Safe nail polishes

I have been wearing nail polishes for years however it has only been in the past two or three months that I discovered that nail polish contains many toxic chemicals that have been proven to cause defects in children and cancer. However do not fear, by becoming a savy consumer, and by reading the ingredients list before buying you can have polishes nails AND help you avoid health issues. 

I do not claim to have a great deal of knowledge on this topic but I have done some research on the internet as this blog is growing and so is my stash. The idea that wearing nail polish could give me cancer or increase my chances or affect the health of any children I may have in the future FREAKS me out heaps and heaps heaps. Hence I have been looking everywhere for nail polish that does not contain the bad chemicals. 

There are different types of 'safe' polishes: 3-free, 4-free 5-free and water based. 3-free do not contain formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and Toulene. 4-free do not contain: formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and Toulene and Formaldehyde Resin. 5-free do not contain: formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and Toulene and formaldehyde resin and camphor. Furthermore there is also water-based polishes that are safe for children and pregnant women. 

If you want more information there are a lot of website that talk about this topic. One of my favourites is http://www.inspirationail.com/5-free-varnish/. 

I am yet to find any water-based polish. I have sourced some and there is a little shop literally around the corner from me. I was planning on going there today but never got there. Ended up spending my day in the city instead and spent way too much money on polish :( 

Brands have taken notice and some do state on their bottles that they do not contain blah blah and blah blah. It is always wise to read the ingredients list before buying polish since there are heaps of polishes out there that don't contain nasty things. 

After discovering the fact that nail polish can contain nasty things I noticed at my local Priceline that some brands, on their displays, actually advertise the fact that they don't contain certain chemicals. 

I have found that Revlon does not contain Formaldehyde and Toulene. There are also other brands that do not contain nasty chemicals or do not contain all of them, such as Face of Australia, Models Prefer, but again please do not take my word for it and read the ingredients before buying something. It is entirely possible that I missed something or that different ranges of polish contain different ingredients (geez they write the ingredients in tiny fronts!!!) I have also found a brand called OmShe at Priceline that does not contain DBP, toluene and formaldehyde. Oh and also OPI do not contain all of the nasty chemicals too. I believe essence is 5-free however I have not confirmed this yet! If this is true it is amazing considering they are the cheapest nail polishes on the market. 

A side note, whilst shopping today there was a stand of make-up for $2 (can't remember the name of the brand) and all 5 of the bad nasty chemicals were listed in the ingredients!!! WOW!!! It was a shame too because there were some gorgeous colours. 

Hope this weekend has been great for you!