I used to paint my nails regularly, but ever since I started to adopt a totally green and eco-friendly beauty routine, I realized that nail polish just didn’t fit into that ethos one bit.
And that’s because nail polish is chock-full of nasty chemicals and endocrine disruptors and could be potentially harmful to your health?
In this blog, we will cover
- Is Painting Your Nails Bad for You?
- Toxic Ingredients in Nail Polish and Their Effects
- How Nail Polish Damages Your Nails
- How to bring your Nails back to Optimum Health
- How to Choose Organic Nail Polish
- My Number One Non-Toxic Nail polish Recommendation
- Best For Kids
- Best Natural and Non-Acetone Nail Polish Remover
- Organic & Non-Toxic Nail Polish Brands
- How & Why you NEED to Recycle your Old Nail polish Bottles
- Nail polish for Crafts and other DIY Projects
Is Painting Your Nails Bad For You?
Nail polish is one of those makeup products that also doubles as an accessory. But does this fashion accessory come with potential health risks?
Unfortunately, YES.
Nail polish is typically made with hazardous ingredients and the fact that we are putting them on our fingernails, which are actually quite delicate and have a direct path to our bloodstream might not be a good idea.
Some nail polish ingredients have been shown to cause birth defects, disrupt the endocrine system and be potentially cancerous.
Toxic Ingredients in Nail Polish and Their Effects
Some of the most common ingredients in nail polish are as follows:
- triphenyl phosphate (TPHP)
- formaldehyde
- toluene
- dibutyl phthalate (DBP)
- camphor
Nail polish can also include solvents, preservatives, heavy metals, and artificial colors.
Formaldehyde and TPHP are especially toxic. Formaldehyde is suspected to be potentially cancer-causing, TPHP is known as an endocrine disrupter. TPHP is typically used as a fire retardant and in plastics manufacturing.
It is known that these substances in nail polishes can enter the body through the fingernails.
A study by Duke University tested the amount of TPHP that enters a body after applying nail polish.
After 10 – 14 hours after painting their nails, the participant’s DPHP (diphenyl phosphate is what is left over when the body metabolizes TPHP,) levels were seven times higher than at the start of the experiment and continued to rise for a period of 20 hours.
How Nail Polish Damages Your Nails
Regularly painting your nails can leave your nails brittle and discolored. Nail polish is also acetone based which can dry out your nail plates and cause your nails to grow slower than healthy nails would. Your cuticles can also be susceptible to the effects of acetone.
Dermatologists recommended taking intermittent breaks to not create severe temporary damage to the nail.
How to bring your Nails back to Optimum Health
The first step is to take a nail polish break. The second would be to switch to healthier nail polish. Another option is to quit nail polish altogether and go totally natural.
Regularly moisturizing your nails and cuticles can also bring your nails back to good health.
How to Choose Organic Nail Polish
You might have heard of “5- Free” nail polishes, which claim to be free of 5 of the nastiest ingredients, but there are also 3-free, 7-free, 9-free, and 10- free. Any of these “free” products are definitely what you want to use going forward as they are free from the major toxic ingredients we want to avoid.
The “toxic trio” is known as the ingredients formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and “3-free” will usually be free of these.
It has been shown that there is really no difference in the quality of endurance and adherence to nails in the less toxic nail polish varieties. So going less toxic is definitely worth it.
Other things to look for include:
- Animal cruelty-free
- Vegan
- Plant-based
- Eco-friendly companies
My Non-Toxic Nail Polish Recommendations
Ok so I DID paint my toenails ONCE in the past decade and it was for my wedding. This is the polish I chose because it is plant-based AND 16-free!
Sally Hansen Good. Kind. Pure Vegan Nail Polish
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Karma Organic Natural Nail Polish-Non-Toxic Nail Art, Vegan and Cruelty-Free Nail Paint
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Best For Kids
Piggy Paint
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Best Natural and Non-Acetone Nail Polish Remover
The dangers of nail polish also include the removal process, which involves high-powered acetone liquid to take the paint off the nail plate. It can dry out the nail and cause brittleness.
Here are some options that are natural and totally toxin free. This is especially important to use for children or pregnant women.
Buy Now
How & Why you NEED to Recycle your Old Nail polish Bottles
Nail polish is considered a household hazardous waste product by the EPA. (Another reason to not use this product on our bodies!)
So it is incredibly important to do your part and recycle the bottles and their contents rather than throwing them in the trash. The nail paint is full of chemicals and toxins so when we carelessly throw them in the trash, we are potentially exposing our local rivers, soil, and most importantly the aquifer to long-lasting chemicals.
This company will recycle your nail polish effectively, but for a fee. Do some good by splitting the cost with some friends so you can make sure a large amount of polish doesn’t end up in the landfill.
Another option is to call your local recycling center to see if they recycle, or if they have suggestions on where to recycle nail polish near you.
Nail polish for Crafts and other DIY Projects
Before you banish your polish altogether, you might want to keep it around because it’s great for all sorts of crafts! These ideas are great for children or for adding some pizzazz to an old accessory.
Ideas for reusing nail polish
- Color code items like keys, chargers, office supplies
- Use some polish to stop a rip in a pair of stockings
- Add polka dots to sunglasses, phone cases, or other fun items
- Make rock art
- Paint on fabric edges to stop it from fraying
So now you are aware of the dangers of nail polish, what do you think? Will you stop painting your nails? If you do will you be switching to a healthier polish? Let the tribe know your comments below.
Sources
https://www.thehealthy.com/beauty/nail-care/toxins-in-nail-polish-study/
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/nails/a28557591/non-toxic-nail-polish/
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