Scotch Naturals Review and Giveaway

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED

I had the “pleasure” of acting like one of “The Housewives of (Blank)” last few weeks, thanks to Nature’s Basin who sent me a bottle of Scotch. Yes, you read it correctly but not that kind.

How can you tell me to cook, do the dishes, and clean the house when my nails are this gorgeous and well polished?

I took the time to give myself a luxurious Mani-Pedi so that I can review this non-toxic, nail polish called Scotch Naturals, a mother company of Hopscotch. (…the sacrifices I have to make for reviews….) I did polish them myself, thank  you very much, because I wanted to see how the polish goes on, first hand.

I did manage to do some manual chores; I am, after all, the “Housewife of Green Hills”. Who would spray vinegar and scrub with baking soda with glee, with or without manicured nails? Not my kids or hubby, for sure. I can only dream of being a “Housewife”, can I?

Anyway, I think the last time my nails looked this sexy was on my wedding day. Fact.

What’s the big deal about nails. Aren’t they just a bunch of dead cells?

Au contraire mon frere.

You can tell a lot about a person’s health by observing her/his nails. The color (blue or purple means you lack oxygen in your blood vessels, as in smokers) or the appearance (excessive dryness can signal B12 deficiency and fragile nails can indicate Vitamins A and C deficiency) of nails can indicate certain conditions. And how fast your nail turns pink from white, after  depressing them, can determine if you are dehydrated or are in shock.

You need Vitamin A, C, B12, Folic Acid, fatty acids, and proteins to have healthy nails and deficiencies can be detected, as mentioned above, by looking at nails.

There are nerves, capillaries, lymph  and epidermis (skin cells) underneath nails. Have you ever dropped anything on your toe nail or slammed a door (or a hammer) on your thumb nail? Didn’t it hurt like mad hell that you couldn’t even cry? The nail turns black, eventually falls off, and a new one grows out. This is possible because your nail and everything underneath are very much healthy and live, filled with living cells, nerves, and blood vessels that have senses, are nourished, and are able to generate new cells.

So, imagine, filling all the tiny micro crevices on the nail with whatever is in the conventional nail polish, for weeks, contaminating and intoxicating them with chemicals that are in the polish.

It’s nail homicide.

OK, so what’s in a conventional nail polish?

Consider these chemicals that are in one of the more popular nail polish brands, Essie.

Butyl Acetate, Toluene, Nitrocellulose, Ethyl Acetate, Tosylamide/Formaldehyde Resin, Dibutyl Phthalate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Camphor, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Benzophenone 1, May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), D&C Red 6 Barium Lake (CI 15850), FD&C Yellow 5 Aluminum Lake (CI 19140), D&C Red 7 Calcium Lake (CI 15850:1), Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide (CI 77510), Red Iron Oxide (CI 77491), Black Iron Oxide (CI 77499), Bismuth Oxychloride (CI 77163), D&C Red 34 Calcium Lake (CI 15880:1), Violet 2 (CI 75150), Aluminum Powder (CI 77000), Guanine (CI 75150), Blue 1 (CI 422090), Red 33 (CI 17200), Red 30 (CI 73360), Ultramarines (CI 77007), Polyethylene Terephthalate, Mica

(Via drugstore.com in Essie’s Color, Ballet Slippers, similar to “NEAT” from Scotch, on my nails pictured above)

I don’t know about  you but I would not want to put Toluene (Neurotoxin), Formaldehyde (Carcinogen), and Phtalate (Endocrine Disruptor) (and Camphor) on my nail (skin) for weeks. And how about ethyl acetate (neurotoxin), nitrocellulose (organ toxin), butyl acetate (skin, lung, eye irritant), acetone (neuro and organ toxin, irritant) that are in Zoya, the other “Big 3 free” nail polish?

Convinced that these harmful chemicals are actually poured into your live and healthy nails, causing your skin to absorb them every minute for the duration that you are manicured? Good. Because, that’s exactly what’s going on when you use one of those nail salon nail polishes. Granted, that there are really cheap nail polishes in drug stores and nail salons. But what price tag do you want to put on your health? And regardless whether you use nail polish seldomly or every day, these chemicals are in direct contact with your cells when you polish them on your nails! You are breathing in the fumes (one of the biggest reasons why I don’t get manicured at nail salons) and your cells are absorbing them!

What should you use, then? I know being beautiful has its price but this is a no brainer.

What’s in Scotch Natural nail polish?

Ingredients: Water (first ingredient is water!), Acrylic Polymer Emulsion, Butoxy Diglycol (rated 1-2 from EWG), and non-toxic colorants

Scotch nail polishes are: Vegan, Cruelty-free, Gluten Free, Fragrance Free, Toxin Free, Paraben Free, Hypoallergenic, Biodegradable

That’s it. 3 things in Scotch. No brainer, right?

I met the owner of Scotch, Ginny Cardenas, at the Green Soiree in NYC last year during BlogHer10. She gave out a small box of Hopscotch nail polish sample box with a Hopscotch polish, a nail buffer and a nail polish remover. My daughter was just starting to get into make up that time and I knew a non-toxic nail polish was the only option for her, if she decided to polish her nails. Ginny said the adult nail polish will be coming out soon and gave me her card. How exciting! I told her I can’t wait to try it when it does.

As you can imagine by now, I don’t wear nail polish often or have long nails; only on special occasions, if at that, because I hate the smell of toxic paint thinner when I open a bottle of nail polish. But like any glamour seeking female, I drool over those long slick sexy nails once in awhile. And when my nails are polished, I feel polished. But I keep my nails short and unpolished for a few reasons. I ‘abuse’ my nails with housework and crafts. I give chiropractic adjustments to my family, I am on the computer a lot and play the piano occasionally. So I keep them short and since I hate toxic chemicals in nail polishes, I don’t keep them manicured.

But now, I have no excuse not to paint my nails, even if they are short, thanks to Scotch!
And when I take photos of me doing DIY’s, my nails will look fabulous! So I am super excited that I can finally keep my nails well polished and pretty.

Pros and Cons

As with anything related to beauty, you have to weigh your options when deciding what you can live with or without. We are not talking plastic surgery or Botox here. I wouldn’t even have to think about “Pro’s and Con’s” in going under the knife or injecting myself with toxins in the name of beauty…things I can definitely live without.

But we’re talking about a nail polish -  a benign little beauty regimen that makes you feel a little special. So when deciding whether to spend a little for  a bottle of all natural goody, I thought I’d tell you what you should consider.

First the Pros. I know I’m repeating myself but here are the Pro’s:

1. It is non-toxic – water is its main ingredient. It does NOT contain the three main toxic ingredients that are in most conventional nail polish: Toluene, Formaldehyde, and Pthalate, nor any other awful smelling stuff that ‘other’ “3 free” polishes contain.

2. It’s totally odorless when I open the bottle. The other brands, even “3 Free” brand Zoya, has nasty paint thinner smell that makes me nauseous and headache-y. Not Scotch. It doesn’t smell because it doesn’t have any of those strong chemicals.

2. The polish goes on smoothly and dries quickly. I was expecting it to dry slowly since it’s not full of chemicals but it dries quicker than the conventional nail polish. It also dries very slick and shiny too.

3. As strange as it might sound, you can “peel” the polish off when you want to take it off. That’s right. It peels off – saving time and nail polish remover solution.

Con’s:

1. Whatever polish that’s left on your nail, after peeling it off, you need to use non-toxic nail polish remover to remove any residues. But it takes a little longer to remove the polish. You have to saturate the nail well with non-toxic polish remover (as you might have guessed, regular acetone nail polish remover does not work on Scotch and why would you want to use acetone anyway?) and wait a little before rubbing them off somewhat vigorously. It takes a little patience to remove all the residue. It’s not a quick five minute ritual. (The rep told me that rubbing alcohol also does the job but it didn’t work as well with me. Maybe I need to saturate it with that too before rubbing it off. I feel squeamish about inhaling all that rubbing alcohol in the process too.) But who says beauty is quick and easy, right? Especially if you want to stay healthy, you have to pay the price in more ways than just with dollars.

2. Talking about dollars, the $15 price tag might put some people off, even though, as I said, you can’t put a price tag on health.

3. Maybe it was the color I chose and opaque colors work differently but I had to put four coats to completely hide the nail bed as pictured. When the rep asked what color I wanted, I didn’t think to ask the most popular color to try; I wanted the color I liked so I don’t know how easy dark colors would coat your nails. But this light colored polish need a few extra coats.

4. I wish I knew what was in “Acrylic Polymer Emulsion“. I know the formula is proprietary but I wish I knew what type of plastic ingredients were in it. I have to admit, I didn’t ask what it is but assumed the company wouldn’t divulge that information.  But being that Water is its first ingredient, I feel better about the formula than having any of the “3″ ingredients as the main ones.

Giveaway

So do you want to try a bottle from the sponsor, Natures Basin? Here is how.

• The give­away is open to those who are my subscribers only. If you are not my current subscriber, you must subscribe by using the subscription link for e-mail. Your e-mail address will NOT be shared with anyone or posted anywhere.
• You must be over 18 years old who lives within US.
• When you fill out the form, I can see your e-mail address; DO NOT leave your e-mail address with your comment unless you enjoy SPAM.
• This giveaway will end at 11:59 PM EST on Saturday August 13, 2011.
• One win­ner will be cho­sen at ran­dom, gen­er­ated by a random.org, and will be announced on Sunday, August 14, 2011.
• No pur­chase is nec­es­sary to enter the giveaway.
• You must respond within three days after giveaway is closed to be eligible.
• Each com­ment is one entry.
• If you don’t use one of the ways to enter as below, I will consider it to be SPAM and delete the entry.
• SRP is $15.00

Here is how you can enter and please only leave me a comment related to this product and giveaway:

1. Leave a comment here what color you would like to try from Natures Basin, the giveaway sponsor.
2. Share this giveaway with a friend and Cc me -  karen[at]ecokaren[dot]com
3. Join their reward program (you get 5% off when you do!) and find out about their latest promotions and new products.
4. Follow @Nature’s Basin on Twitter and let me know by adding @ecokarenlee on your tweet.
5. Be a fan of Nature’s Basin on Facebook
6. You can also enter by tweeting about the giveaway! Please use @ecokarenlee so that I know you tweeted
7. Blog about this giveaway.
8. “Share” the giveaway on your facebook wall and make sure to add @ecokaren to  your post so I know.
9. Like me on Facebook (ecokaren)
10. Follow me on Twitter (ecokarenlee) and say you heard about the giveaway. Again, mention @ecokarenlee so I know.

I wouldn’t exactly drink this Scotch “on the rocks” but I would definitely let my nails drink this Scotch for feeling pretty. No calories and no hangover!