I am guilty of going to Target and wondering why in the world Essie nail polish is $9.  As a high school student, or anyone for that matter, it is easy to wonder why the more expensive  nail polishes are any better than the ones that are $3 or $4.  Sure, one brand might chip a little bit faster, but is there really a significant factor that makes spending the extra money worth it when you will eventually remove the polish anyway?

Yes, there is.  The average nail polish contains three extremely-unhealthy chemicals that are known in the beauty industry as “The Big Three” and sometimes “The Toxic Trio”.  These chemicals are Dibutyl phthalate (DBP), Toluene, and Formaldehyde.  Additional chemicals that pose less of a threat but are included in “The Big Five” are formaldehyde resin and camphor.

I was shocked to learn the specific details about each of the chemicals.  Formaldehyde is used in hardening nail polishes, but it is also embalmer (meaning it helps preserve people after they pass away).  If that that is not creepy enough, the worst part is that this chemical is carcinogenic and can cause nasal and lung cancers.  DBP is actually banned in Europe, but here  in the U.S. is used to reduce chipping of the polish. This chemical has been linked to birth defects and reproductive issues that can impact people way down the road.  Finally Toluene is a chemical used to make the polish apply more smoothly, but it can cause pregnancy complications and is also banned by the European Union.  There have been criticisms over the FDA allowing these chemicals to be in many of the most common nail polish brands.

The additional chemicals of “The Big Five” also pose minor threats–they won’t cause serious damage but just are not super-healthy.  The fact that many of these chemicals have been banned alone raises a red flag.

This makes me very upset because you have to really dig to find this information.  Obviously the cheaper polishes probably do not want to advertise that they contain those chemicals.  Instead I think that Essie, OPI, and all of the healthy polishes should blatantly advertise that they are the healthy ones and call out the ones that are not.  You can find out that they are “Big Three” or “Big Five” free on their websites, but they do not sell it as much as they should.

A thousand things can cause cancer and these worries may seem trivial, but if you think about it, many of us have nail polish on constantly and we are touching our faces, eating, and being exposed to those chemicals all day long for weeks at a time.  I just would not want a beauty product to have damaging-health effects later in life that I could have avoided by purchasing safer products.

These are some good nail polish brands that are worth the peace-of-mind:

1. “Essie” (my favorite), is available at most drug stores, $9
2. “OPI”, is available at most drug stores, $9
3. “Zoya”, is sold at Ulta and Wegmans stores and is also a “Five free” polish, $9
4. And if you’re feeling fancy, “Butter London”, this is a “five free” polish as well (and the bottles are really cute), available at Nordstrom and Sephora stores, $15