Is your nail polish tested on animals? About cruelty free nail polish brands — an overview

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Being a lover of animals I'm always trying to be conscious of the suffering animals go through, to "serve" us people.

Hundreds of thousands of animals are being poisoned, blinded and killed every year, in outdated product tests for cosmetics, personal care products, household cleaning products, etc. If there's one thing I cannot stand, it's the fact these innocent creatures have to suffer for the sake of something trivial as cosmetic products.

94% of animal testing is carried out to determine the safety of cosmetics and household products, leaving only 6% for medical research. Often these tests are performed on mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs.

The tests these companies conduct are absolutely horrifying. One of these tests, the so called Draize eye test, involves placing substances into the eyes of restrained rabbits, then recording the progressive deterioration. Some research labs also carry out the lethal dose test, forcing substances (such as oven cleaner or nail polish) down animals’ throats, pumping it into their stomachs through a tube, or injecting it into their bodies, until a percentage of the animals die. After these tests, the animals are killed, normally by asphyxiation, neck-breaking or decapitation. Think about this, is this something you're actually willing to contribute to, by buying these products?

Europe ban

Luckily, there is some good news. In 2013 all animal tested cosmetic and household products have been banned in Europe.
However, when a company is claiming that their products are cruelty free, they're actually referring to the finished end product. So, their statement isn't saying anything about the individual ingredients that have been used, so keep that in mind.

Mother companies & China

Some companies are owned by other companies: such as Essie who falls under the L'oreal umbrella. Back in the day, when Essie was independent, they used to be a cruelty free brand. Unfortunately, L'oreal is not. Since Essie is now owned by L'oreal, you could say they're no longer cruelty free.

A good indicator if a brand carries out animal tests, is the fact whether a brand is sold in China or not:

The Chinese government conducts mandatory animal tests on all cosmetic products imported into the country. The government may also conduct animal tests on items pulled from store shelves. Therefore, even if a company does not test their products or ingredients on animals, if they sell their products in China they cannot be considered cruelty free.

humanesociety.org

Sometimes a brand, that is owned by a larger company, actually is cruelty free and not sold in China. You could argue that these companies do fund animal testing indirectly, it's up to you how you feel about this.

Cruelty free list

After doing some research of my own I was happy to find out that a lot of great brands are actually cruelty free. But, the majority of the big, popular brands are not. You can find an overview listed below:

Brands that do test on animals

• #
• • & Other Stories
• A
• • (Giorgo) Armani (L'Oreal)
  • Artistry Makeup (Amway)
• B
• • Bourjois
• C
• • Chanel
  • Christian Dior
  • Clarins
  • Clinique (Estee Lauder)
  • Collistar
  • Coty
  • Cover Girl (Procter and Gamble)
• D
• • Dior
• E
• • Ellen Betrix
  • Essie (L'Oreal)
  • Estee Lauder
• G
• • Givenchy
• H
• • H&M Cosmetics
  • Helena Rubinstein (L'Oreal)
  • Huda Beauty
• I
• • Inglot
• K
• • Kiehls (L'Oreal)
• L
• • L'Oreal
  • Lancôme (L'Oreal)
• M
• • M.A.C. Cosmetics (Estee Lauder)
  • Max Factor (Coty)
    
  • Maybelline (L'Oreal)
  • Miss Sporty (Coty)
  • MNY (L'Oreal)
• N
• • Nars Cosmetics (Shiseido)
  • Neutrogena (Johnson & Johnson)
  • Nicole by OPI (Coty)
• O
• • OPI (Coty)
• R
• • Revlon
  • Rimmel (Coty)
• S
• • Sally Hansen (Coty)
  • Sephora by OPI (L'Oreal)
  • Sinful Colors (Revlon)
  • Shiseido Cosmetics
  • Shu Uemura (L'Oreal)
• W
• • Wet ‘n Wild
• Y
• • Yves Rocher

Cruelty free brands

Ⓥ = vegan

• B
• • Barry M
  • Bee's Knees Lacquer Ⓥ
  • Black Dahlia Lacquer Ⓥ
  • Blu Ink Nail Lacquer Ⓥ
  • By Vanessa Molina
  • Buddha Beauty Ⓥ
  • Burt's Bees
  • Butter London
• C
• • Catrice
  • Cheeky Cosmetics Ⓥ
  • China Glaze
  • Cirque Colors Ⓥ
  • Claire's Ⓥ
  • Color Club
  • Colour Alike Ⓥ
  • Cracked Ⓥ
  • Cuccio Colour
  • Cult Nails Ⓥ
• D
• • Deborah Lippman
  • Dimension Nails Ⓥ
  • Douglas (own label)
• E
• • E.L.F Cosmetics Ⓥ
  • Emily de Molly Ⓥ
  • Essence
  • ESN
  • Etos
  • Evil Shades
• G
• • Gosh Cosmetics
• H
• • Hard Candy
  • Hema/Miss Helen
  • Herôme Cosmetics
• I
• • ILNP
  • IsaDora
• J
• • Joe Fresh Cosmetics
• K
• • KBShimmer Ⓥ
  • Kure Bazaar
  • Koh Cosmetics
• L
• • L.A. Colors
  • Lacquester
  • Lime Crime Ⓥ
  • LUSH Cosmetics
• M
• • Make Up Store
  • ManGlaze
  • Milani Ⓥ
  • Misa Cosmetics LLC Ⓥ
  • Models Own
  • Mooncat Ⓥ
• N
• • Nubar Ⓥ
  • NYX Cosmetics
• O
• • Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Inc. Ⓥ
  • Orly International
  • OZN Ⓥ
  • Ozotic (Lumineye)
• P
• • Pacifica Ⓥ
  • Priti Polish Ⓥ
• R
• • RGB
• S
• • Safe’N’Beautiful Ⓥ
  • Seche
  • Smashbox Cosmetics (Estee Lauder, not sold in China)
  • SpaRitual Ⓥ
• T
• • The Body Shop (Natura Cosmeticos)
  • Trind Cosmetics
• U
• • Urban Decay (L'Oreal, not sold in China)
• Z
• • Zoya

Ⓥ = vegan

Disclaimer

Please note that companies do change policies, owners etc. So, if you spot a brand that should be in the other list, please let me know!
Last edited on: oct 6th, 2025

How to: find your 'borrowed' photos with Google Image Search

Play by the rules

Do you see the picture above this paragraph? It took some effort to get that photo there: I had to remove my old nail polish and repaint them with Mimosa by Chanel. After that I have to get my camera, take some photo's, sometimes more than a hundred before the lighting is good enough etc. I then have to transfer the pics onto my computer, import them in Photoshop, do some cropping, resizing and maybe even a little rotating. Which takes ages on my tantalizingly slow laptop. Finally: they're ready to upload! Sounds like a bit of work, doesn't it?

Well, it is! So with that in mind, you can imagine how frustrating it can be, when others just take your photos and repost them without even a hint of credit. Or worse: place their watermark on top of your photo. I normally don't mind, when I see my photos on the net, I love the web, it's open. It's different when the photos are used for commercially goals, like uploading them to a webshop.

This isn't the kind of post I'd normally post, but I've written blogposts for fellow bloggers before, so I thought this article possibly may be of interest to some. With the new and improved Image search by Google, it's now extremely simple to track down your own photos. Let's have a look:

1. Go to https://images.google.com

2. Drag a photo from your hard drive directly into the search field

3. Hit the search button

4. Et voila: an overview of your photos!

Of course it's up to you, what to do next. If you want your content to be removed, have a look at this article.

Guiltfree Glam: B3F FTW!

"What is B3F?" is a question I find almost daily in my inbox, so for today I've got a little writeup on the matter. I always redirect everyone to this awesome post by All Lacquered Up, since I'm no chemist AT ALL, but the requests kept coming, so bear with me. I won't get into all the bad stuff certain ingredients can do, as I don't want to have people panicking!

B3F wha?

What are B3F or Big 3 Free nail polishes anyway? These are polishes that are free from Formaldehyde, DBP & Toluene. Formaldehyde in its pure form is a colorless gas. Formaldehyde is anti bacterial and acts as an anti dissolvant and improves adhesion. DBP or Dibutyl phthalate is used as a plasticizer which should keep surfaces smooth and unbreakable. Toluene is a substance that keeps your polish liquid.

Why?

Each of these ingredients have certain dangers attached to them. There is still debate over whether these are actually harmful: usually these ingredients only trip you up when you're exposed to huge amounts during a longer period of time or when they are being incinerated. However, long term consequences are still unknown and there are many people who suffer from allergic reactions from these substances. Formaldehyde is hardly used these days, except in hardeners/strengtheners. You might want to give those a body check. A product from Formaldehyde, called Formaldehyde Resin, is more often used nowadays, I'm not entirely sure about that one, but it's considered safe by the FDA. If you're allergic to Formaldehyde you might be allergic to the resin as well though.

Just a marketing tool?

I know a lot of people don't care at all, but better safe than sorry goes a long way. I know I don't want to to cause unnecessary harm to my health. Why risk it if there are plenty alternatives - especially when you're pregnant or breastfeeding! Maybe the fuzz is a little overblown and I do think a lot of brands are using this as a clever marketing tool, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.
A lot of older polishes are not B3F, but I can't wrap my head around the fact that companies still choose to produce nail polish the oblivious way. For example: Models Own polishes are still crammed with Toluene. Why?! I know producing non B3F polish is a lot cheaper than its healthy alternative, but the price of Models Own polishes ($8 each, where Nubar costs &7.49 & Zoya $7 each) hardly reflects that. It does take some companies a while to get their new formula to work, but practice makes perfect right?

Brands

You can check the labels to see whether your nail polish is B3F, but brands like Nubar, Zoya, SpaRitual, Orly, Chanel, RBL, Lippmann, Revlon, Del Sol (as pictured above), newer Misa, China Glaze and OPI are definitely B3F. However, some of these still contain Formaldehyde Resin.

I hope this was helpful and thanks so much for stopping by!
- With love, Michèle

Sources: Cosmeticsinfo.org, Wikipedia

Summary of the survey results!

Hi guys! First, huuuuuge thanks to all of you who took the time and effort to fill in my survey. I appreciate this so much, you have no idea. A blog is nothing without its readers really! The main reason I put up the survey was to get some feedback on blogging, I understand we can't please everyone, and that's not really something I'm after because I do realize this is impossible. But, feedback is always an excellent way to find out how one can improve yourself. I'm also hoping some of you might find this information helpful as well! I'm incredibly thankful for all your input. In return, I promised a little overview, so here it is!

There were 1002 (!!) entries and at that point I had to shut it down, because I had to process some information manually, haha. Most charts really speak for themselves but I'll try to add some of my thoughts here and there.

What's the most important thing when it comes to a blog?

When we're looking at this outcome, we can see that the amount of swatches and reviews are considered quite valuable. It's a lot about the products!

What makes a good review?

When it comes to reviews, pictures tell a lot! I guess pictures will always attract more attention than text, so this confirms what I already suspected. I usually post 1 or 2 pictures with a review, but after seeing this outcome I might add some more from now on!

What makes a good picture?

Color accuracy and good lighting are considered almost equally important. It's definitely something I always try to keep in mind, but it's good to find out about the importance of these things.

What would you like to see more?

Now I was most curious to see the answers to this question. I thought it was so awesome that the majority of you asked for more how-tos because I really really like doing these! If you have how-to requests pleeeease let me know and I'll see what I can do.

The second thing that scored really high was swatches of entire collections, this is something I eventually would LOVE to do, but for now, it can be very hard since I cannot buy them all and I don't blog full time, haha! Definitely something I'll keep in mind though.

What do you expect from the person behind the blog?

I was really curious about this outcome too. I mean, I do the best I can, while staying true to myself, so I was wondering what everyone's answers would be to this question.

Do you want the blogger to respond to your comments?

This is something I struggle so hard with, you have no idea. Ideally I would like to reply to every single comment I get, it really bothers me when I can't. And lately stuff has come up and I just wasn't as present in the comment section as I used to be. I was really relieved to see your opinions on this, however, I do want to try replying more, because I appreciate all your words so much.

What brand(s) do you wish to see more represented?

To my big surprise the responses were all over the place. Someone said "a blog should be about what you want to represent, not what we want to see" and while that's true, there are times when I just don't know what to do next, because there are so many awesome brands and products to choose from, it's overwhelming really!

A LOT of people requested easy to get/drugstore polishes. Since my visitors mostly come from the US, Brazil and Europe this is almost impossible to do. In contrast, a lot of people asked for unique, unknown brands as well. Another big group of people requested cheaper brands, while others requested more swatches from high end brands.
I got a lot of requests on doing more China Glaze, Zoya and Orly, and I did see that coming since I never really covered these before (without reason really!), but I'm really looking forward to post more about these in the future. Other than that, I guess I will just keep posting whatever pop ups in my head, but if you're in dire need of something you can always let me know :-).

Before I forget, there is one thing I can't or won't do and that's showing brands like Rimmel, Sally Hansen, Maybelline/Colorama, L'Oreal and Essie... A lot of you would love to see these brands covered, especially since they're so easily available, but since they're not cruelty free (or owned by not cruelty free companies), I just can't do it.

Please list your top five of favorite nail polish bloggers

Now, this question wasn't about who's the most popular, even though it might look that way, but I was really curious to see what blogs everyone likes to read, especially since every blog has its own style and set of cool features. I left myself out of the end result, but I want to thank everyone that wrote such sweet words about me! I couldn't believe it!

In total there was a grand total of 248 blogs being mentioned, how awesome is that. I found out about quite some new blogs too!
So anyway, here's the top 10 that I gathered. Maybe the results would've been completely different if this was asked on another blog, but I think it's a pretty cool list :-D. If you haven't heard of one of these blogs, make sure to check them out, because they're wicked cool!

votes	blog
353	Scrangie
287	All Lacquered Up
130	Vampy Varnish
077	Polish Hoarder Disorder
073	The Nailphile
059	The Lacquer Files
056	Little Music Boxes / Nihrida
046	Dr. Frankenpolish
044	The Daily Nail
036	All You Desire

Conclusion

Conclusion is I'm veeeery thankful for all your input and I enjoyed reading all of your messages you left me in the survey. There were some really sweet, interesting, hilarious and random notes, VERY NICE :D. For me, it's so nice to have this overview and I hope there will be some interesting or helpful things in it for others as well, who knows!

Nail polish blog survey!

Hi guys! For a while now I've been wondering what other people find important when it comes to reading a blog. I thought it would be fun to do a little survey to find out what you guys think!
I'd really really really appreciate it if you would be so kind to fill out the form below. Of course I will report back with the outcome!

All entries to this survey will published anonymously and are only visible to me!

I have closed the survey! I got an AMAZING response from you guys, 1000 entries in only a few days, THANKS SO MUCH. I'll need some time to process all the information, but I will be back with a report, seriously, it means a lot to me! Thank you!!

Questions were:

• What's the most important thing when it comes to a blog?
• What makes a good review?
• What makes a good picture?
• What would you like to see more?
• What do you expect from the person behind the blog?
• Do you want the blogger to respond to your comments?
• What brand(s) do you wish to see more represented?
• Please list your top five of favorite nail polish bloggers

Finish it up! 25 different nail polish finishes

Hi guys! How is everybody doing? I've been very busy lately (and that includes having a playdate with my mom, Natasja, Michelle from TheLacquerFiles and Daphne from Nailswatches. It was so much fun, I've never seen so many polishes at once, they even danced around in my head while I was trying to sleep!).

Anyway! since I've lost a lot of swatches thanks to my evil evil MacBook, I didn't really have decent material to post here. But hopefully I can make up for it with this post, since it took a LOT of time ;-). For today I decided to put together an overview of all finishes that are available nowadays. Please let me know if I forgot one!

A creme is one of the most popular finishes we know. This is just a plain color without any glitter, shimmer, etc added to it. The finish is glossy and smooth.	A jelly is just like a creme, but the main difference is the substance: more jelly-like. They tend to be sheer but they make up for it by being extremely glossy.	The shimmer finish is a colored base with shimmer added to it, most of the times that color is silver but we're seeing contrasting colors more often.	Glass flecked polishes look like they contain small glass particles, often mixed in a jelly base. The finish is very smooth, yet sparkly.	You could say neon describes color, not finish. But most neons do have a particular finish, very bright colors that often dry semi-matte.
A frost is a very fine shimmery polish with obvious bruststrokes. These kind of finishes are losing popularity and mostly seen in older polishes.	The pearl finish is quite similar to the frost finish, but it has a more pearly sheen to it.	Foil polishes often have a metallic base color with very fine glitter added to it. The finish is very smooth yet sparkly.	Metallic finishes make your nails appear like metal. Metallic polishes are especially popular in copper, gold or silver.	Glitter is one of most flashiest finishes. These glitters are often put in a jelly base. The amount of glitter can vary a lot. Sometimes you'll need top coat to smoothen the surface.
Mostly glitter in a clear base so they're often used as a top coat. String glitter consists out of glitters in rectangular shapes, often in silver or iridiscent colors.	Just as string glitter, these are mostly used as a top coat. The glitters in this clear base are round shaped.	Another glitter top coat, but with glitter in the shape of squares.	A very popular glitter shape: hex or hexagonal. These are very popular and more common these days. Often used in regular glitter polish as well.	This is a very special glitter top coat, in this picture you see stars, but there are also glitter top coats containing hearts and diamonds (rhombus).
This finish dries completely matte, no shine whatsoever. These dry quickly and sometimes end up being streaky. Handlotion is to be avoided because it decreases the matte effect.	Satin finishes end up matte as well, but not entirely matte. There is still a slight shine, but not enough to classify it as glossy.	Just like mattes, the suede-look finish is completely matte. Suedes contain shimmer though, so that's what sets them apart from regular mattes.	Holographic polishes contain rainbow colored glitter, which changes color on the reflection of light. This finish is very obvious in sun light.	Holographic glitter in a different color base. The glitter is often more sparse and while it does change color upon different light, there is no rainbow effect to be seen.
Flakie polishes consist out of a jelly base with very fine opal (often duochrome) particles in it. They're mostly used for layering as the jelly base is often sheer.	Duochrome polishes change color on the reflection of light. True duochromes are very obvious and often show 2 colors, but sometimes even more.	This finish is often confused with duochrome or shimmer. An iridiscent finish is a color that flashes a different color. These are not obvious enough to be a duochrome.	This is a half transparent finish, often used in French manicures to show off the white tips. A lot of sheers are salmon, nude or pink.	This is a strange and not that well known finish. A water finish resembles the characteristics of a jelly, but is less opaque.

Pfew I think I got them all! *wipes off forehead*. I hope you liked this post, what's your favorite finish?
Thanks so much for reading and till next time!
- Michèle

How to: How I shape my nails

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? For today I've decided to write a short little post on how I shape my nails, since some of you have been asking me about this. I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but this is mine :-).

Shape up!

Ok, first thing to decide, is your desired shape. There are about 5 basic shapes to choose from: pointed, square, squoval, round and stiletto. In the past women always went with a rounded or oval shape. Nowadays the square and squoval (stands for squared oval) looks are really popular. A new trend however is the pointed and stiletto look.

The stiletto thing is not really my cup of tea, I've seen them once in real life and I wasn't that thrilled about it, they just don't seem practical to me. I might stab myself while I'm sleeping.
I do think they look very vixen-like when they're covered in ManGlaze hotness ;-). And they're great canvases for nail art.
Most of the times they're artificial, I think I'd have to grow very long nails to achieve this look.

On the catwalk we're seeing a lot of oval shaped nails, so I'm guessing that's going to be a trend as well.

My nails are always hovering between squoval and square. They say nails are less weak if you file them like this, I'm not sure how true this is, but I've had way less breaks since stopped filing them round!

Wear a dark color

I always try to shape my nails when I'm wearing a dark color. This way it's easier to see the actual shape of the nail. When I'm filing my nails without nail polish I always end up with crooked nails since my nailbeds aren't symmetrical at all.. And, they're not the same length either, so to end up with similar lengths, I'm ignoring my naked nails entirely ;-).

I got this great tip from Kirsten from The Dutch Nail Blog, and I'm doing it like this ever since!

Step away from the clippers

Alright, tt's time to dig up your file! I'm not a fan of clippers, every time I use them, my nails split. So, after messing up a 1000 times and ending up with really short nails, I'm sticking with just filing, *foolproof*. If your nails are more on the softer side, clipping might not be a problem.

I can't stress this enough, but please invest in a glass file, they may be more expensive, but they last you a very long time. You'll have less risk of tears and splits, when you're using a glass file.

I use a fine buffing file too. I use this when I'm done shaping, to soften up any hard edges you might have.

Let's start!

When you're filing your nails, please don't move your file back and forth, it can cause damage. I often hear you're not allowed to file the walls of your nails, but the rebel in me decides to do so anyway. If I don't, I won't achieve the shape I want.

As you can see in the picture, I always file in one direction, and that's the center of the nail. This way the edges remain the smoothest.

Tada, you're done! Now, I'm really curious to see what everyone's shape preference is! Please fill out my poll if you'd like to. I hope this was helpful to some of you, please take care and till next time!

What shape do you prefer?

Pointed Stiletto Squoval Square Round   

H&M Red Nail & A little bit more on nail polish

Hi everyone! Today I'm wearing something very traditional, but I'm liking it nonetheless! There's just something about pinup red that I absolutely love. There's not much to say about this particular nail polish by H&M, it's red. And surprisingly they called it 'Red Nail' ;-). But: the formula is outstanding, this jelly just glides on and it only needs 2 coats for complete opacity!

Red nail polish is incredibly timeless, I'm always mesmerized when I see a pinup or Hollywood actress from the 40ies wearing it. I decided to look into the history of nail polish, and decided to share with you what I found!

For example, did you know that nail polish can be traced back to at least 3000 BC? Polish originated at that time in China. The early mixture was a hodgepodge of bees’ wax, gelatin, gum arabic, and egg whites. The Chinese also added the petals of flowers such as roses and orchids, and alum to their polish. During that same time, upper class members in Egypt wore nail polish similar in texture to lacquer paint. The paint signified money and prosperity. I wonder what color Cleopatra preferred?
Rita Hayworth	During the Chou Dynasty, around 600 BC, the royal colors were metallic gold and silver. Nail polish was only meant for people of the Chinese upper class. If the lower class attempted to wear nail polish, they could be punished by death. The polish at the time was colored with natural pigments. I bet they would have drooled over the Orly Fx's ;-). Modern nail varnish was invented in the 1920's. Charles Revson formed the Charles Revson company with his brother and Charles Lachman, a chemist. They employed a French make-up artist, Michelle Renard, who wondered if the new technology used for painting cars could be used for the nails. She managed to create a modern lacquer made of the same nitrocellulose disolved in solvent, that was used on cars (except not the same strength).
The Charles Revson company became Revlon (they added the L in the middle of the name for the other co-founder Lachman). The first Revlon nail polish went on sale in 1932.
But if it wasn't for Hollywood, nail polish wouldn't have become so big. Colour movies had just arrived, and audiences could see their favourite actresses wearing the exotic reds and mauves of the Revlon company. Painting your nails and buying the matching lipstick gave you a bit of Hollywood glamour even if your clothes were cheap. Other cosmetic houses soon followed and added nail polish to their ranges too. By 1940, long red fingernails became very popular, due to Hollywood starlets and pinups, especially to actress Rita Hayworth, I just love her. Since then, red nails remained on top, either long or short. Funnily enough, prostitutes were the first ones wearing it before it became mainstream! I'm not sure what to think of that haha.	Bette Davis
Source: all over the place ;-D

So now you know a little bit about the history of nail polish! I hope it didn't bore you to death, haha!

Thanks for stopping by and I want to wish you all a great weekend!