Cruelty-free: My Favourite Nail Polish Brands

My cruelty-free deadline has come and gone, and one of the products I have anguished over the most have been nail polishes. How can something comprised entirely of noxious chemicals possibly be cruelty-free?
My nail polish collection is... extensive. Sickeningly so. But, in my mind at least, calling it a hobby makes it acceptable, so let's leave it at that. I've given up OPI, Chanel, Rimmel, and China Glaze to name but a few, and while I haven't thrown out the existing offenders in my collection, I have stopped buying from these brands.

So, without any pomp or ceremony, here are my top ten cruelty-free nail polish brands (in no particular order) based on formula and colour range:

1. Zoya - Zoya polishes are hard to come by outside of America but their polishes have a great consistency and come in variety of colours and finishes.

2. Australis - Australia is an Australian makeup brand and although I haven't tried a great deal of their makeup, I rate their polishes - they're an affordable option and last up to a week on my nails without chipping.

3. Deborah Lippmann - Another American brand which can be difficult to find but these high end polishes are beautiful.

4. Nubar - A lesser known brand but equal to more popular brands in quality and formula.

5. Color Club - These polishes are really inexpensive, even taking into account the extra expense of purchasing them online. Hundreds of colours and the cream formulas perform very nicely indeed.

6. Models Own - I love these polishes - they're cheap and cheerful.

7. Lime Crime - Say what you will about Lime Crime (and there is plenty to say) I do like their nail polishes. Their polishes are very opaque.

8. Butter London - I love Butter London's approach to beauty - tongue-in-cheek and top quality. In my humble opinion, they do the best glitter polishes going.

9. Illamasqua - Beautiful, long-wearing, fun. These are certainly at the higher end of the price spectrum but the quality matches the price.

10. Nails Inc - Baker Street is one of my favourite colours of nail polish ever. I find some of their polishes give off quite a pungent odour, but if you can handle the smell, you cannot go past these polishes.

If you would like to go cruelty-free but struggling to figure out what's what, you can find a fairly comprehensive list of cruelty-free and vegan nail polish brands here.

Tropical Palm Nail Tutorial

Tropical palm print has reached saturation point, and being naturally suspicious of the longevity of such a huge trend (also, it just ain't my bag - I'm rely more of the teddy-girl-come-polshed-punk type myself), I decided the closest I would get to the tropic trend would be my nails.

What you'll need:

• White nail polish - I used OPI's Alpine Snow;
• Light green nail polish or striper;
• Medium green nail polish or striper;
• Dark green nail polish or striper;
• Yellow nail polish or striper; and
• Thin brush (if you don't own striper polishes)

Obviously, the first thing to do is apply two coats of your white base.

With the light green polish, paint a couple of leaves along the edges of the nail.

The next step is essentially the same - using the remaining green shades to create more leaves (some overlapping) in varying sizes and shapes.

Use the white polish and contrasting shades of green and yellow to create veining and dimension on the leaves - lines of lighter colours where the sun would hit the surface of the leaf and darker shades to create depth and shadow.

Easy. Just repeat nine times and you are the epitome of tropical chic or something.