Nail Polish

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by AlwaysSAI

I'm loving the new Revlon ColorStay nail polish! I painted my nails on Thursday night. Hand washed a week's worth of dishes on Sunday night (as in hands in hot, sudsy water scrubbing for 30 mins) and just one teeny tiny chip on my thumb nail. It's hardly noticeable.

Most nail polishes (even OPI) don't stand up to my dish washing routine. Considering I don't have a dishwasher....

Get some fun dish washing gloves to protect your manicure and also from soap drying out your hands. I'm kind of Howard Hughes/Joan Crawford about some of my cleaning since I have cats, and I have different gloves for each task: dishes, bathroom cleaning, household cleaning, kitchen cleaning, cats (I scrub out their litter boxes) and write the chore inside the cuff. My local Wal-Mart has pairs with patterned cuffs for under $3 as does Ross. I broke in a new pair this weekend cleaning the inside of my dishwasher and I looked quite glamorous removing the rust, hard water deposits, and gross stuff I don't want to really know about.

Are there any brands y'all see or use that are without formaldehyde, other than OPI? Since I live in a small rural area I'm limited, but if I knew what brands to look for I can use the internet for orders. I'm also avoiding toluene, but with a good base coat it may be tolerated, but formaldehyde is a deal breaker.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

Are there any brands y'all see or use that are without formaldehyde, other than OPI? Since I live in a small rural area I'm limited, but if I knew what brands to look for I can use the internet for orders. I'm also avoiding toluene, but with a good base coat it may be tolerated, but formaldehyde is a deal breaker.

I mentioned this one before, but Butter London is without formaldehyde and it is AMAZING. They sell it at Ulta if you have one of those anywhere close by...?

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

Get some fun dish washing gloves to protect your manicure and also from soap drying out your hands.

You mean like these...

[agzg]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

Are there any brands y'all see or use that are without formaldehyde, other than OPI? Since I live in a small rural area I'm limited, but if I knew what brands to look for I can use the internet for orders. I'm also avoiding toluene, but with a good base coat it may be tolerated, but formaldehyde is a deal breaker.

You want to look for stuff that's "Big 3 Free" - free of Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene.

There's a list of polishes here.
http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/0...l#.T0RUxvGPXd4

And here.
http://www.inspirationail.com/3-free-varnish/

Oh yeah, you can order Zoya online and from what I've seen the polishes are beautiful and high quality. They're 3 free - I haven't taken the initiative to look through and pick out colors yet (since I'm working off a gift card that I've earmarked for nail polish) but I intend to.

Stay away from Seche Vite as a topcoat. It's LOADED with one of them, I forget which, but might have all three. I'm pretty sure my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat is 3 free. A good topcoat helps keep manicures from chipping, too.

The China Glaze polishes with the black labels (on the bottom) are 3 free - I like that brand a lot but don't get the wear out of them like I do OPI or Nicole by OPI.

If I'm getting something besides a drugstore brand or boring color of OPI I can usually find it (well, not the HTF ones necessarily) for about $3-5 a piece on the Awazon. OPI, China Glaze... I've ordered a few off of there and haven't had a problem - they always mail wrapped in bubble wrap in a bubble wrap envelope so it fits in my mailbox which I appreciate as the post office sucks about delivering packages that don't fit.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by agzg

Stay away from Seche Vite as a topcoat. It's LOADED with one of them, I forget which, but might have all three. I'm pretty sure my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat is 3 free. A good topcoat helps keep manicures from chipping, too.

Ya, Toluene

[agzg]

Originally Posted by LAblondeGPhi

Ya, Toluene

I still use it but not every day - mostly when I have a glittery or shimmery polish that's rough and I want to smooth it out. For cremes I use insta-dri but it tends to crack on me (is that weird? It only happens with this topcoat but I can NOT wait for non-almost instant topcoats to dry).

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

I mentioned this one before, but Butter London is without formaldehyde and it is AMAZING. They sell it at Ulta if you have one of those anywhere close by...?

Originally Posted by agzg

You want to look for stuff that's "Big 3 Free" - free of Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene.

There's a list of polishes here.
http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/0...l#.T0RUxvGPXd4

And here.
http://www.inspirationail.com/3-free-varnish/

Oh yeah, you can order Zoya online and from what I've seen the polishes are beautiful and high quality. They're 3 free - I haven't taken the initiative to look through and pick out colors yet (since I'm working off a gift card that I've earmarked for nail polish) but I intend to.

Stay away from Seche Vite as a topcoat. It's LOADED with one of them, I forget which, but might have all three. I'm pretty sure my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat is 3 free. A good topcoat helps keep manicures from chipping, too.

The China Glaze polishes with the black labels (on the bottom) are 3 free - I like that brand a lot but don't get the wear out of them like I do OPI or Nicole by OPI.

If I'm getting something besides a drugstore brand or boring color of OPI I can usually find it (well, not the HTF ones necessarily) for about $3-5 a piece on the Awazon. OPI, China Glaze... I've ordered a few off of there and haven't had a problem - they always mail wrapped in bubble wrap in a bubble wrap envelope so it fits in my mailbox which I appreciate as the post office sucks about delivering packages that don't fit.

You just made this so easy for me with those lists! My reasons for avoiding that stuff is that it stains my nails a horrible yellow that looks like a smoke, and it dries out the surrounding skin and I get more hangnails and my cuticles look unattractive.

I'm quite familiar with Butter as I've had them do my nails at the Seattle airport many times, they are just around the corner from the Alaska Airlines Boardroom and most of my flights. It looks like there are a few places nearby (within 100 miles in Coeur d'Alene and Spokane) that carries Butter. There's a Nordstrom and an Ulta in Spokane, and also two surprising retailers: Northern Quest Casino and Mel's Nursery.

Butter's Powder Finish Foot Creme is one of my favorite products, I've given money to people with layovers to get more.

Originally Posted by LAblondeGPhi

You mean like these...

Not as fancy as that with the ribbons, mine just have patterned cuffs, but you've got the idea.

[joliebelle]

I decided to get the entire Holland collection from OPI. It's ridiculously gorgeous, and I'm kind of obsessed.

China Glaze has a magnetic nail polish collection: http://www.thepolishaholic.com/2012/...ollection.html
Not sure if want.