What Makes Nail Polish Vegan?

When it comes to picking out vegan makeup products, finding out what’s vegan and what’s not can be a task. One of my main goals with my lifestyle is to use animal friendly items without having to sacrifice anything about my lifestyle. Using Logical Harmony, I want to show that you can do the same too. I want my pastels, burgundy, a shade of cappuccino, polish for the perfect French manicure and pink glitter nail polish too.

I have had a really hard time finding vegan foundation that fits my standards but a surprisingly easy time finding vegan nail polish. When I find myself posting on Twitter or talking in everyday conversations about vegan nail polish, I almost always get asked, “aren’t all nail polishes vegan?”. The answer is no. A lot of companies test on animals and a lot contain animal ingredients. In this post I’ll help explain What Makes Nail Polish Vegan.

Update – Logical Harmony now provides you with a Vegan Nail Polish Brand List so that you can be sure you are buying animal friendly nail polish. This list will be updated as I find out about more vegan nail polish brands.

The first thing that you want to look for when picking out vegan nail polish is whether or not the company tests their products on animals. Make sure that you are buying from a company that doesn’t test. I already urge everyone to buy cruelty free products. Don’t make our cute and cuddly friends suffer for your beauty when it’s so easy to get animal friendly versions! I was surprised at how readily available vegan nail polish is. Not just in stores (everywhere from your local drugstore to Sephora) but also in price ranges When Wet’n’Wild is making cute shades that also happen to be vegan and are only 99 cents… Why not support them for doing so?

Once you’ve found a cruelty free brand that you like, next comes the color selection. It’s typically shimmery and metallic shades that aren’t vegan. It’s typical for these shimmery shades to contain fish scales to achieve that effect. Unfortunately, these shades won’t be labeled in an obvious manner. What you do want to look for is “pearl” or “guanine”.

“Pearl or guanine is literally made from small fish scales and skin, suitably cleaned, and mixed with solvents such as castor oil and butyl acetate. The guanine can also be mixed with gold, silver, and bronze tones” – Encyclopedia.com

Of course, when in doubt, e-mail the nail polish company that you like and inquire about their polish in general or specific shades. Most companies are more than happy to help you with this. Currently, you can get vegan options from SpaRitual, Wet’n’Wild, Zoya, No Miss, NCLA and more!

Do you buy vegan nail polish? If so, what brands do you prefer?

Images : WeHeartIt