Looking for a greener nail polish?

Does your nose start itching at the mere thought of nail polish?  Are you concerned about breathing in those fumes but refuse to wear sandals with naked toe nails?  Or maybe you want to use products that are more environmentally friendly and still maintain your perfectly polished fingertips?

Suncoat water-based nail polish may be the nail polish for you.

I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals to which my body and my family are exposed. Even more importantly, I have a three-year old daughter who watches everything I do to make myself look more fancy.  I got tired of trying to hide in the master bathroom in the middle of the night painting my toe nails with swollen, sleepy eyes just to keep her away from the fumes.

Some traditional nail polishes have removed the more toxic ingredients, such as formaldehyde toluene, and pthalates.  That is a step in the right direction, but they still use other organic solvents that are flammable or considered irritants.

The main ingredient in Suncoat nail polish is water.  As the polish dries it releases water vapor instead of fumes into the air.  Instead of boring you with more of the reasons for switching to water-based nail polish, I’ll just let you read it on their web site and get on with the review.

The first thing I did with my polish when I cracked open the bottle was take a big sniff.  Guess what?  No eye-watering, bad tasting smell.  I could touch up my nails in the office at work and no one would know.

It is safer and doesn’t smell.  But does it work?

Rose – Day 1

Oh, yes it does.  With a little extra time and patience this polish will deliver the goods.  The directions on the bottle state that you will need at least 2 THIN coats.  They are not kidding.  At least I wasn’t surprised when it took 4 coats to get the finish and coverage I was looking for.  The good thing is that this polish dries quickly.  My nails were ready for the next coat in 30 seconds, and was dry to the touch – no longer tacky – after only a minute.

Suncoat nail polish is also very durable.  I tested it on both my finger and toe nails.  The finish started to show signs of wear on my finger nails around day 3, which is similar to how traditional polishes last for me.  The toe nails, however, were still looking polish perfect after a week.

Rose – Day 4

The only weakness for this polish is hot water.  Since it is water based you can actually remove it by soaking your nails in hot water.  My nails survived hot showers and scrubbing a few pots by hand after dinner.  However, if you are going to be spending more than 5 minutes with your fingers submerged in hot water, your polish will peel right off by the time you’re done.

They offer a variety of colors to suit all personalities and occasions.  I tried out three different colors.  First up is Apple Green (21) for my fun, adventurous side.  It was everything I was hoping for with a solid refreshing green color and a pearl finish.

For the traditional cubicle resident I ordered Rose (08) and Light Purple (09), which are lovely colors, but the rose is nothing like the color shown on the color sample image on Suncoat’s website.  I was also disappointed in the coverage provided by these two shades.  They turned out to be more transparent than I expected.

I contacted the company about these two minor disappointments and was excited when I heard back from founder and chief chemist Ying.  She replied,

"Some of our nail polish are more solid than others…The #08 you tried, we changed the formula a bit about three month ago to offer more color intensity… For the nail color chart on our site, we sure will improve the images to reflect the true nail colors."

I was happy to hear all of this because I was so excited about the quality of the polish.  And until Suncoat updates their website, you can get an accurate representation of the colors from the images of the polish bottles on Amazon.

Are you ready to make your nails a little more green?  Or if Apple Green isn’t your color, what color do you like to paint your nails for a splash of fun?

T can be found trying to capture the sweetest moments in life as a wife, mom, and full time software engineer over at T with Honey.