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Being all-natural, organic or "clean" is one of the beauty world's biggest trends right now, especially with the recent push for sustainability across industry lines. Although clean beauty as a concept is full of grey area and blurred lines, there is one aspect that you can get a bit more definitive with: nail polish. In fact, there are certain levels of "cleanliness," if you will, that you can actually measure when choosing what kind of polish to use during your next manicure.
Research has been done about how chemicals in nail polishes can be absorbed into our bodies through our nail beds, which is why most, if not all, nail polishes are now known as "3-free" -- meaning free of formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate (DP), three of the most damaging substances added when creating a nail lacquer endearingly called the toxic trio.
But, to get even more natural about what goes onto and into your body, you can look for 5-, 7-, 8- and even 10-free nail polishes; these will exclude the basic three chemicals and remove even more potentially harmful materials.
For a quick glance, 5-free removes formaldehyde resin and camphor in addition to the top three; 7-free also removes ethyl tosylamide and xylene; 9-free excludes parabens and acetone; and 10-free is free of all of that plus triphenyl phosphate, tert-butyl hydroperoxide and gluten, and is usually free of animal by-products.
So, if clean nail polish sounds like something you want to get on board with, here are seven brands to get started with.