I know I haven’t reviewed any fabulous new products lately, and to be honest, I haven’t tried a ton recently, either. But since it is summer, I have been searching for a great phthalate-free toe nail polish. I don’t polish my fingernails because it is pointless, I use them as tools too much to waste the polish, which comes off in about 3 hours. I do take care of my feet, though.
It’s not just being pregnant that makes me want to avoid toxicity in polish – I was searching for a good phthalate-free polish even before becoming pregnant. My first attempt was Acquarella nail polish, which I ordered from Amazon.com at the steep price of $18. This brand was recommended by Good Housekeeping.
I wasn’t too terribly impressed – it wasn’t the color I wanted, which is the disadvantage of having to order online. Also, it was watery upon application (it is water-based) and took more coats to get coverage. Surprisingly, it was extremely difficult to remove. Regular nail polish remover didn’t really work, it took quite a bit of scrubbing.
What I really wanted was to be able to purchase polish locally so that I could see the colors. I had see the Zoya brand polishes at Whole Foods, but the WF employees could never tell me whether it contained phthalates or not. I had a lot of trouble finding any information about this on the Zoya web site as well. I finally used Google to search Zoya’s web site for the word “phthalate” and found that they do claim to be phthalate free on the Zoya blog, I can’t even find the blog post now. I would include a picture of the bottle, but their web site has image protection saying all Zoya images are property of Zoya…what?
While it is very weird that Zoya should be so protective of images of their nail polish bottles, I have to say that the nail polish is definitely the winner!! I wore it all week in DC, and aside from some chips that I inflicted myself by putting on shoes too soon after polishing, it held up great. Even better, it is only $5 and comes off easily with regular nail polish remover (I know, I know, I need to get some natural nail polish remover, but I have to use up the old stuff first…what do you want me to do, dump it down the sink??).
The only downside is that Whole Foods doesn’t carry the clear polish, so I can’t put a base coat and top coat on this eco-friendly polish. That does shorten its lifespan a little, as well as causing my toenails to turn a little yellowish. But, that is what lemon juice is for, I guess…
maybe polish remover can be disposed of like paint or such–put in cat litter and then the mixture into a coffee can? Or let it evaporate?
The brand Orly claims on their website that all their products are toluene, formaldehyde, and DBP (phthalate) free. Their polishes can be found locally at Ulta and Sally Beauty Supply. You might want to try their base coat.
I’d like to respectfully point out that there are multiple places on the Zoya website where it says it is “free of toluene, formaldehyde, DBP (phthalates) and camphor”. For instance, on the home page, in the top banner picture under the words “Winner Women’s Health Magazine…”, and twice in the paragraphs at the bottom of the page.
Good idea, I will have to try Orly also.
It’s true that Zoya does now have the phthalate information on their web site. However, when I first began looking, they were only claiming to be formaldehyde and toluene free, with no mention of phthalates at all. The Whole Foods employees could not even tell me if it had phthalates or not. It was not until recently that they added the phthalate information. I am glad they did!