Eco-Friendly Nail Polish?

Sooooo, I like pedicures as much as the next gal. Well, maybe a little less. I happen to like short nails and am pretty happy if they are just clipped with one of those drugstore nail clippers? But I can get behind pretty toes. I got a pedicure right before I got married. And you know what? I really liked it. Those vampy toes make summer come alive. Anyhoo, I shifted over a while back to PeaceKeepers nail polish and acetone-free remover from Whole Paycheck 'cause conventional polish smells bad enough to warn me away even before I dig into EWG's Skin Deep database. EGirl, naturally, would paint her digits a new color every day if I'd let her (awhich I do not).

So what's the deal? Can I safely brighten her mood and her tootsies?

You can pretty much guess that conventional nail polish is bad news. Ever wanted to go hang out in a nail salon just to catch up with a friend while she's getting her fingers beautified? Katydidnot's cannibal kindergartener is clear enough about the hazard. He won't even consider eating humans because of those painted nails.

A bunch of companies are marketing less-toxic nail polish and removers. What are the ingredients to avoid? Toluene, dibutyl phthalates aka DBP, VOCs (in remover), acetone, and formaldehyde. Check here for a good summary (thanks to Tiny Choices for the link). Mmmmmm, pretty. Pretty toxic.

Apparently OPI, Orly and Sally Hansen lost the most toxic chemicals, and Acquarella's got a nontoxic line which is water-based (thanks to Green LA Girl for the tip). Suncoat's water-based and free of many of the top carcinogens (thanks to Green Mom Finds for the tip). Well, Suncoat's site comes down pretty hard on the non-water-based polishes out there, noting "Chemical solvents, namely acetates, are still the major ingredient in the polish: 60-70%. These nail polishes still give off chemical fumes, pollute the air, have an offensive odor, and are highly flammable and explosive." They're trying to sell the water-based stuff, of course, but they certainly make a strong case.

Tiny Choices pondered this weighty question a bit ago and has a great roundup of the enviro conundrum. They basically say that since polish remover itself is no great shakes you should skip the whole scene altogether. It's good to have less-toxic choices if you're going to go down the path, though. I remember going to Nusta Spa a few years back and having to bring my own nail polish because, despite it being an eco-spa, they only had conventional polish in there. That's what Ideal Bite recommends: bringing your own less-toxic polish to the salon. Sounds like the market's coming around since I had my first kid and all hope of getting a pedicure went out the window (thanks to the EU and California, for banning awful ingredients).

I think most of us probably err on the side of caution. Heck, they were singing the sad old refrain of "it's commercially viable and safe until you prove it's deadly" on BPA until pretty recently. Whatevah. I'd rather rub beet juice on my kid's nails than poison her. And yes, I do realize the therapy bill may be higher. Back to the question: is the so-called eco friendly nail polish really safe and/or a solid environmental choice? I think the eco bloggers were in agreement: not really. It's better than the conventional alternative but really, your best bet is to skip it altogether. Sorry, EGirl, we're sticking with special occasion polish for the foreseeable future.

Don't forget, you can always do the shape and buff -- shiny nails look A-OK too, in my humble opinion. As do nails that have lots of rich dirt from the garden or sand from the beach under them, for that matter. Living-your-life hands...gotta love 'em. (Click here for an interesting look at the historical fascination with long nails aka 'I don't do any manual labor' hands.)


*Photo courtesy of sxc.
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Kissing Kermit?

Wow, I never thought I'd say this, but maybe we should let the states handle matters once and for all. While the FDA's basically letting beauty product companies do what they will (forget the bunnies; let's not test for safety at all), Minnesota's going to ban mercury in cosmetics (thanks Grist for the link) and California, via its Safe Cosmetics Act, requires companies to disclose carcinogens in beauty products.

You'd think that banning mercury in cosmetics and forcing companies to reveal their cancer-causing ingredients might be, um, unnecessary, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

EWG's Skin Deep cosmetics database is a great resource for figuring out what's in your current stash (you can search by brand or just enter ingredients). But I haven't spent time scoping out much more than my baby's bubble bath and soap so far, so this topic is timely for me. We already avoid parabens in shampoo/conditioner/lotions, don't use air freshener (ick) and avoid perfume/fragrances (pthalates). But it seems I need to delve further. For a quick list of ingredients to avoid, check out this Q & A - Are Your Beauty Products Safe? from Care2. I plan to check out the product recommendations in this National Geographic Green Guide lowdown on organic makeup, and to print out/carry their Dirty Dozen guide to unsafe personal care ingredients and Smart Shopper's Non-Food Labels Guide.

Fake Plastic Fish's musings about makeup include a link to this article from Common Ground about the dangers of synthetic chemicals:

"It’s your story and mine because all of us alive on the planet today share something in common that was unshared by countless generations of humans who lived before us: we carry man-made pollutants inside our blood, urine and breast milk."

This makes me want to get serious about figuring out safer makeup for that holiday event: lead in lipstick?? (Echoes of Sandra Steingraber, who initially inspired me to start paying attention to persistent organic pollutants in breastmilk.) Fake Plastic Fish's blog comments are interesting; her readers have recs for specific brands of eco/safe cosmetics and one woman even recommends beet juice! My SIL makes her own lip balm; this seems attainable.

Word of mouth may be in order, though. I've been meaning to ask and see what green makeup other folks wear (and not the Halloween kind). I don't go the Tammi Bakker route but it would be nice not to have to worry about kissing my kids when I do toss on a little lipstick. I would love practical advice from anyone who's thought this through. Read more!

Plastic Smile

I swear I feel like we are all trapped in the Batman movie where the deodorant chemicals interact with the shampoo chemicals which interact with the room deodorizer and lock the poor unsuspecting victims into a Joker smile....

You've read all about plastic stabilizers leaching out of baby bottles and sippy cups aka the Bisphenol-A fiasco of the summer. In case you're needing succinct recommendations, my favorite resources are Z Recommends' extensive research on bottles/sippys and the old Green Guide basic guide to plastics. We recently went cold turkey on CBoy's pacifiers (poor guy), in part bz the plastic shield on his preferred binky was made of #7 plastic, um, yes, the shield that he chews on cavalierly to make a clicking sound while he bounces and grooves. That and the fact that his one true pacifier love was discontinued due to The First Years' fears of latex lawsuits (bad allergies in some kids) and therefore I'd only been able to stock up for the past 6 months via EBay auctions filled with sleep-deprived parents. But I digress....

You can check your own plastics to see what you should keep and what you should toss. Altho skipping plastic altogether may be the safest bet, supposedly safer plastics are labeled #1,2,4, and 5. Look on the bottom for the recycling symbol. If something isn't labeled with these numbers, don't use it for eating/drinking. Do not use plastics #3, 6 and 7 for food consumption and don't reuse items for food consumption not intended for reuse (like sport water bottles, takeout containers or yogurt tubs, much as that hurts my Depression-era sensibilities). That doesn't mean you should chuck these items into the landfill, just use them as plant pots and sandbox toys, not as food containers. Or tuck them away until small humans who ram everything in their mouths stop DOING THAT.

Yes to 1, 2, 4, 5
No to 3, 6, 7
Don't use recycled plastic containers (like takeout containers) in the microwave or let acidic/fatty foods sit in them.
Do remove cling wrap from items you buy at the store asap (it's almost all PVC which is bad news) and put it into another storage container.
Make sure the containers and plastic wrap you do use (even glass and ceramic) are microwave safe (should be labeled).
Don't let plastic wrap touch your food while it's being heated (or just use a paper towel).
Skip the Nalgene bottles (they may leach Bisphenol-A too).
Classico jars make awesome storage containers.

On a related note, check out the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep report as it ranks beauty care products (think baby shampoo) in terms of safety (the FDA isn't the strictest regulatory agency so even though you'd think that anything labeled baby shampoo has to be safe, well, read the report). Things to avoid: phthalates, which are commonly found in perfume and nail polish remover as well as plastics and may be linked to male reproductive disorders among other issues -- they're banned in the EU, and inexplicably still here in American products (like the iPhone). You can find phthalate-free nail polish/remover at Whole Foods. It's also worth avoiding parabens, which are a preservative in most shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers, even though the jury's still out on safe levels of these chemicals. They are a potential carcinogen and may mimic estrogen (high paraben levels were found in a breast cancer study). The 365 brand of beauty products is pretty cheap, believe it or not.

Interesting thread on raising an eco-conscious baby at this WashPost online discussion transcript basically urges us just to buy less stuff. Which is certainly not going to be your takeaway from my lunchbox suggestions, which are more along the line of investments you'd make to avoid creating a pile of disposable lunchstuffs like juiceboxes and the like. But then again, I don't just want a green baby, I want a green healthy baby. Heck, I want a green, healthy baby who actually eats her lunch!

In terms of avoiding plastics in your kid's lunchbox (I don't know about you but that's what almost all of our kidgear to date was made of until recently), check out Sigg (aluminum, though, which has raised health concerns in the past) or Klean Kanteen (stainless steel, but make a chirpy noise) bottles, Thermos Foogo storage jars, Reynolds Cut Rite wax paper sandwich bags (looove these! hardly ever available at Whole Foods, grab em when you can -- I'm going to try this online vendor), sandwich wraps, and Built NY lunchbags (go leadfree on the reusable lunch sacks). I really love the efficiency and food variety you can cram into Bento lunchboxes but wish they weren't filled with plastic tubs. And while we are talking kidlunch, do check out the archives of veganlunchbox for awesome ideas. If you want to buy any of this expensive enviro lunch packaging, check out Lunch in a Box and see if their coupon code/link to Reusable Bags -- can get you 20% off your order.

Speaking of bags, the Washington Post ran a phenomenal comparison of the enviro cost of paper vs. plastic bags recently. Bottom line tho: forget paper, forget plastic, we should all bring our own durned bags. In case you don't have 1,001 political/tech conference tchotchke bags already floating around your front hall closet, there are lots of clever reusable grocery bags out there. Makes me smile thinking back to college when roommates L and S and I used to wear our sweatshirts to the grocery store, take them off, and wrap up our food purchases in the zipped hoodies. I bet hoodies don't have crazy chemicals in them.... Read more!