Getting a manicure and a pedicure is like taking a mini vacation at an economical price. For once, you are the one being pampered.
Like many of you, I've been getting mani/pedi's when acrylic was a good thing. Now that I'm in my 30's I realize how potentially toxic these establishments and their products can be.
Did you ever wonder why the nail technician always wears a mask? And here you are in your business/yoga attire inhaling all of these unknown particulate toxic fumes; all the while someone needs a filtered mask not seated more than a foot away from you. To me that raises a red flag.
I cringe when I see an adult bring in a child into a nail salon, their nice pink lungs and their undamaged nail beds, "what are you doing?", is what I want to scream, but reality sets in and I go home to my own daughters, who are already starting to ask me to paint their nails. How can I respond "NO" when they notice my painted nails.
In my deep-down fear of the inevitable. I decided to calm my anxiety down a bit and do some research on popular nail polishes and other products used (nail polish remover, etc...); BIG mistake! On the brightside while surfing the net I came across some non-toxic products, and even better non-toxic nail salons.
What's in my polish?:
number one big bad word: Triphenyl phosphate, or TPHP, a suspected endocrine-disrupting chemical, it is commonly used to make plastics and as well as fire retardant in foam furniture. TPHP can sneak its way into your body too.
Formaldehyde: generally found in cheaper nail polish, this chemical is typically used as a preservative, a sterilizer, and to embalm bodies.
formaldehyde is often added to nail hardeners, and many nail companies include nail hardeners in all of their colored polishes, considering that formaldehyde has been connected to lung and nasal cancer, and is considered a known carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP): This chemical is used to make plastics that are extra-flexible; DBP has been linked to reproductive issues companies are still allowed to put it into products in the US
Toluene: Often included in polish to make it apply more smoothly, toluene is another toxic chemical that can be found in many many products including, nail polish, gasoline as an octane booster, and is also used as a raw material to create TNT.
Toluene has been known to affect the nervous system and to cause dizziness, headaches, eye irritation, nausea, birth defects, developmental abnormalities, and liver and kidney damage.
Please visit: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep to check out your beauty products.
After researching the poison that we paint our pretty piggys with, I managed to locate a few non-toxic nail salons in NYC, and I actually tried one of them out.
1. Hortus Nailworks :Lower East Side
2. Dear Sundays: Flatiron/Midtown
3. Ph7 Nail Salon: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
4. Tenoverten: SoHo, TriBeCa, Midtown
5. Sweet Lily Nail Spa: TriBeCa
6. Sakura: Upper East Side and Lower East Side*
*I tried Sakura's upper east side location, although it was a bit no frills, there wasn't any odor. I got a gel manicure, and a vegan nail polish pedicure. They are experts at nail design; I showed them a blurry photo and they transformed my busted hands into this...
They used a vegan nail polish on my toes.