FESTIVE NAILS
Last weekend, my best friend Sjaniel and I did our nails (as highly noticed on my stories) — probably the first time I’ve painted my nails in well over a year. Using some existing natural nail varnish colours already in our bathroom cabinets and a touch of eco makeup glitter, we got creative with some loud, proud and definitely sparkly nails which have certainly got me in the party mood!
So what's a natural nail varnish? Well, these days you can easily find (albeit online) 3-free, 4-free and up to 13-free nail varnishes that don’t contain as many nasties as the original toxic stuff. The “big 3” chemicals are dibutyl phthalate and toluene — both common in standard nail varnishes — and formaldehyde — very much present in nail treatments or in varnishes in their resin form. Avoiding exposure to these 3 chemicals by changing brands is easier to do these days now that ‘green and eco beauty’ has become a thing. Popular brands from Essie to OPI have released 3-free varnishes recently in line with the trend, and on the higher end Chanel and Dior are both 5-free — basically, the higher the number, the more natural the varnish. When it comes to really avoiding a host of unwanted chemicals seeping into your skin and being inhaled into your body, we want to look a little higher: Butter London is one of the first more “natural” brands at 8-free that I ever found, and has been on the scene for many a year now, while Orly’s “breathable” range is for example 13-free, Smith & Cult 8-free, Nailberry 12-free and so on.
Many of the troublesome chemicals that have been removed or replaced are responsible for the cost-effective top-notch formulas that we’ve come to expect from nail salons through to the brands at your local pharmacy. Not all more natural varnishes are getting it right when it comes to pigment strength and variety and application, unfortunately leading to a frustrating waste of money. As someone who has used the more natural brands exclusively for the last 5 years and dabbled with them way before that, I’ll be sharing some of my fav brands that not only come up with the goods in terms of colours, but are also easy-to-use, stay-put formulas. While they might not totally equal or top a leading industrial-strength nail varnish (and the frustration also lies in the fact that “natural nail bars” are hard to find and more expensive when you do, so you’ll be painting your own nails if you choose this route and therefore have your own manicure skills to contend with), it’s a case like anything within the beauty industry of swapping convenience and low-cost for something ultimately less damaging to you and the environment.
So for this look I started off with a natural nail base coat to stop pigmented colours from staining the nail beds, I followed with one coat (yes, just one coat!) of deep blue/black on most of my nails and painted the ring fingers with a more royal blue. Adding glitter on top means that there is no need to perfect a non-streaked application with a couple of coats, which saved application time and drying time — and artistic irritation! Then while the nails were still wet, I dipped the pad of a clean finger into the glitter and lightly touched it onto the nails — just enough to adhere. I went for an overall glitter look, but try it on just the tips or tops if you like! When everything was dry enough, I finished off with one glossy top coat to protect the colour and the glitter with a good seal, which also added that professional touch. Then I sat back and let them dry — seriously the easiest bit of nail art I ever attempted and the least obsessive one, as its wonderful randomness and sparkle is a beautiful distraction from the salon perfectionism you might be used to... plus none of those fume headaches!
Here is what I used:
Base coat: Zoya Anchor Basecoat
Main colours: Nailberry Blueberry and Kure Bazaar Mon Bleu
Glitter: I used a mixed aqua silver glitter from EcoStardust and fine blue glitter from BioGlitter
Top coat: Sundays 10-free Top Coat No.1
Sjaniel used:
Zoya Anchor Basecoat and Sundays No.16 (a classic bright red) throughout and then used large gold glitter from EcoStardust and fine red glitter from BioGlitter.
Read up on Sjaniels eco nails take over on Eco Age.