Is there a way to make your manicure more sustainable?! I’m looking for products for a more sustainable at home mani. Also: sustainability in beauty is complicated, and chemistry is hard.
I got asked about a more sustainable way to do your nails at home recently. Nothing could be easier than this post, I thought: Replace cotton buds with a reusable option (because single use cotton isn’t good), mention some 3-free, 5-free and 7-free nail polish brands and a few natural removers, and Bob’s your uncle, right? NO IT’S NOT. (This goes without saying that the post grew somewhat longer than anticipated, so you’ve been warned.)
Clean/green/natural ≠ sustainable
Research was rather complicated, because every google hit seemed to imply that ‘sustainable nail polish/sustainable nail polish remover’ meant actually CLEAN nail polish/clean nail polish remover. The beauty community often seems to equal clean with sustainable as well, and google complies.
It’s one of my biggest pet peeves. Those two terms have (initially) NOTHING to do with each other. Clean doesn’t mean anything in the beauty business anyway, and it’s totally possible for a brand to be sustainable but not greencleannaturalwhatever, and a certified eco brand may not to be sustainable. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk…
Is my nail polish sustainable?
Glass bottle: recyclable. Bristles? Likely plastic (not good). Cap? Plastic. (Same)
But when we look inside at the actual polish, it becomes REALLY complicated. Everyone in the beauty business suggests that you should go for a 3-free, 5-free, 7- or 9-free polish. But in fact, being free of certain ingredients doesn’t make a polish more sustainable.
The marketing of ‘clean’ nail polish
Let me be crystal clear: if a company that sells and manufactures nail polish in Europe wants to convince you how much better their formula is than that of their competitors because it’s 3-free? You’re allowed to (politely) call them out on that.
It’s EU law!
Formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and Toluene are forbidden to use in nail polish in the EU anyways (since 2007!), so saying that they don’t use them in their formula is at best superfluous and at worst misleading. It’s as nonsensical as saying the nail polish formula doesn’t contain arsenic or uranium. If you want to know more about 5- to 9-free formulas, read Michelle’s post here, and Into The Gloss investigates as well (excellently).
Can I determine how sustainable the polish itself is?
I’m REALLY sorry, but we have to take a detour and learn about what makes the bulk of a nail polish first, and that involves a dive into chemistry.
What’s in my polish?
The bulk of every nail polish is made of a solvent (that dissolves when applied, thus turning your polish from wet to dry), and a film-forming polymer (that’s what remains on your nails). In addition to that, there’re of course dyes and pigments, plasticisers that ensure the polish doesn’t get brittle and chips, and thickeners.
More chemistry!
The solvent in conventional nail polishes is usually either butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. Both evaporate. If you exchange your regular polish with one that’s water based, it doesn’t make it more sustainable. It’s just less smelly, because when water evaporates, it doesn’t leave behind any smell.
Polymers are a scarily big group of molecules. There’re synthetic and natural ones, and it’s impossible to say how exactly bio-degradable the polymers in your nail polish are. The best I can come up with is that there’re some that are better and some that’re worse.
Glitter (the scourge of the Earth)
Now, pigments and glitter. Does your nail polish include bio-degradable glitter and ethically sourced mica? Likely not. I had a conversation with a nail polish maker and she pointed out that you can’t (yet) use bio-degradable glitter because it won’t last in the solvent used, but then, a manufacturer claimed they’re looking into it.
Can I remove my nail polish in a more sustainable way?
Nail polish remover
Acetone is always manufactured, while both ethanol and ethyl lactate that are used in more ‘natural’ options can be biologically sourced and are bio-degradable. So, opting for a ‘natural’ nail polish remover is an easy option to make your mani more sustainable.
Then we have the somewhat ‘indie’ nail polish removers that are oil-based – most use soybean oil. I somewhat fail to see that’s better: soy comes with its own barrage of problems.
(Fun fact: the main ingredient in those kind of removers is methyl soyate, which is also the main ingredient in bio diesel. You know, the one your car uses.)
Cotton balls/pads
The easiest option is to get one of those remover pots with a sponge inside. They usually last up to a year, but: instead of cotton, there’s a plastic ‘sponge’ drenched with remover inside. Not very sustainable, although less single-use cotton.
DIY your remover pads!
There’re a lot of options around if you just want to exchange your cotton buds with a longer-lasting product. You can buy reusable remover pads made of cotton, felt or microfiber either at amazon or etsy easily, OR you can even cut up any old washcloth and DIY it.
I haven’t tried it myself, but the key to use them more than once is rinsing them while still wet, and then washing them on a hot cycle. Staining may occur, but nothing more. If you opt for that, I’d definitely wouldn’t use that method on glitter polishes – because the glitter will wash down the drain and end up in our waterways.
What I learned about sustainable nail products
It pays off to do a little research, because most mags (one example, and that’s one of the more decent ones) and brands sell you lies: no, a water-based polish or an oil-based remover won’t be necessarily more sustainable. Trying to lead a more sustainable life as a beauty junkie is hellishly complicated, and there’re no simple answers.
Right now, I personally think there aren’t any good options for sustainable nail polishes. We need companies to come up with formulas that use bio-degradable polymers, pigments and glitters, and with removers that use sustainably sourced soy (and work well!).
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