Goal: To find a less toxic nail polish.
Brand I Tried: ZoyaProduct: Renee, Kara, Kamilah, Maura, Lana & Sasha (I'm a huge fan of burgundys, reds, corals and pinks). I chose colors with a high opacity, so I wouldn't need a million coats to achieve true color.
Product Description: "Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) - chemicals that are known to cause cancer and birth defects. Zoya Nail Polish is vegan friendly".
Ingredients: Butyl Acetate, Ethyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Isopropyl Alcohol, *Sterikonium Hectroite, Acrylates Copolymer, Styrene / Acrylates Copolymer. * Ingredients say: Sterikonium Hectroite, but I think it may actually be a typo on the bottle. Don't quote me.. but I think it's supposed to be: Stearalkonium Hectorite.
- Price: $7.00
- Size: 0.5 fl. oz. / 15 ml.
- Uses: Nail Color
- Amount Of Product Used For It To Be Effective: Usually needs 1-3 coats, depending on the color.
- First Impression: Nice, but colors looked completely different than what I thought I had ordered. I've tried Kamilah & Sasha out of the 6 colors I bought so far... and hated Renee... looked nothing like the color online when I got it!
- Visual Attractiveness: Sleek bottles.
- Texture: Not too thin, and not too thick... nice, rich color.
- Scent: Like nail polish... yuck! Fumes are not as strong as others I've used in the past though.
- How Long I've Used It: For about a month so far. Both manicures and pedicures seemed to last about 1 to 2 weeks for me. Please keep in mind that I am also using their their "Anchor" base coat and "Armor" top coat. I read in several reviews that it was necessary to purchase these due to Zoya's special product formulations (without certain chemicals) and in order to extend wear.
- Easy To Find And Where: Zoya.com.
- Aquired: Purchased with my own money.
- Customer Service: I requested the ingredients for both the nail polish and the Remove+ Plus (which I've also reviewed here). They did email me the ingredients and were very helpful, but said that they didn't post the ingredients on their website because they advertised that their products were non-toxic. Not exactly sure what that means though... Hmmm... hope they're not trying to hide anything! Shady Lady if you asked me! I don't like when companies DON'T post their ingredients!
- Sample, Trial, Travel Sizes: No, not that I could find- but they totally should! EWG's Skin Deep - Cosmetic Safety Database Rating: 2.
- Product This Will Be Replacing: Revlon Chip Resistant Nail Enamel.
- EWG's Skin Deep - Cosmetic Safety Database Rating for Revlon Chip Resistant Nail Enamel: 5.
- Verdict: Nail polish is one of the most toxic things you can buy in body care products next to hair dye, skin bleaching cream and self tanner. So I knew it was going to be difficult to find something that wore like conventional nail polish. I like Zoya nail polish... and may purchase it again in the future - but I have to admit... it's kind of a pain to order these online. I would definately prefer walking into a store to pick these up for several reasons. 1. Zoya's website is extremely overwhelming- with over 300 shades to choose from (how many shades of red can there be???). I also wish I could've selected several shades, then compared them side by side before I purchased - but there is no option to do that. 2. Their images take forever to load. I found it frustrating picking out nail polish for several hours making sure I had no duplicate colors! 3. No matter where I read other reviews from, everyone had the same complaint I did... color swatches looked completely different online than when I recieved my order. It sucks that I ended up with a color that I hated for $7.00 a bottle ("Renee" was supposed to be hot pink- but it had a really dark grayish tint when I recieved it, and a I would have never actually bought one or two of the other colors had I seen them in the store first). 4. The return shipping cost is just simply not worth it. I gave it away. 5. They claim for the Nail Polish to be the only "natural" nail polish on the market. I'm not sure what is "natural" about it, although I do appreciate that it is a better choice without the nasty chemicals they've left out. 6. I also did the bottle for bottle "free" nail polish exchange. A little tip if you do the exchange... I went to the Dollar Store and bought 6 bottles of nail polish to send just incase I didn't like Zoya, I didn't get rid of all of my pricey polish! Totally thought I was doing something good for the planet, however- it ended up costing me way more than I wanted to spend (I thought it was supposed to be free... silly me) and also being much more trouble than it was worth. First I couldn't find any info on how to ship them. After 2 trips to the USPS (who BTW wouldn't ship my old bottles because they were liquid & flammable) said I needed an 'ORMD label' (whatever that was - the average consumer would not have access to them and Zoya should inform it's participants). Eventually shipped UPS - costing approx. $9.00. Plus, paying $3.50 per bottle to exchange (6 bottle minimum), then approx. $9.00 for my order from Zoya to be shipped. Not cool. I probably wouldn't do the exchange again. So... I am not particularly partial to Zoya only for these reasons. I would definately try other brands although Zoya has great products!
