The cosmetics industry has been quick to develop and promote eco, green and natural products, however in my opinion, the nail care industry lags behind.

Did you know larger manufacturers sit comfortably behind a years old ruling that states, nail products may contain x,y,z, harsh ingredients in their products, because their products are not designed to come into contact with skin, but how many of us smudge our polish into our cuticles on a regular basis?

Green Hands began in September 2005 when Naomi and her husband Ola risked everything to leave the rat race and start a family friendly business with eco friendly credentials. Working in marketing and loving her regular manicures, Naomi had struggled to find suppliers of natural nail care products for herself and as an experienced Product Manager set about bringing the products she found together for others. Naomi is a fully qualified nail technician with an interest in problem nail conditions. Green Hands continue to try out new products; our regular customers are very good at helping us to select the best for sale online and in our salon.

We now make our own award winning Green Hands Cuticle Oil, which is an alternative to the traditional nail strengtheners that typically contain formaldehyde. Instead it contains a combination of essential oils and nourishing organic jojoba oil and apricot kernel oil. Rather than coat the nail in a film, when massaged in it improves blood flow to the nail, helps to retain moisture in the nail and in so doing improve flexibility and combat brittleness. It also works to reduce the appearance of dry cuticles around the edges of the nail. For our local Nail Studio we make our own foot and hand scrub, a very simple mixture of brown sugar, olive oil and local honey, it works brilliantly to exfoliate and moisturise all at the same time. So simple and easy, try it yourself. The great thing with alternatives is we can all make them at home!

Green Hands Glass Nail files are our best selling product; these file the nails very smoothly and have been dubbed ‘ever-lasting’ as they don’t appear to wear down. These offer an alternative to emery boards which leave your nails feeling rougher to the touch and generate waste. At the end of the day a glass file can be recycled! We stock a range of hand and foot creams from a local organic producer Herbfarmacy, we strive to find products that are local, organic where possible, non toxic, eco-friendly, fairly traded. Being able to pop up the road and walk through the field of herbs that go into the creams is a real treat!

Possibly the greatest interest is in Nail Polish itself. Here Green Hands stock two types.

Firstly we stock Suncoat Water Based Polish, here the solvent element of a regular polish has been entirely replaced by water and acrylic, and so the film over the nail is then made from a durable acrylic with natural earth pigments. The finish looks almost identical to regular polish and the wear of 4 to 5 days is pretty good when compared to non-professional brands you’d find in the High Street. Suncoat is proving very popular, its key benefits are its lack of smell, many of the colours are Vegan and it won’t stain your nails, you don’t need a base coat and its relatively easy to get used to.

The second range we stock is for people who still want the salon quality finish that won’t budge for over a week. We have selected Mavala from Switzerland, after trialling many supposedly ‘less toxic’ solvent based brands. Mavala are one of the first big name, famous brands to remove formaldehyde from their products, they did it years ago. Their formulations are gentle and the company is entirely open about ingredients.