Nail Polish

Its can be funny how one doesn't think about normal things in their lives. As I have started to question the impact of everything in my life on the environment, I have found so many things that I didn't realize had plastic in them. 

For example, nail polish. I am not sure what I thought was in nail polish, however I didn't realize that most nail polish is based on plastic compounds. As I dived more into the nail polish industry, I realized how bad it really is. Nail polish is considered a household toxic waste because of all the chemicals in it. You cannot recycle the glass bottles with any polish left in them. I've used nail polish for years and never knew these things. 

I have very thin and fragile nails, and I've used polish over the years to try to make my nails stronger. While plastic nail polish does protect the nail, it isn't actually making my nails any stronger or helping in any real sense of the word. 

In my looking around, I found that there are water based nail polishes and polishes that try to be free of many of the harmful chemicals used by most companies. Some of these companies have programs for recycling nail polish bottles as well. I did a little experiment and tried three of them this past week. I bought a bottle each of Tenoverten, HoneyBee Gardens WaterColors, and Acquarella polishes. In environmental terms, these three companies are way ahead of others in the industry. 

Tenoverten is out of New York City and their advertising talks about: 8-free + cruelty-free + vegan

does not contain: dibutyl phthalate (dbp), toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor, ethyl tosylamide, xylene, triphenyl phosphate (tphp). 

HoneyBee Gardens, out of Pennsylvania, promotes their nail polish as "Gluten Free, Vegan, Cruelty Free, Odorless & No VOCs, Non-Toxic Earth-Friendly Formula, Quick drying, Product does NOT contain: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, camphor, formaldehyde resin, xylene, parabens, fragrance, nitrocellulose resin, animal ingredients, triphenyl phosphate, benzophenone-1." As I have looked around, this seems to be the brand with the least number of things in it and trying to make the least environmental impact. 

Acquarella is out of Tucson, Arizona and gives this detailed information about their polish: "Acquarella polish is a water base with a non-toxic, proprietary acrylic emulsion with ultra low residual monomer levels (< 0.1%), ensuring safety. Our non toxic colorants are specially formulated using iron oxide pigments. Our Acquarella Conditioner is a clear polish and free from any colorants." 

I compared these polishes to Sinful Colors Professional and Sally Hansen. These are two of the most common nail polish companies in my area. 

I learned while doing this that Sally Hansen has started a vegan nail polish line called Good. Kind. Pure. I took pictures of my nails after one day and after two. Unfortunately, the water based nail polish did not hold up very well. 

After one day

After two days

In contemplating my use of nail polish, I have decided this will be a case of use what you have and make better choices in the future. I am planning on cutting down my use of nail polish and simply using what I already have (and disposing of it properly now that I know!).