Butter LONDON Powder room Acetone free Lacquer Remover

When I first thought of reviewing natural make up for stage I thought I would be kick arse tough on all products, instead I have shied away from writing the reviews on the products that I haven’t liked and focused on the ones I have. Then I realized, I don’t take a reviewer seriously if all they have to say is sunshine and moonbeams so here I am – getting tough on a product I hate, just so you know I am being truthful on the ones I do like. Guess I won’t be contacted by butter London to review any of their future products!!

I bought this product after reviewing suncoat water based nail polish and thinking it would be good to reduce the toxins in the clean up too. I figured I would give another company a try and chose butterLONDON as it had popped up in every health food store in the Coffs Harbour area. It was being pushed as a healthier alternative to regular nail products.

As always if you don’t want to read the details, just scroll down to the summary at the bottom for the review in a nutshell.

Packaging

It comes in a simple, plastic cylindrical 59ml (2 fl oz) bottle with screw top lid… that unfortunately leaks if you don’t keep it perfectly upright. Consequently I have ended up spilling it on myself several times and having to endure the horrible smell. (Like right now when I got the bottle and placed it near my computer for inspiration. Obviously walking is too vigorous an activity for the integrity of the bottle and now my hands smell like really bad baby talc. Honestly it makes me feel sick- YUK!). And what’s with the lack of child-proof lid? Most nail polish remover has a safety cap.

“Not impressed. I don’t want to smell like a toxic baby!”

NOT IMPRESSED

Usability

It doesn’t bloody work!

(Can you tell I am an Aussie?) 😉

Well it doesn’t work well at any rate. It struggled to remove the water based nail polish so it’s no good for that (suncoat had said regular nail polish remover usually works)… and it needed a lot of product to remove ordinary nail polish.

When I pay premium for a product I expect it to work well. Cutex acetone free nail polish remover costs about $3.39 for 100mls. This costs around $8 for 59mls ($7.95 from GO-Vita shops, $8US online).

I also expect products marketed as a more “natural” alternative to not make me feel as sick as the regular product. No such luck. I would rather the smell of regular nail polish remover to the insipid scent of whatever the hell ‘baby powder room’ is.

Safety

As this product is not already reviewed by the EWG data base, I entered every ingredient by hand. All ingredients are between 0 and 5 (3-6 is considered moderately toxic).  It’s hard to say if this would be a low or moderately toxic product because anything could be hidden by the word parfum.

I can’t say I am feeling trusting of their integrity to put something nice in under that word. First of all because it makes me feel instantly ill, secondly, a quick look on the EWG website has many of their old products as either HIGHLY toxic or moderately toxic!!! Not a single low toxicity product among them.

I certainly hope this company has pulled up it’s socks since then.

For comparison I entered all the ingredients in for the Cutex acetone free nail polish I also had. Overall I feel Cutex would end up with a similar or BETTER rating than butter London in terms of safety. The main ingredient Ethyl acetate is rated slightly less toxic than the Methyl acetate used by butter LONDON for example. The cutex colourants are also less toxic. As Cutex is a third the price overall I would suggest my readers purchase Cutex over butter LONDON.

This proves the point – Just because it’s in a health food shop, it doesn’t mean it’s good for you!

Ingredients

From the bottle as the website does not advertise the ingredients.

Methyl Acetate. Isopropyl Myristate, PARFUM!!!, Red 17, Violet 2

Butter London only has websites for Canada, UK and the US. What about the rest of us?

 My summary: 1/5

I have no affiliation with butter LONDON (obviously) or Cutex.

Have you tried butter LONDON nail polish? I hope to god its better than this product. Please feel free to comment below and tell me your experience.

Liked this review? Jade publishes natural make up reviews for home use and stage and is passionate about dancers looking fabulous without toxic ingredients.  Follow the blog so you can save money and buy what works best.