bought a paint palette at an art store to mix my colors. Just wipe the polish brush off before you dip each time to keep it clear.
The following excerpt is from Honeybee explaining the difference between solvent and water based I hope it helps………
We were looking into Suncoat also, but have not tried it yet.
“You already know it’s water-based, it’s odor-free and has no formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalates or FD& C colors. But let’s take that a step further. Without getting too technical, let’s explore the fundamental differences between solvent-based and water-based systems. Solvent- based polishes are simple solutions of nitrocellulose resins in strong solvents. Nitrocellulose is used because it forms a very hard film easily as the solvents evaporate from the base. These harsh, bad-smelling solvents, are then also used to remove the polish by dissolving the film. By contrast, water-based polish uses an emulsion resin in the form of billions of very small particles suspended in water. As the water evaporates, the particles touch each other and form a hard film which is no longer soluble in water. At first, it may seem that these systems are similar, the only difference being the carrier base. But they are in fact as different as night and day. One cures by reversible solvent evaporation, the other by creating a tightly knit film. One is easily dissolved, the other not so easily. Several states are beginning to regulate VOCs (volatile organic compounds) emitted by nail polishes and nail polish removers. WaterColors Nail Enamel has very low VOCs.”
KT & Lisa
Fresh Face and Beautiful Body Shop
Hi! New poster here too!
Hmm… I actually just bought some nail polish by a new brand yesterday. It’s called SpaRituals. What’s interesting is that I found it in a wellandgoodnyc article, and that’s also how I came across this post! Here’s how it was described:
SpaRitual Sacred Ground($10)
I love Spa Ritual nail polish! The vegan line is formaldehyde free, and the polish is packaged in recycled materials that are also recyclable. I tend to wear grey and silver on my nails this time of year so right now my favorite color is Sacred Ground.
(it’s from an article of someones top 5 beauty must haves)
I haven’t worn any nail polish in a long while because of the obvs reasons listed above, but this sounded legit. I ordered it off amazon so I can’t give a review just yet…. I’ll let you know!
I have also heard that the polish by Sante is good. I first heard about it from Jennifer at Bewellstaywell.com. She really is a pioneer, starting her natural cosmetics store before it was popular and certainly she was the first “natural” make-up store I had ever been in or heard about. Sante is not water based like Honeybee but rather solvent based. It contains color dyes while Honeybee does not. The description of Sante on the
Bewellstaywell site states-Free of Dibutyl Pthalate, Toluene and Formaldehyde. NO colophony (rosin); NO synthetic preservatives; NO synthetic fragrances; NO color lakes; highly-refined colorants.
Again, this is not an all natural product.
KT & Lisa
Fresh Face and Beautiful Body Shop
@Moni Cool! Definitely let us know what you think.
I like Butter London but haven’t used any mail polish in months since I’m pregnant. I’m having twin girls in a few weeks and one of the ways I’m contemplating telling them apart is painting their toenails different colors. Any suggestions on a nail polish that’s clean enough to use on infants, yet dries fast and doesn’t need to be reapplied very often.
Is nail polish remover the real concern now? I’ve heard of water based polished that can be peeled off. Has anyone tried these? Do they ruin your nails by chipping off the paint? Do they chip easily? Are they really clean enough to trust an infant chopping the polish off in their mouth?
Thanks! Sarah
I’m thinking of getting a cocktail trio from Scotch Naturals of Neat (pale neutral pink creme), Loch Ness Mystery (sophisticated turquoise creme), and Seething Jealousy (passionate teal green creme) to add some spring colors to my safe nail polish collection.
SCOTCH all the way! Water based, awesome colors. For those looking to make the switch — do it. I switched from the usual culprits OPI, Essie, et al. about 3 months ago and I am so pleased. I will say that Scotch is a process. You will not get the results you want on the first try, but don’t be disappointed. The polish works better on healthy, nourished nails. The first go round was not so great, peeling after the first day but the second try was much better. I will say that the base coat and top coat help tremendously (I tried to get away without it) and now it’s gotten where the polish lasts just as long as any of the old products would have. Patience will pay off!
Wow! I’m surprised so many here aren’t happy with the water-based polishes! It might be that your nails are coming from traditional polishes, and therefore, the water-based polish will have a hard time adhering. I hear that the more you use the water-based polishes, and the healthier you nails (water-based polishes are “good” for your nails) the longer they start lasting.
With that said, I recently made the switch, and I can get about 3 days of use from Acquarella before it starts chipping (I have “not” done the preparation steps they recommend). My only complaint is that is takes a little longer to remove, and I need at least 3 coats from most of the “opaque” colors I have tried so far. Otherwise, I love it.