My 6-Month Non-Toxic Nail Polish Roundup

Me and Angel

It started in March with an event that happened close to where I live, which is rare, so I went. It was the launch of Chrome Girl nail polish, co-owned by Jamie Boreanaz, wife of Angel, who is loved by my best friend E. So I had to go to get a photo with him, and what do you know? I also enjoyed the nail polish.

The nail colors are “4-free,” made without formaldehyde, DBP, toluene or camphor  – Boreanaz and co-founder Melissa Ravo wanted to develop a product that they could use to play princess with their little girls without worrying about them ingesting harmful chemicals. This was the first time I had tried such a nail polish, and I liked the way it went on and it didn’t smell offensive. The colors are cute, especially the one I took home in my goody bag – “Party Star,” which my son Brady likes to have on his toes, but I found that some of the more opaque and bright colors stained my nails for about a day after I removed them with regular old nail polish remover. Chrome Girl – $10.00

Fast forward a few month to the day I got a pitch for Ecoprincess products, which include nail colors that are toxin free. In fact, they boast that the nail polish is water-based, which makes them even safer for kids, although they claim to be free of only 3 of the usual suspects: formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate.

I like the way this color (Night Sky) looked blue in the bottle but after application it is blue/green iridescent and it reminds me of mermaids. The best part of this polish is that it peels off in water! No nasty stinky nail polish remover needed! And to be honest, this polish doesn’t smell like anything at all, so no fumes required, which is another reason this one is good to use with kids. Ecoprincess – $8.99

Well, now I had two non-toxic nail polish brands to review and that just felt weird, so I hunted down Crabtree and Evelyn after I saw an ad for their new non-toxic nail polish line. They sent me my choice of colors – Pomegranate – a deep berry red that I picked because my friend Candice told me that this was an “in” color for fall.

Of all the brands I tried I like this one the best, mostly because of the color – I’ve been partial to it for years. But also because it went on smoothly in one application. After a day of wifing and mothering, I needed another coat, but for a quick fix it’s fantastic. This one is also free of camphor, dibutyl phthalates, formaldehyde and toluene. Crabtree & Evelyn – $6.00

Word on the street among people who get their nails done a lot is that Zoya is the go-to brand for non-toxic nail polish, so my pal Romy brought me a treasure trove of Zoya colors one day when we met for tea. (I know, how precious. Shut up. It was awesome.) I tried the avocado-colored Shawn since that was another one of the colors Candice recommended for fall.

I’m not gonna lie. It’s a weird color for me. But apparently it’s what the kids are wearing. It matches the grass, though, so that made a cool picture. Zoya trumps the other three by saying it is free of FIVE harmful chemicals: the big four PLUS formaldehyde resin. Zoya – $8.00.

It’s past October 20, so this feature has taken me six long months to complete. But you can’t rush art, right? And this is art in so many ways.

I received free samples of all products above but you can’t pay the bills with nail polish so don’t be jealous.