When you go to the nail salon, you expect to be pampered with freshly buffed and painted fingers and toes. What you don’t expect is to come into contact with toxic fumes or harmful chemicals that can wreak havoc on your health from the products used in the salon. Unfortunately, this may be the case in many salons across the country where safety practices By Maureen Frost aren’t enforced and product ingredients are poorly regulated. Jenny Duranski, founder and CEO of Lena Rose Beauty, a green beauty boutique and spa in Chicago, dealt with the ramifications of these health hazards first hand. Before she founded her boutique, she worked as a certified nail technician for four years in a traditional salon but fell ill from the constant exposure of the toxic products she worked with. Eager to understand what was making her sick,
GREEN YOUR MANICURE
THE CAMPAIGN FOR SAFE COSMETICS,
founded in 2004, works to educate the public and enact legislation to remove dangerous chemicals from personal care products. Over the years, they have persuaded many companies to ditch the harmful chemicals and bring the demand for natural and organic products to the mainstream market.
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she began to research on her own. The more she looked into the issues, the more she realized there weren’t nearly enough resources out there to help consumers and technicians understand the dangers and choose safer alternatives. One of the first websites Jenny came across that helped her along her educational journey was the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Ever since, Jenny has been a supporter, traveling to Washington D.C. to share her personal story and lobby for tougher legislation on the beauty products industry. Jenny explains, “I’m a very passionate advocate and activist. When I started learning more about this I got really angry and really frustrated. Then I became hopeless and then I got my passion back again.” She knew she could and should change things and has been carrying the torch for green nails ever since. Her research and dedication to natural alternatives
