Dealing With Nail Polish Allergies

In the DermTV episode of the most common cause for swollen eyelid rashes, I mentioned that the culprit is usually nail polish. One of our viewers, Latisha, saw that episode and realized that her recurring eyelid rash was caused by her nail polish. So she asked ,”What nail polish do I use now?” The short answer is, if you have had this problem with nail polish, there is no effective scientific way to find the one you’re not allergic to. It’s just trial and error. You have to try different nail polishes. When you have this problem and you go to the dermatologist, he or she can test you to the different ingredients in the nail polish you are allergic to, and they can find out exactly what ingredient it is, but the problem is, when you go to buy your next nail polish, the ingredients aren’t listed on the nail polish, so you don’t know if the offending ingredient, the one that you’re allergic to, is in the next nail polish, so it doesn’t pay to go through the patch testing to find out exactly what ingredient it is. The bottom line is, if you’ve had this allergy to nail polish, then you just have to cautiously and conservatively try other nail polishes to find out which one you can wear without getting red swollen eyelids.