Fabulous “Five-Free” Nail Polish
The other night my hitherto all-consuming quest for the perfect navy nail polish ended with the discovery of #NYFW polish from Mischo Beauty’s Luxury Nail Lacquer fall collection. My nail polish desiderata were all fulfilled: the color is a dark and inky, blue-black in a superb glossy finish, and it matches the sapphire on my engagement ring almost perfectly. Furthermore, it’s what’s known in beauty parlance as “five-free,” meaning that it doesn’t contain five of the main chemicals commonly found in nail polish.
While sipping bubbly and getting all “lacquered up” at the Mischo Beauty launch party hosted by bloggers Kara Manos and Ashley Weatherford at Toka Salon, I and my fellow beauty aficionados had the opportunity to sample the Fashion Week collection of seven fabulous, fashion-forward colors and meet founder Kitiya Mishco King.
A licensed cosmetologist with a degree in chemistry from Spelman College, King was motivated to create a safe nail polish when she was pregnant and could not find toxin-free nail polish that met her high aesthetic and performance standards. The insipid, uninspired colors and thick, lumpy textures of the typical “natural” nail polishes impelled King to develop her line of high-fashion colors in a glossy, chip-resistant formula. I like keeping my fingertips toxin-free and appreciate that the entire Mischo Luxury Nail Lacquer line (including the base and top coats) is devoid of formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), toluene, formaldehyde resin and camphor.
The collection was inspired, as the name implies, by New York Fashion Week and the colors are, from left to right: The Tents, Backstage Beauty, Front Row, Invite Only, Lincoln Center, Empire State of Mind and #NYFW.
The polishes are available at Mischo Beauty ($18.00)
A native Washingtonian, Beauty Blogger Lia Phipps is an interior designer with an irrepressible, life-long fascination with health and beauty. When she is not selecting fabrics and paint colors for clients, she occupies herself with trying new products and dispensing beauty advice to friends, acquaintances and anyone who is willing to listen to “Tips from Phipps”.