Natural Nail Polishes - A Review

Over the years, I've tried a few different "natural" nail polishes.  While painting Little Miss' nails this morning, I decided I'd share my experiences with them!

Piggy Paint in "Sea-quin" - chipping after an hour or two (click to see larger)

• The first one I tried was several years ago, from Honeybee Gardens.  I ordered it through Frontier, and chose the "Whisper" (pale pink) and "Hippie Chick" (lavender) shades for Super Girl, who was about 6 years old at the time.  The colors were true to the color samples on their website, and I was highly impressed with the quality of the polish.  It lasted a long time, and had basically no odor!  The website says it is water-based, and it did remove with rubbing alcohol, as the site said, though I seem to remember it taking a bit of work.  The bottles lasted about 3 years before we tossed them due to thickening.  The current price on Honeybee Garden's website is $9.99 per bottle (I paid less through Frontier).
• The second brand I've tried is Zoya.  I grabbed a few bottles over a year ago when they had a 50% off special.  I chose three shades:  Sunny, Milla, and Erika.  I was a bit disappointed in the color of the "Sunny" shade - it was a bit different than what I saw on their website.  I also found the coverage of the three shades I chose to be a lot more sheer than I expected.  I ended up giving "Sunny" away because I just didn't care for the shade.  Overall, though, after applying several coats, the polish wears well and lasts a long time.  It does have some odor, but is toxin-free (no toluene, formaldehyde, DBP (phthalates) or camphor).   However, I don't think it's quite as harmless as the other two brands I've tried (I could be wrong - this is just my impression).  I think the biggest appeal is the over 300 shades to choose from - it's mind-boggling!  I have since taken advantage of a second BOGO deal, choosing Eve, Elodie, and Dannii (for Little Miss).  Nail polishes run $8 a bottle. 
• The third natural nail polish I have tried so far is Piggy Paint.  I heard of Piggy Paint a year or two ago, but until recently I had not run across any good deals on it.  I was pleasantly surprised to spot some in my local Walmart in sets of mini-bottles for about $6.50.  I chose a set with 3 shades - Forever Fancy, Girls Rule, and Sea-quin.  As a full-sized bottle is $8.99 on the Piggy Paint site, I thought this was a fairly good deal, even if they are about half the size.  The colors are pretty true to what I see on the site ("Sea-quin" is the color of the sample dot, not the picture of the bottle).  The available shades are vibrant and very appealing to girls (the brand is marketed toward kids).  The scent is reminiscent of tempera paints, in my opinion.  However, it does seem to chip very easily.  It is suggested to dry nails with a blow dryer (on low) for one minute to help lessen chipping.  I haven't tried doing that yet.  I do know that one coat of the shimmer shades seems to wear off in a day or two on Little Miss' fingers.  The cream shade was chipping already after a couple of hours.  I'm actually ok with this, for a 2 year old.  It means I don't have to use remover on her.  Piggy Paint is also water-based (like Honeybee Gardens), but I haven't tried removing it with rubbing alcohol. 

To be honest, I've painted my fingernails once in the past few years.  However, Super Girl paints hers a minimum of once a week.  Unfortunately, all of those are "regular" nail polishes.  I do think it's worth it to think about switching her over to natural ones, even if it means we have to do it gradually.  I will stick with the natural ones from the beginning for Little Miss!

***Note:  I purchased all of these polishes myself.  I have no affiliation with any of these companies, and all opinions are my own.