LUST-HAVE | Scotch Naturals WaterColors

3-FREE is a pretty common catch phrase in the world of nails nowadays. No one wants toluene, formaldehyde or or DBP in their nail polish anymore. Um, fair enough.

We've seen Priti, Sula, Rescue Beauty, Ginger and Liz, Jessica, Zoya, Mavala... In fact, you can probably find more non-toxic polishes than toxic, although many of the biggest offenders are still the biggest names in the beauty.

The latest in non-toxic, natural nailcare is Scotch Naturals, a collection of 13 water-based polishes from an Arizona mom who first created non-toxic Hopscotch Kids nail polish for little girls.

In fact, the brand has such faith in its product that it claims to give you healthier nails the longer you use it (but be sure to use their remover too instead of super-drying acetone).

After reading the ingredient lists of their products, we tend to agree. The WaterColors ingredients are: water, acrylic polymer emulsion, and non toxic colorants. Seriously. THREE INGREDIENTS. The Polish Remover ingredients? water, tall oil fatty acids & alcohols (plant based), nonionic surfactant, organic buffer. 

Natural nail colour does tend to be harder to apply, take longer to dry and be quicker to come off and/or chip, but Scotch Naturals gives some handy tips to keep it looking better longer on this page.

Ceasefire and Hot Toddy are on-trend putty/mushroom/greige/khaki colours. There are some brilliant blues, a fiery red, black, a magenta and a bevy of nudes for the non-adventurous. All in, a well-rounded capsule collection.

Good for your nails taken neat.

Speaking of naturals... stay tuned for a little side project we're working on a very chic gardening e-commerce site... Kale & Cole {for the hip garden}. We can't wait to launch it!

TREND MILL | Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique rocks

 

A LARGE swath of beauty bloggers on the interweb are obsessed with nails. So obsessed that they take daily pics (NOTDs to you) of a different manicure. I wonder how they’ll react to the launch of Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique this month. Because it’s a cracker of a range.

First, Fulerton is always behind the scenes at the hottest fashion shows, works with the top stars and knows what’s going to be a hit trend seasons before it is. She knows what you’re going to want to be wearing on your fingers next fall before it’s even a glimmer in your fashionable eye.

She’s also incorporated some pretty interesting concepts into the range. There’s a stand-alone kiosk that is stocked with double-ended bottles, nail art, glitter, nail tools and all sorts that Andrea has clearly thought long and hard about. In fact, I bet most of the products came about because she wanted them for her own use and couldn’t find them previously, like the credit card-slim buffing block. There are 78 SKUs in all.

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TREND MILL | No-chip manicures

 

IN THE UK, Creative Nail Design (well done, CND) seem to have cornered the market (or at least the column inches) for this new trend with their Shellac system. But, as you might have guessed from the previous sentence, they are simply one of many players in a larger production that is called the no-chip manicure. 

Since the beginning of 2010, no-chip manicure signs have been cropping up in the front windows of nail salons across America. From California to New York (and, yes, I have seen them in both places with mein own eyes), the grubbiest to the poshest places are now offering to give you a glossy, professional manicure that lasts longer than many relationships. That would be two weeks.

So, let's break it down for you, shall we? The who, what where, why and when of it all.

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