HEMA-free products

If someone has developed allergies to nail product ingredients, we would not recommend HEMA-free products unless they know exactly which ingredients they react to (i.e. have taken a dermatologists patch test) and know that the HEMA-free product does not contain the ingredients that they react to.

You should also be aware that :

  1. HEMA-free products contain other high allergy risk ingredients, which makes developing additional allergies in the future very likely.

  2. Chinese factories are now producing HEMA-free gel polishes, so in this case, the list of ingredients and SDS/MSDS can't be trusted. Some brands will buy from these factories and claim they are made in the USA, UK, etc - as they do already.

Hypoallergenic products

Hypoallergenic products are a much safer choice. These will not contain any ingredient that is high risk or included in the dermatologists patch test.

However, there is no guarantee that everyone with allergies won't react to hypoallergenic products, although many with allergies will not react. Hypoallergenic products are designed for prevention - not cure. Better to avoid allergies from the start by using hypoallergenic products!

If someone reacts to hypoallergenic ingredients, their immune system has probably become extremely sensitive due to the number of ingredient allergies that they have. They should then avoid all artificial nail products.

Before changing products...

Finally, before changing products it is extremely important to find out how your allergy happened. Allergies can only happen if there has been repeated skin contact of uncured or under-cured product, usually over a longer time. So a change in behaviour to avoid skin contact is also needed.

One of the most common causes is the use of a 3rd party UV lamp that does not cure correctly.