The only thing I remember about ninth grade chemistry is a speech my teacher gave about nail polish remover probably being carcinogenic (that and Mr. Silver letting me play my the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack during lab time — I don’t wanna wait!). At the time I didn’t know (or perhaps there weren’t) other options, so I stuck with whatever drug store brand my mom picked up. For the next 13 years, I thought about how I was probably slowly killing myself every time I took off my ragged polish, but researching non-toxic removers wasn’t high on my list of things to do.
Then a few weeks ago, I read a New York Times article on new types of eco-friendly nail polish removers and decided that it was time to stop pondering Mr. Ag’s recommendation and invest 15 minutes in finding a new nail polish remover. The $45 jar of “microscopic crystals” reviewed by the Times is out of my price range, but with a bit of Googling I found the names of a few products and headed to Whole Foods. My research proved useless since my Whole Foods only carries two brands of nail polish remover, so I just grabbed the one with the cuter-looking bottle, which was Karma Organic’s Nail Polish Remover with Soybean Oil & Lavender.
I expected that after a few minutes of rubbing my finger with a cotton ball, I’d give up and come crawling back to my old nemesis acetone. However, with only one or two more swipes than usual, two layers of OPI polish and a top coat were completely gone. The color didn’t seep onto my skin, and afterwards my fingers actually felt moisturized. According to the (recyclable) glass bottle, it’s non-toxic and non-carcinogenic, and it feels like rubbing oil into your nails, not a strange cocktail of highly-flammable chemicals that can’t possibly be good for you.
I don’t have much of a sense of smell thanks to a bottle rocket incident in my youth. (Okay, that was Selma Bouvier. I just inhaled too much second-hand smoke as a kid.) However, the biggest selling point — aside from not poisoning yourself — has to be the scent. Karma Organic’s nail polish remover is available in unscented, tea tree, and lavender, which I bought. It doesn’t smell like the fragrance is being used to cover up some horrible chemical odor, it just smells very lightly of lavender. At $12 for a 4 oz bottle, it’s much pricier than the regular stuff, but since I only buy nail polish remover once every few years I figured I should just go for it. Though, I may wind up going through the bottle pretty fast. I’ve been changing my polish twice a week because taking it off isn’t a nasty chore anymore, it’s actually fun.
Karma Organic Nail Polish Remover with Soybean Oil & Lavender, $12 for 4 oz at KarmaOrganicSpa.com.
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