Vegan Nail Polishes

Nail polishes for vegans

A vegan lifestyle means to abstain from meat, fish and animal products. Animal products are any products produced by animals, such as honey, beeswax, milk and cheese. If you live vegan, you must be care of it that you don’t consume food, which containing animal products. These include, for example, types of ice cream made with milk or biscuits containing butter. Therefore, vegans must always read the ingredients of any food.

However, vegan lifestyle don’t stop with food – cosmetic products must be also checked for certain ingredients. It must not contain animal components such as guanine (fish scales) or keratin (horn substance), nor animal products such as ghee (clarified butterfat) or silk (from the silkworm). For the production of vegan cosmetics (for example vegan nail polishes), alternative substances are used instead of these animal components and products. These alternative substances mostly come from nature or are synthetically produced. Unfortunately, it can also happen that not all products advertised as vegan are also vegan. Many manufacturers claim that their products are vegan but still use animal components or animal products. In order to recognize vegan cosmetics (e.g. vegan nail polishes) at a glance and not have to read through the numerous ingredients, there are different seals of approval that facilitate the search. Here you will find a list of different seals of approval: Seals of approval for cosmetic products.

Nail polishes are cosmetic products by which you wouldn’t necessarily think that they contain animal components or animal products. Unfortunately, it is so. An example for this is that all nail polishes which include red colour, e.g. nail polishes in the colours red, brown, orange or pink, contain carmine. Carmine is an animal component obtained from dead scale insects. Guanine is also frequently found in nail polishes. Guanine are fish scales and are used in nail polishes to give them a shimmering effect. But does this now mean that vegans must abstain from nail polishes? No. Fortunately there are vegan nail polishes and this must make all nail polish lovers, among the vegans, happy. Vegan nail polishes includes alternative substances from nature or substances that are synthetically produced, instead of animal substances. For the use of a red dye is for example the juice of beetroot used and mica (mica mineral) is often used for shimmer effects. There are several nail polish manufacturers that already have vegan nail polishes in their assortments or which are specialized only in vegan nail polishes. The following link leads you to the list of vegan nail polish manufacturers: Vegan nail polish manufacturers.

But not only vegans should pay attention to the ingredients of cosmetic articles, also non-vegans should do this. There are many chemical ingredients that are harmful to our body. Many nail polish manufacturers have begun to remove some of these harmful ingredients from their products and produce so-called free nail polishes.

Free Nail Polishes

If a nail polish has a free name, this means that the nail polish is free of certain ingredients. These are harmful substances such as plasticizers, fragrances or alcohol. Unfortunately, there are no specifications as to when the free names may be used. Each manufacturer can decide for himself which ingredients he don’t use in his nail polishes. The following list shows the ingredients which are usually not contained in the nail polish when using the free names.

3-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP)

4-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP)
In addition to 3-free: camphor

5-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor
In addition to 4-free: formaldehyde resin

7-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor, formaldehyde resin
In addition to 5-free: parabens, xylenes

8-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor, formaldehyde resin, parabens, xylenes
In addition to 7-free: plasticizers

9-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor, formaldehyde resin, parabens, xylenes, plasticizers
In addition to 8-free: acetone

10-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor, formaldehyde resin, parabens, xylenes, plasticizers, acetone
In addition to 9-free: fragrances

12-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor, formaldehyde resin, parabens, xylenes, plasticizers, acetone, fragrances
In addition to 10-free: alcohol, gluten

14-free

For example free of: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), camphor, formaldehyde resin, parabens, xylenes, plasticizers, acetone, fragrances, alcohol, gluten
In addition to 12-free: silicone, colophony

Today there is already a large selection of manufacturers producing vegan nail polishes. In addition, many manufacturers offer products free of animal testing and even produce halal nail polishes (suitable for Muslimas) and nail polishes suitable for children. Let yourself be surprised by the variety and have a look at our lists of nail polish manufacturers who sell products which are vegan, cruelty-free, halal and suitable for children.