This is a guest blog by HC Approved! blogger and Managing Editor Cara Sprunk for Chrissy’s Beauty School.
Let me just put this out there: Purple nail polish is my favorite. I experiment with lots of different colors — as you’ll read about on the Nailing It posts. But purple is my go-to color.
I tried a metallic-y purple polish from Green Envy for my toes for my last days in flip-flops called Monarch Masquerade (I just love nail polish names, don’t you?).
The nail polish had some sort of green-twist, and with debates popping up about what really constitutes green products, I wanted to investigate what Green Envy’s claims meant. They bragged the nail polish did not contain Toulene, Formaldehyde (whoa, haven’t heard that word since high school science labs), and Dibutyl Phthalate.
Now, I don’t know about you but I really have no idea what is so bad about that stuff. But since investigating, I’m sort of happy to at least use some polishes that don’t contain that stuff.
Toulene can affect the nervous system — causing depression, headaches, nausea and feelings of intoxication. It can also make you tired, or even contribute to loss of color vision and hearing. Workers who are continually exposed to show minor abnormalities in neuropsychological tests according to an article on alive.
Formaldehyde is a carcinogen that may cause nasal cancer.
And Dibutyl Phthalate can cause early puberty in girls and low sperm counts in guys. Among many other bad things it can cause are infertility, harm to fetus, and nausea and dizziness.
While it is rare that I would develop those problems, I believe that supporting companies that are committed to not using these harmful chemicals helps protect the people working in the factories. Seems worth the $15.
But back to the color. The color was on-trend, without being blindingly blingy like silvers and golds. Despite the lack of chemicals, I noticed no issues with the polish. It went on smoothly and stayed on a very long time without chipping!