Mommy Goes Green

In the last couple years, I’ve become really sensitive to smell and while I’m pregnant, it just gets worse.  The upside is that I stay away from a lot of chemicals that probably aren’t good for me (or the baby) anyway.  The downside is that a lot of products have yucky chemical smells to them! 

One of my favorite “get out of jail free cards” is to run out for an hour to get a pedicure.  Unfortunately, the nail salon is one of those places that just wreaks of chemicals and while I tolerate it once in awhile, I’ve been staying away while I’m pregnant.  In the meantime, I’ve found some great products to give myself a pedicure (until my belly gets too big to touch my toes!).

Nail Polish- a lot of manufacturers have removed the three ‘big’ toxic ingredients ( formaldehyde, tolulene and DBP ) in the recent past but not all of them have so make sure you check on your favorite polish to see if it makes the cut.  I’ve been using Earthly Delights in Halcyon this summer, and have found that it works just as well as some of the products I’ve used in the past like OPI or L’Oreal.  I’ll be trying out Suncoat next, it’s water based and they’ve removed more chemicals than most other polishes.  I have to mention the cool feature of Sula polishes – they are paint and peel – ditch the nail polish remover!

Polish Remover – look for polish remover without acetone – that’s the ingredient in conventional removers.  Good brands include: PeaceKeeper Eco-Easy Nail Polish Remover, Priti Soy Remover and Suncoat Natural Nail Polish Remover.  With water based nail polishes ( like Suncoat or Honeybee ), you can try putting your fingertips in water for a few minutes and then scraping off the polish.

Tools – EcoTools has a bamboo nail file and recycled steel nail file.  I’m a fan of EcoTools not only for their eco-friendly efforts but because you can easily find their products at places like Walgreens and Target.

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