As a girly-girl, I have always liked the look of a fresh coat of nail polish on fingers and toes. However, after taking this job, I learned that nail polish could be one of the most toxic things I put on my body. I have learned that it isn’t a coincidence that I get dizzy when I open a bottle of nail polish. Really, what IS that smell?? Well, folks, it is chemicals. Not just any chemicals: bad ones. In fact there are three chemicals in conventional nail polishes that raise some very red flags.

The first yucky ingredient is the scariest of all, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), which is added to soften the plastic and make the nail polish more malleable. DBP is said to have the potential to disrupt hormone levels, cause birth defects, and cause cancer. Yea, definitely not something I should be using if I want children some day.

The next yucky ingredients are toluene and formaldehyde. Yes, I said formaldehyde. Bring back memories of science lab in high school? It should, considering it is commonly used to preserve biological and anatomical specimens. Gross, I know. These two ingredients are suspected to cause organ damage and cancer as well as cause nausea and dizziness.

At first, learning all of this made me think I would never be able to paint my nails again. But of course, some brilliant green minds have come up with non-toxic solutions. So, I did some research, Sarah and I picked out 5 colors, I volunteered two of my roommates’ hands and I conducted another experiment.

I judged the following three brands based on the price, shipping, color, application, odor, number of coats needed and drying results.

First brand, Butter London.

Price: 2 colors, $14.00 each = $28.00
Shipping to Boston + Price = $36.50 TOTAL (yikes!)
Color: Come To Bed Red … very pretty! (One of my roommates tried this one)
Application: “It has an easy, smooth application.”
Odor: “It is rather smelly!”
Coats: “It only needed one coat, which is nice because it saves time and paint.”
Drying Results: “it dried smooth and shiny. It doesn’t feel like I can pick it off, that it a good thing!”

Color: British Racing Green (I LOVED this color, so I tried this one)
Application: A very easy application. Not very drippy.
Odor: It does have a strong smell like conventional nail polishes.
Coats: I could have gotten away with one if I had a more steady hand. But I needed two to cover up my mistakes.
Drying Results: It dried very nicely. It wasn’t very shiny though, the color got duller after one day.

If there isn’t DBP, formaldehyde, and toluene in Butter London’s formula, then where are the fumes coming from? I went onto their site to look up ingredients and couldn’t find anything! But I found the ingredients for British Racing Green’s formula on Amazon.com:

Ingredients
Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Nitrocellulose, Adipic Acid,Neopentyl Glycol, Trimellitic, Anhydride, Copolymer, Trimethyl Pentanyl Diisobutyrate, Triphenyl Phosphate, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Diacetone Alcohol, Citric Acid, Dimethicone and Benzophenone-1. MAY ALSO CONTAIN: Aluminum Powder, Bismuth Oxychloride, Black Iron Oxide, D&C Red no.30 Lake, D&C Red no.33, D&C Red no.34 Calcium Lake, D&C Red no. 6 Barium Lake, D&C Red no.7 Calcium Lake, D&C Violet No. 2, D&C Yellow no. 11, D&C Yellow no.10, FD&C Yellow no.5 Aluminum Lake FD&C Yellow no.5, FD&C Yellow no.6, Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide, Mica, Red Iron Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, D&C Red no.17 and FD&C Red no.4.

Next brand, Nubar.

Price: 2 Colors, $7.49 each = $14.98
Shipping to Boston + Price = $27.07 TOTAL (expensive shipping! It took very long to get here too…)
Color: Oh Baby Pink (I tried this one as well, and am still wearing it! Reminds me of Barbie…)
Application: It went on well. A little drippy, a lot goes a long way. It is very opaque.
Odor: It has very strong fumes.
Coats: It needed 2 coats, streaky otherwise.
Drying results: It stayed gummy for awhile. Drying took longer. I had to be careful but it doesn’t seem like it will chip easily.

Color: Camelot Blossom (My other roommate tried this one and loved the color)
Application: “It is very smooth.”
Odor: “It has a lot of fumes, but not too bad. It just smells like nail polish to me.”
Coats: “It looks better with two. With one, you could see the white tip of my nail.”
Drying Results: “It dried smooth, no trapped air bubbles, very shiny.”

Nubar’s formula had a very strong smell as well, so I did another search. Their ingredients were very easy to find on their website:

Nubar Nail Lacquer Ingredients

Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Adipic Acid/Neopentyl Glycol/Trimellitic Anhydride Copolymer, Isopropyl Alcohol, Triphenyl Phosphate, Trimethal Pentanyl Diisobutyrate, Butyl Alcohol, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Citric Acid, Benzophenone-1, Dimethicone May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Black Iron Oxide, Red Iron Oxide, FD&C Yellow #5, Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyde Anide, Bismouth Oxychloride, D&C Red #7, D&C Red #6, D&C Red #34

Last brand, Aquarella.

Price: 1 color, $18.00 each = $18.00 (Most expensive color yet)
Shipping to Boston + Price = $18.00 (No shipping cost though! Thank goodness!)
Color: Incognito (One of my roommates tried this on her other hand. I loved the navy color!)
Application: “I had to keep redipping, going back for more paint.”
Odor: “It has a nice smell. Not a normal nail polish odor. The smell is more pleasant.”
Coats: “It feels like it could flake off with one coat.”
Drying Results: “Good color! But it already flaked…”

Incognito had a nice smell that wasn’t as strong as Butter’s or Nubar’s. So what is in it?

Ingredients: Acrylic polymer emulsion, Water, and non-toxic colorants (No FD&C)… (Hmm. Interesting.)

So far, so good.
Whoa…. wait a second.
When one of my roommates began washing her face before bed, the Incognito chipped right off with the warm water…Bummer.

And when I tried to take off British Racing Green, it stained my nails highlighter yellow only after 2 days of wearing it!… Double Bummer.

I think I will stick to the pink…

Actually, a lot of big name brands are eliminating DBP, formaldehyde and toluene from their formulas, which is great. You can now find some safe formulas in brands like Honeybee Gardens, Urban Decay, Revlon, and Avon, just to name a few.
Next project, non-toxic nail polish remover. I’ve heard Almost Natural Nail Polish Remover smells like vanilla. But does it work? Have you tried it?