A perfectly clean nail polish is a very hard thing to find. Especially if you don’t want it washing off in the shower! But there’s good news today from our friends at Well+GOOD: More mainstream lines are ditching the big bad three, meaning flexible clean girls can now enjoy awesome shades without the full toxic load. Here’s their post—but first(!) tell us about your favorite cleaner polish in the comments, please.
It used to be that less-toxic nail polishes were made by just a handful of natural-leaning brands.
Now, brands like Chanel and Nars have gone three-free—meaning no formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, and toluene—and more choices.
Non-toxic polishes are the new gold standard for nails, says Adair Ilyinksy, co-owner of the chic TenOverTen nail salon in Tribeca. “There’s an understanding now that modern formulations don’t require formaldehyde.”
What colors are hot with New Yorkers this fall? “Metallics have been really big,” says Ilyinsky. “There’s also been a move away from puttys and grays towards blues and greens.”
Here are the popular nail polish shades you’ll want to get your hands on now.
Last weekend I got married, and for the sake of transparency here, no, it was not an all-natural affair. Siobhan and I have long conceded that industrial strength antiperspirant, waterproof mascara (we all had a good cry), and long-lasting foundation have their place at special occasions. And while the smell of the super-hold hairspray gave me pause, I was very happy not to worry about my do’ collapsing mid-evening.
The other thing I did for the event, which I have not done in nearly two years now, is polish my nails. If you read the book you know that nail polish and remover are among the worst offenders when it comes to nasty chemicals. While many brands have taken out the big three—formaldehyde, toluene and DBP—it’s pretty impossible to make functional nail polish from clean ingredients.
At a certain point during our research for the book I began to buff instead, and I’ve just never turned back. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have a weird obsession with long nails, and when I stopped polishing mine something incredible happened: They stopped breaking.
Recently though I’ve wondered if that phenomenon was a figment of my imagination. Maybe it wasn’t the nail polish, but a change in my diet that had strengthened my claws? Not so.
While I loved the ritual of having my nails done last Thursday with my mom and sister, and the manicurist used OPI (which is big-three free), almost every single nail on my hands has since chipped, peeled or broken.
So, of course, now we want to know: Do you polish your nails? Did you stop because of chemicals? Have your nails changed? Telltell.
I was pleased to come across this post on Treehugger about American Apparel’s line of cleaner nail polishes. (And yeah, it’s no secret that I used to work for the company—where I made many dear friends and which makes my new favorite pants—but that’s not what this post is about.)
Are they totally chemical free? No—unfortunately no polishes are—but at least these don’t contain the big three: DBP, toluene and formaldehyde. Like all things American Apparel the nail polish is also made in America, which means a smaller carbon footprint. Another added bonus? The 20 fun colors it comes in.
