If you’ve been following my articles here at CF, you probably know that nail polish isn’t just a hobby for me – it’s an obsession. So, years ago, when I first found out that some polishes contained some pretty nasty chemicals, I immediately began to research these ingredients, and to search for safe alternatives.

The main nasty chemicals found in nail polish? Formaldehyde, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), and Toluene. These ingredients can typically be found in many less expensive polishes – scary, I know. On the upside, many big name companies are realizing that their consumers won’t buy polishes containing these three chemicals and have removed them from their ingredients.

Below, I’ll explain what these ingredients are, and why you don’t want them in your polish, as well as list some brands who don’t include these chemicals in their products.

Table of Contents

Formaldehyde

When I started researching this stuff, this was the only ingredient of the three that I had actually heard of before and finding that this was in my nail polish totally grossed me out! The reason? Formaldehyde is typically used as a preservative, a sterilizer, and to embalm bodies. It’s also used in particle board and plywood because of its adhesive properties. (Yes, that means your IKEA furniture probably contains formaldehyde as well.)

Though it is less commonly included in nail polish these days, formaldehyde is often added to nail hardeners, and many nail companies include nail hardeners in all of their colored polishes as an added bonus. Not a great bonus in my opinion, considering that formaldehyde has been connected to lung and nasal cancer, and is considered a known carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.