Nail Polish Brands Falsely Claim to Be 3-Free
Photo: bp.blogspot.com
A recent, and welcome, trend in nail polish has been to create formulas without a trio of chemicals known to cause birth defects and chronic health conditions (these lacquers are often referred to as being “3-free.”) But now, a California state regulator has found that a number of brands that claim to be 3-free are actually mislabeled, and could be harming people who have been exposed to them.
A Department of Toxic Substance Control picked 25 brands of nail polishes at random, including a number of brands advertised as being free of toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and formaldehyde. The agency found that 10 out of 12 of the lines claiming not to use toluene actually did, four of which actually had dangerously high levels of the toxin. Even further, five out of seven of the brands claiming to be “3-free” included significant levels of one or more of the chemicals.
The New York Daily News has compiled a list of the brands that the Department of Toxic Chemicals found were mislabeled:
Sation 99 basecoat, Sation 53 red-pink nail color, Dare to Wear nail lacquer, Chelsea 650 Baby’s Breath Nail Lacquer, New York Summer Nail Color, Paris Spicy 298 nail lacquer, Sunshine nail lacquer, Cacie Light Free Gel Basecoat, Cacie Sun Protection Topcoat, Golden Girl Topcoat, Nail Art Top-N-Seal and High Gloss Topcoat.
This list is a bit of a wake up call to regulators that they must be more stringent about the qualifications a formula has to meet to be considered 3-free.
—Candice
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