MOOVed to Vegan Nail Polish, Yet?
Vegan Nail Polish, With a Garlic Base Coat? Yes, Please!
You’re going to think twice the next time you’re browsing the beauty section of department stores or shopping online for that favourite nail polish. Rarely do we stop to consider the level of toxins in those little glitzy bottles that cause those yellowing, brittle nails. But thanks to the women behind Toronto based MOOV Cosmetics, we’re going to hear much about alternative nail polishes that are good for you, a 100% vegan and ‘7-free’.
High flying dreams
Shivani Kumar-Chohan and Wan Lu, owners of MOOV, met a few years ago as air hostesses and soon found they shared the same plight with their company-issue grooming kits which left them with very dry, brittle, unhealthy nails and a product that was not long lasting.
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Kumar-Chohan is the creative mind behind the fashion and beauty aspects of the MOOV brand. “Nail-polishes are meant to be fun products and don’t need to have toxins in them. We wanted to create a nail polish that was all about fashion and fun, as well as, safe and healthy to use. We wanted something that matched our lifestyles and our ethics – free of animal testing, free of animal cruelty and completely vegan.”
Wan Lu manages operations and logistics for Moov and leads a vegan lifestyle herself. “When we came up with this idea, we considered that our employer alone had over 2000 employees who were cabin crew, a majority of whom were women. This is a female dominated industry. Other airlines required a grooming standard for their employees too and so we thought there is certainly a niche market for us to create a better quality product.”
The first of many firsts – Canadian and 7-free philosophy
“There are many nail polishes that are 3-Free in the market already, which implies they are free of the ‘toxic trio’ considered carcinogenic, Lu explained. “We’re quite proud of the fact that our product is built on the 7-free philosophy. No toluene. No formaldehyde. No formaldehyde resins or Dibutyl phthalate, camphor, parabens, or xylene. And because we are a vegan lifestyle product, we’ve also eliminated animal by-products like guanine or crushed fish scales, commonly found in nail polishes. Yes, fish scales.”
Lu added, “We’ve also created a garlic base coat to go with our assortment of nail polishes and yes, it’s without the garlic odour. Garlic has properties that are beneficial to keeping nails healthy.”
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“Our products are at higher price points than conventional products in the market and will appeal to health conscious consumers. Our UV inhibitor, for instance, protects the nails from yellowing and from the sun. It’s exciting to get out there and do demos and introduce our products. We are seeing such a great response.” said Kumar-Chohan clearly delighted with their market response.
Their fun and fashionable colour palette has travel-inspired themes, such as ‘Jet Setter’, ‘St. Tropez’, ‘Caribbean Wedding’ and ‘Home-grown Canuck’ are also helping attract sales.
A growing appetite for vegan nail polishes
At the recent Canadian Food Health Association trade show, MOOV had an interest from 30 retailers who will soon, potentially, carry the MOOV products. So watch out, they should be headed to a store near you soon.
These ‘veganista’s have all the trappings of the modern day life, young families, travel plans, an ambitious business plan and dreams of their products on every retailers’ shelves, at mani-pedi salons, and in every make-up drawer in our rooms.
Those seemingly innocent colourful bottles are everywhere. In our handbags, cosmetics drawers, in the rooms of our daughters, at the Mani Pedi salons, on shelves at our neighbourhood stores. We all love that familiar routine visit to our favourite nail technician whose ‘magic’ adds that extra sparkle to our nails. Makes you feel really glamorous as you walk out those doors. Now, you do have safer and cruelty-free alternatives to pick from. So shop around. You might be ‘MOOV’-ed.
