Hiya Beautiful,
You know what I love? Pretty, polished nails. You know what I don’t love? The harmful chemicals found in so many (most!) of the nail polishes in salons and on store shelves.
An at-home mani-pedi or trip to your favorite progressive salon (here’s California’s list) can be so rejuvenating. But when we’re not careful about the products we choose and use, crappy ingredients, chemical-filled workplaces and horribly cruel animal testing can really rain on our beautifying parade.
There’s good news, though: Better-for-all-of-us nail polish brands exist!
And today, I’m highlighting the best of the best in my newest Crazy Sexy product review: nail polish edition. With happier and healthier ingredient lists void of the scary stuff, you can breathe a non-toxic sigh of relief when you use these polishes to glam up your fingers and toes. High-five!
To make all of my product reviews as accurate and useful as possible, I always bring in one of my favorite organizations, the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
EWG is a leader in up-to-the-minute research on toxins and chemicals present in the environment and our personal and home products. Together, we’ve teamed up and created a Healthy Home Checklist and done several beauty reviews like this one, including deodorant, lipstick, mascara, foundation and concealer (stay tuned for more reviews to come!).
EWG did us a huge favor by analyzing the ingredients in these nail polishes and adding the product ratings to their Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, which contains information and online safety assessments for over 60,000 products. Thanks, EWG!
Check out the awesome infographic below for the results. And for those of you who are wellness detectives like I am and want to know more about how we vet the products I recommend, read this.
*Note: I was bummed—but not totally surprised—that many of the polishes in our list landed in EWG’s “Moderate Hazard” category. So we chose to only include polishes rated 5 or lower, 6 being the high end of moderate (no thanks). I imagine creating a polish that looks great, lasts long and is free of weird, potentially toxic ingredients is no easy task, but I’m excited for the day that someone cracks the code on an ultra-clean, ultra-gorgeous polish formula. I know some of you will choose to avoid all polishes and show off your fingers and tootsies in their au naturale beauty, and to that I say, “Heck yeah, girl!” For those wanting to rock a colorful mani-pedi, but use safer, smarter products, these polishes are for you.
My Crazy Sexy Non-Toxic Nail Polish Review
A Note on Nail Polish Removers
We’re still on the hunt for great, effective, non-toxic polish removers! We tried a boat load, and while some looked fab on paper, they were mostly “meh” in use. If you know of a safe, worthy remover, let us all know in the comments!
Your turn: What’s your #1 non-toxic polish pick and why? And if you have a go-to remover, please share that, too!
Gentle Request: If you work for a beauty company, please be cool—we’re trying to keep these comments as unbiased and useful as possible. Sharing your product is welcomed and awesome. Hundreds of comments about your product and/or why you’re cranky that it wasn’t included is NOT awesome. Thank you!
Peace & polished nails,
One vote for karma!
There’s a company called Aila. I like their nail polish remover a lot and there’s no horrible smell. It also leaves my nails with a nice shine. It’s non-toxic. I don’t use their nail polish because I prefer Acquarella’s formula and ingredients.
rally nice nail arts
Not sure if anyone has tried Sparitual or Zoya?
They state they are “5 free”.
Zoya has a really nice nailpolish remover 🙂
I tried Josie Maran’s nail polish remover wipes, and they worked great, but they’re hard to find. Sometimes they have them at Sephora.
Love this nail polish because it works great and smells good. It doesn’t smell like pure chemicals which I really like. gadecosmetics.se
Dear Kris!
I love this post and also wanted to add (I wrote it already on Instagram) that I really love your style. Would you think about sharing some tips on shops with great colorful tops, t-shirts, accessories you like? You have a great taste and I love the style!
What about the Zoya line? They claim to be ‘5 Free’
Hi Why isnt Mischo beauty included in this list…they have great products and are very safe
my girl friend loves making nails, she’s always go to make her nails almost twice a month even though i’ve told her so many times, i think it’s toxic
Tenoverten! Great colors, great product — nice small local and growing business too…
I’m lovin’ the beauty reviews Kris… I would really appreciate if you could do one on non-toxic hair dye, as I would like to keep my highlights but I’m trying to switch to a chemical free, non-toxic lifestyle, so it’s a dilemma! Thanks xx
I like Debra Lippman. Looking forward to trying some of the others. How many days do they typically last on natural nails to get a ‘long wearing’ assessment?
Wonderful resource, thank you, Kris! I love Lauren B Beauty polish (vegan friendly, free of harsh chemicals). I use their polish and base/top coat. Also love their aloe-infused nail polish remover pads – the pads smell wonderful and moisturize. Great to learn of new brands I hadn’t heard of as well, am going to check them out! : )
I find turpentine removes much better than acetone. And turpentine, when you get the real stuff, is basically an essential oil. In the olden days, it was used as a medicine.
I put it in baths but found out how much better it is than acetone when I was using acetone to remove sticky label residue off an amber kimbucha bottle I wanted to reuse. Pure acetone was taking forever with a lot of product and a lot of scrubbing with cotton ball. Why not try turpentine? Works really fast, really well for this purpose.
I get mine from Diamond G Forest Products, in Patterson, GA.
Their turpentine and pine resin are derived from slash pines growing in So. GA using sustainable forest practices.
For further uses of pure pine gum spirits of turpentine, go to Tony Pantalleresco’s website, AugmentinForce.com or just go to YouTube and check him out. He has tons of videos and definitely one specifically on great uses of turpentine.
Hi Kris Carr, I loved your article, but it seems that you may have overlooked one.
Top in America and Canada, and has recently made it’s debut in both Australia and New Zealand.
Have you heard of Jamberry Nails?
You don’t have to just take my word for it, not only do we supply wraps which are revolutionalizing the nail industry, but lacquers and gels as well!
Forget nail polish, that’s the past. Jamberry is the top NON-TOXIC, CRUELTY FREE product to hit homes!
Check us out!
https://belindarenee.jamberry.com/au/en/
Snails are also a french non toxic nail polish, and the only 6 Free! It’s totally water soluble, hypoallergic and enviromentally friendly, Made to strictest cosmetic standards!
Thanks for the tip, Yiota. 🙂 kc
Hi there 🙂 I’m an organic beauty therapist (Aesthetician) and i have tried to eliminate as many chemical laden products and only use toxic free & safe products on my clients.., I use the bio polish nail Laquer and soy polish remover from ‘Kaia house organics’ based in New York actually. The polishes are great! And long lasting, but the soy polish remover takes time to Work and doesn’t make the job of removing nail Laquer very easy. If like to know How these two products rate compared to your top picks 🙂
I use Jamberry nail wraps because they are non toxic. I would love to know more about their lacquer, which is 5-free and vegan.
I’m a nail tech in AZ & we LOVE Dazzle Dry (created by a 70+ woman chemist). It’s vegan, dries in 5 minutes, lasts longer than regular polish, comes off w/ polish remover (no soaking in acetone) & needs no UV light. No formaldehyde, toluene, DBP, camphor or nitrocellulose. It’s a system in that it has a base coat, top coat & prep (sold in a kit). Check out dazzledry.com