Celebrate Green Blog

by Lynn

Last week, we were invited to tape a segment on Seattle area talk show, New Day. Our topic was making your own face paints. Corey’s daughter’s face was the canvas and with the time we were given, we figured it would be easiest for us to “paint” her face green with a few orange highlights so she dressed as a witch.

Earlier, she had spied the set of three Hopscotch Kids nail polishes we’d been sent to review and she begged us to do her nails to complete the witchy look.

I admit I’m no nail polish pro. Far from it. But I have to say that I found applying these water-based polishes delightfully easy. They were thick enough not to drip, but not goopy. Each color slid on nicely. The first coat dried translucent like the first layer in a water color painting. With the second coat, the color screamed brightly opaque as you can see here:

Unlike conventional nail polish and remover which are laden with chemicals that are linked to all sorts of health concerns, Hopscotch Kids contains ingredients that should not cause or lead to health problems. (However, as with anything you put on your body, a child could have a reaction to the ingredients, so read the labels and do a test just to be sure.)

Hopscotch polishes recently received a rating of 1 (3 and below is the best possible rating), on the Environmental Working Group’s database, so you don’t have to go to the trouble of investigating the ingredients yourself.

The remover however, has not been rated, so here are the ingredients: water, tall oil fatty acids & alcohols (plant based), nonionic surfactant, the organic buffer lauryl glucoside. As far as we can tell, they are harmless, but if you investigate more and find otherwise, please let us know.

While the polishes and remover are fragrance free, when I first opened the polish and the remover and stuck my nose close, there was a definite odor. But it was not overpowering and within seconds, the aroma was gone. I suggest you don’t stick your nose in there at all and you’ll never smell a thing!

The glass bottles of course are recyclable and I’ll be saving the brushes to use in craft projects.

Since the girls are not allowed to wear nail polish to school, I couldn’t tell you how long lasting the polish is, but if you’re just purchasing for Halloween and other dress up activities, I just have to assume it will make it for a day or two at least!

Have you tried Hopscotch Kids? Give us your opinion.

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.