“If you are willing to give up one beauty product, make it nail polish,” says eco advice expert Umbra of Grist. I totally took her advice — for my fingernails.

My toenails still remain painted.

Fingernail polish wasn’t hard to give up, since they chipped way too frequently. Plus, I’ve been cutting them short to play more piano. But comparatively, toenail polish is v. low maintenance, and I feel my toesies look cuter painted especially during sandals and flipflops season….

Yes, I did buy some nail polish that’s supposed to be eco-friendly, pictured to the left. But Umbra says “There is no purely nontoxic nail polish, although some brands claim the title by reducing the volatile compounds and fragrances in the polish.”

Furthermore, a big part of the prob’s acetone used to remove nail polish. My friend Hannah says she’s tried a “hippie” nail polish remover, but found it really, really did not work…. Has anyone tried a non-traditional, more eco-friendly nail polish remover that’s actually worked?

Which is to say that about a year ago I put a moratorium on buying new nail polish. I still have a lot left, since it doesn’t take much polish to cover toe nails once every 10 days or so. At this rate, I see myself totally running out of nail polish by the end of 2008.

At that point, perhaps I shall sally forth with naked toes, or perhaps I’ll discover a new nail polish that miraculously saves the world…. Or maybe global warming’ll have LA half-underwater by then, so my toes’ll be constantly hidden under sea water — or rubber boots?

More seriously — Unclutterer notes that ditching nailpolish is a great way to unclutter your life, and gives you detailed de-nail-polishing directions:

Remove the nail polish cap and allow it to become a solid (do this in a well-ventilated area, like on your front porch). Once it is a solid, it is safe to throw away in the trash. If you have an extensive finger nail polish collection, then take all of your polish to your local hazardous waste disposal facility. It is unsafe to dispose of liquid polish in your trash. Nail polish remover should also be disposed of at your local hazardous waste disposal facility.

I’ll be uncluttering — v. v. slowly –

[crossposted on BlogHer]

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