Is Light Elegance organic?

Jim McConnell - co-founder and chief chemist of Light Elegance - sheds light on some of the irritants of nail design in the first Chemist Corner. Do you know what's in your products and what ingredients to avoid when choosing them?

Understanding industry buzzwords

New substances are constantly being classified as harmful to health. This also means that new - often emotionally discussed - irritant words are constantly appearing in the industry: organic/biological, heavy metals, 3-free, 5-free and so on. Maybe your customers have questions about this, but most importantly, you yourself have the most contact with your products. Therefore, you should not only be able to respond to customer concerns about this, but also know exactly which ingredients are included and which are not.

Biological vs. organic

In the English-speaking world, chemical-organic and biological-manufactured products are often mistakenly equated in the term "organic," which can lead to misunderstandings. In the chemical world, however, the word "organic" simply refers to anything containing carbon and hydrogen.

3-free, 5-free, 7-free, 9-free, 13-free

Other irritant words are labels such as 3-free, 5-free, 7-free, 9-free, 13-free. The 3-free label, for example, says that these products do not contain toluene, phthalates or formaldehyde.  5-free, 7-free, 9-free and 13-free mean that many more things are not contained in the products.

Permanent change 

Developments in the industry therefore constantly bring new irritant words. The current buzzword "organic" is not the same as biological, and free additives on products show which of the known hazardous substances are not contained in them. 

Jim McConnell is co-founder and chief chemist of Light Elegance. He has a degree in chemistry with minors in math, physics and biology. In his Chemist Corner, he shares in a simple and entertaining way what's in your nail design products and what to avoid when choosing.