Non-toxic nail polish

Over the last two years I’ve become increasingly aware of the ingredients in just about everything. Swapping my beauty products for nontoxic brands has been a lengthy battle and I’m not yet there. The first hurtle was realizing that there are unhealthy preservatives, fragrances with who knows how many chemicals, and other scary ingredients in most of the products I absolutely loved. 

I wanted to share my experience trying to go natural, starting with nail polish…

Going green can be very expensive and confusing – but once I found out that there are possible carcinogens in my makeup, I had to change! You can’t unlearn that! This site is helpful for finding natural makeup. And this site will scare you with the long list of “ingredients to avoid”. Note: I pay attention to what I wouldn’t want on my skin personally – some have warnings because they cause skin irritation that I don’t get, but some have been shown to provide danger to everyone.

While I definitely don’t know everything there is to know, I take it one step at a time. This summer, I swapped my nail polish for brands that are nontoxic. The upside is that some brands that were toxic have changed their formulas over the years. Many are proudly 3-free (and 5-free). 

What I’ve learned is that if it doesn’t advertise as nontoxic, it probably isn’t…being eco-friendly is trendy and a brand would market it as such if it were (and sometimes if it isn’t!)

My collection is MUCH smaller and does contain more “high-end” brands, but over the past year I’ve spent WAY less money on those products I’d normally buy just because I love shopping or they were pretty or smelled nice, especially now that each trip takes thorough investigation. You can check your products here.

Here are some nail polish brands that I either like or have read good things about – let me know if you have any recommendations! Especially less spendy brands. I can’t wait to learn more.