Mentality Nail Polish: There's More to the Story

Nothing to Disclose

It has been a busy and drama-filled weekend in the nail community. I am not one to get involved in drama but this is serious and I felt that it was important to write this post. If you are involved in Facebook nail polish groups you have likely heard of the problems surrounding Mentality Nail Polish recently. There is so much information regarding what is going on that it's mind boggling. I will hit some of those high points in this post, but the main reason I am posting this is to make people aware of something that I think is huge and not being addressed at all. This issue has been going on for nearly a year. A YEAR. Not just a few months. I have photos (screenshots) I have taken from Instagram that will show this below.

This post is quite lengthy, but the information is so important. Please read all the way to the end, especially if you or anyone you know has purchased/used Mentality Nail Polish. Any updates will be added to the end of the post, along with the date of the update.

First, let's look at some of the things that most people are discussing, but you may not know if you're not involved in the rabbit hole that is Facebook nail polish groups. Mentality Nail Polish is causing some people's nails a lot of problems. Some people have experienced tingling or sensitivity after using the Mentality polishes in question, while many people are actually losing their nails due to the polish. Their nail beds are getting burned and their nails are literally lifting up from their nail bed. Let's just take a minute to process that and look at this photo below from someone who has actually experienced it. These are just two photos from one person affected, @dmm_nails on Instagram. If you look around social media you will be able to find many more affected.

I will touch a little on how Mentality has handled (or rather NOT handled) this severe problem. Mentality was notified by a few of their swatchers in the middle of June that there was an issue with these polishes and that their nails were having these same effects. Mentality said nothing and continued selling these polishes. More people were affected (obviously, since they were selling bad products, and knowingly doing so), and after it started gaining some momentum on social media they made a vague post regarding it on Instagram, buried under a photo that said "thank you" and ended that post with a sale code. A sale code for polishes that could make my nails fall off? No thanks. 

They have not made any attempt to email customers who may have been affected. They have only acknowledged very briefly in social media posts that were very quickly buried with sales posts. This morning they posted this insulting Facebook status, which they buried shortly after with this 50% off sale post (screenshot of the Instagram sales post below). So, just to recap their posts today, they are no longer offering ANY compensation for those who have been affected. Those whose nails are falling off and their skin is burned because of their polishes. They just don't have time. Yet, the very next post they make is a sale post and they say there will be no delay in shipping?? They should have STOPPED production on anything new to handle their issues and get proper testing done to figure out the problem. As it stands now they are just "assuming" it is a new polish base they were using at the time. 

But it gets better. Not only are they no longer accepting any new "claims" of damage, they are claiming they are being "bullied" on the internet to get out of refunding PayPal disputes. Below is a screenshot from a claim that someone gave me permission to use. She filed a PayPal dispute trying to get a refund for her polishes that she purchased during the time Mentality has stated they were using the "bad base." 

As you can see, Mentality is trying to get out of paying by stating that she is involved in an "internet bullying campaign" and stated that she has not contacted them prior to the claim. But, she has emails dating back to July 24th, and not just one, but a whole thread!

So let all that process a minute. Mentality knew their product was causing bodily harm to people and continued to sell it for weeks. Instead of recalling all products sold during that time and suspending production and figuring out the problem, they are attempting to sweep this under the rug. Now they are straight out calling people bullies and liars when all they are trying to do is get a refund for polish that is known to cause people's nails to potentially fall off??

One more layer to the story has just come up while I've been writing this post. Mentality Nail Polish filed to become a corporation on June 29, 2015. Their swatchers notified them of the sensitivities in June. They did not notify the public (in the posts I mentioned above) until July 22nd. So, they were notified by multiple swatchers in June, filed for corporation so they couldn't be sued personally (or that was their thinking, I assume) on June 29th, then waited to tell anyone until July 22nd. You can see documentation from the State of California of that below.

Now, for the reason I actually decided to write the post today. Mentality claims they started using the new base in April 2015 and discontinued use in June 2015. They claim anything sold prior to April of this year (or after July of this year) is fine to use. Let's take a look at these screenshots from the Instagram account of @spilledmilknails.  Please note the oldest photo is dated "46 weeks ago."

If you go back and read the posts on @spilledmilknails account you can see she originally attributed the damage to using a lot of straight acetone, which she normally did not do. That's a normal assumption, it was a change and a harsh chemical. However, she has since figured out that it was due to Mentality's polishes and says so on @dmm_nails's posts (the other user we saw earlier). Please see the photos below, the comments were under this photo posted by @dmm_nails.

You can see in those screenshots that @spilledmilknails (who is a swatcher for Mentailty, and if you scroll through her Instagram you can see it is the main brand she uses) states that she had damage of the same kind in September of last year. September 2014. Due to Mentality polishes (because she states that MNP - Mentality Nail Polish - is making good on it). If that's true, this issue is much older than anyone realizes and Mentality also knew about it being a much older problem than just April of this year. Which also makes you wonder about their claim of a "new, bad base." 

There is honestly a lot more going on than even I posted about. I chose the things I thought were most pertinent and the things that weren't being discussed (mostly how this problem goes back much farther than most people know). Everything I posted is fact and can be found through social media. You can read Mentality's posts on Instagram and Facebook and see how they are NOT handling this very serious problem. 

I also wanted to take a quick minute to say if you are new to indie nail polish, this is NOT the norm. I have worked with many indie brands and, over the years, have gotten to know many of the makers pretty well. They are responsible business owners who take issues seriously. Many of them have recalled/refunded polishes for minor issues such as fading or sinking glitter. For something that is causing people bodily harm not to be taken seriously is just unfathomable and why I felt I needed to share this with you. They are the exception and not the rule. Definitely the "bad apple" of the indie community.

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UPDATE 8/24/15 

Hello again, everyone. I was not planning on updating this post but so many things have come to light since I wrote this post that I felt like I should update. The reason I am updating is to potentially reach anyone who may still be unaware of the issues, and so all pertinent information is here for anyone who finds this post to read. One follower of mine on Instagram posted this last night (2 screenshots below), and while I was so sad for her, I was relieved that she saw the posts and figured out what was causing the pain she was having.

I also want to point out that she purchased her polish from someone other than Mentality. This is another concern, that people will purchase bad bottles unknowingly and wind up with the same damage. If you have any bottles that you would not risk using, even if they are not within the "time frame" that Mentality has given (I personally would not use anything of theirs no matter when it was purchased), please dispose of them rather than selling them. You can find information on how to properly dispose nail polish here.

As I stated in the original portion of the blog post, Mentality is claiming the cause of these issues is a base made by a company called Arminex. Arminex is a company based in the United States and they own many reputable companies including, but not limited to, Nubar, Seche and Diamont. You can see more information on this here and here. Those are huge brands and all of the products made by Arminex or any of its subsidiaries would have to go through FDA approval. Please see the next three screenshots (all from this post on Mentality's Facebook page, which I will talk about in a minute). I couldn't get a photo of the comment she was replying to because Mentality had already deleted it. Yeah, they are doing that too. 

Let me clear up any confusion you may have since all of the comments aren't in these screenshots. They did not get the Arminex base tested, they just "assumed" that is what was causing the problems. (Meaning they blamed a reputable company whose products are tested by the FDA with absolutely no proof whatsoever.) They claimed it was too expensive to have the base tested. Mike Levine, in comments above, is a chemist. I'm not a chemist and know very little about creating nail polish or nail polish base, but Mike sure seems to know what he's talking about. I do know the only reason you would ever need to "de-gas" something is if you are making it yourself, as Mike states in the third screenshot. So, Mentality just confirmed (I'm sure without realizing it) that they are making their own base. 

Also, there is this post that Danny made on his personal Facebook (it is a public post so anyone can see it, there's no privacy violation) from January stating that they can now import things from China. As far as I know, there are no regulations in place in China as there are in other countries. I do know that they require products sold there to be tested on animals, but I am not sure what type of regulations they put on products made in China. I don't want to paint China with a broad, dirty brush, but I don't believe most makers are willing to use products from China. 

Another issue in this mess is that they are claiming they don't have enough money to test the base (which Chemist Mike pointed out really isn't that expensive if you know what you're looking for). Businesses should have money in savings for any type of emergency or incidental that might arise. They are also claiming they don't have money for insurance. (See below.)

Insurance is not that expensive. You can get a business liability policy for $1 million for around $300-400 per year here in the US. If their customer base is "as big as a small city" (see below), then they should have no problem being able to pay for insurance, which is something that every business needs. 

The screenshot above was taken from this Mentality Facebook status that I also shared in the original post. I do encourage you to read it in its entirety so you can see exactly how condescending and snide Danny from Mentality is behaving. There is absolutely no care or concern for all the pain and damage this product has caused. (I do have screenshots of the entire post in case they end up deleting it as well.)

One last thing for today. Danny, one half of Mentality, has been making a lot of posts via social media. One in particular that sticks out is this one from last night where he fired all of Mentality's swatchers. He only created this post after at least 3 of their swatchers had already resigned (Cosmetic Sanctuary, ErmahgerdPerlish and mgshel), and did not notify the others prior to making the Facebook post. The swatchers he fired are people who were still supporting him even though they are the ones who actually had experienced damage from the polishes. See screenshots below for one example. If he treats his loyal swatchers like this, ones who had stuck by him after their nails had been damaged and nail beds burned, it's pretty frightening to think how he thinks about the customers he doesn't know.

I want to show you one swatcher in particular, and will link blog posts of two others after this. @crutenberg (on Instagram), her real name is Charity, is one of the swatchers who had extreme damage to her nails because of Mentality. Even after that she supported them, even after they didn't deal with it properly she stuck by them. She also didn't post anything publicly about the damage until after customers started posting about it, that is what the post below is referencing. She was still posting #ilovementalitynailpolish (see screenshot below) last night. This was shortly before she was fired, via the Facebook post above.

On that same post, after many comments of her supporting Mentality, comes this comment...

As you can see, she was very shocked by her firing. As of right now she has not posted anything else regarding Mentality. I have a screenshot of the comment she made on the post where she was fired (that was removed right before she was blocked).  Also, more proof of deleted comments by Mentality above Charity's comment.

Another of Mentality swatchers who was initially supportive, even after the polishes damaged her nails, is @spilledmilknails (she is one of the ones I mentioned in the original portion of this blog post). Below is an updated post from her.

She is a bit more quiet on the topic, but she is the first documented person to be affected by Mentality's polishes. You can read her story in her blog post.

One other Mentality swatcher who was a supporter, but whose nails were not affected by their polishes, is Betty's Beauty Bombs. Please read all the way to the end of her blog post as she updated it until she finally realized there was no defending these people or their actions anymore.

I just want to reiterate my comments from yesterday that this is not the norm for indie polish companies. The makers I have worked with for the last 4 years, and there are many, are responsible business owners. They test their polishes and ingredients for months, in some cases I've even seen a year or more of testing, before anything is ever sent to bloggers or sold to the public. I really hope that one bad apple doesn't ruin the whole community. 

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UPDATE 8/27/15 

Hello again. More information has come out over the last few days that I will update you guys with. But more than that, with this update I am hoping to try and bring people's attention back to what the issue really is here. Over the course of the week I have seen this topic in social media go from being outraged for the victims to turning it into making fun of Danny, one half of Mentality. I understand he has made some absurd statements on social media, but I have seen people making fun of where he lives and all sorts of things that just do not matter. It does not matter where they live or how many kids they have. This is about them selling products that caused people harm. Not just ugly nails but painful nails, and emotional pain as well. I have some updates on people who I've already posted about, as well as some stories that you may not have seen yet. So, let's get to it.

First, Mentality has issued a couple of new Facebook posts. First, this one, where they continued to blame Arminex in the very status on which they posted screen shots of the Cease and Desist letter. (Photos of the C&D letter were also posted. I have screenshots of those if they remove their post at a later date.)

They violated the C&D letter in the very same status they that they posted it in. They are also going to be asking people to send back polishes. Really? So, they will not help the customers that they harmed, but they expect them to send stuff to them to help them (which will in turn destroy any evidence these people have).
Next came this status where they seem to have changed their story about the Arminex base to some sort of implication about it being connected to gel products. 

Then, in this status, they are now saying that the affected batches are from April 2014 - June 2015. Prior to this everything they had stated (screenshots above included) was April 2015 - July 2015. They just admitted to a whole extra year of bad polishes than what they previously stated. 

This story has been getting quite a bit of media coverage from pretty well-known sites including Nail It Magazine, Refinery29, Seventeen Magazine and Jezebel (warning: strong language) to name a few.  This has been both positive and negative. It's wonderful that the news is spreading so that more people become aware not to use or purchase from Mentality. However, the articles do not paint indies, in general, in a good light at all. Take this excerpt from the Jezebel article for instance:

First off, there is no confusion when referring to testing polishes prior to release, and that does not include inadvertently wearing them on your clothing. I have been using indies for over 4 years and have been blogging about them for almost 4 years. In that time I have gotten to know many of the makers personally, and have seen some of their facilities in person. They are very professional and their customers' safety and the quality of the product they put out is their #1 concern. They test their ingredients and polishes for months, and sometimes up to a year, before releasing them. I have seen them issue full recalls (including refunds or replacements) for minor issues such as fading pigments or curling glitter (which sometimes do not happen until a year or more after released). These occurrences are very rare and indies are not the only polishes with these issues. As one example, OPI has released not one, but two, polishes with curling glitters (When Monkeys Fly and I Reached My Gold, which were ironically identical.) What happened with Mentality is not an issue with indies, it is just an issue with Mentality.

One of my readers, who wished to remain anonymous, emailed me the following screenshots from @nailsandtrees on Instagram. Note in the last screenshot Mentality refers to the damage as a "chemical burn" instead of "sensitivity," which is what they have been calling it on social media. 

As the last part of my update today I want to try to touch on what I mentioned earlier. I think a lot of the actual issue of the pain and suffering these victims went through is getting forgotten, lost in the drama. I have some photos and statements from several victims below. Some may make you cry, others may make you cringe, but I think this is important. In all of this mess, all the suffering that Mentality caused these people, they have not apologized at all. This would admit they did something wrong, which they refuse to do.

First I am going to revisit two people I have referenced in earlier portions of this post. Amy from @spilledmilknails had the following account and photo (quotes were used with permission, but were part of a conversation so if they seem choppy, that is why):

"I went to the dr several times. They were mystified but said it appeared to be chemical burns. I also ended up with several infections. Ripping my thumb nail off down to the bottom right corner of the cuticle (basically the entire nail bed) and went to the dr then too.

The first day my nails started lifting and fluid started leaking out - I ran to the clinic and they cultured the fluid coming out. It wasn't fungal it was bacterial. I have NO idea how bacteria got under my sealed nail. All 10 of them? And it was not a very common strain of bacteria for where it was.

It actually did hurt quite a bit. I tore off my thumb nail - all the way beyond the cuticle it was hanging on my one corner on my finger on a date with my husband back in Dec? Because my nails were so lifted, my finger slipped while eating crab and riiiiiip. It was all painful but that one - that hurt SO bad. I felt like my hands were falling apart. :I"

Photo courtesy of Amy at @spilledmilknails

Next is Charity from @crutenberg (you can read her full and updated post on her nails and her feelings on the situation here). She shares her photos of the experiment she did on herself to figure out if these polishes were really the cause of her nail problems. She wore Mentality exclusively on her right hand for two weeks, and no Mentality on the left hand. Then she switched the next two weeks and wore Mentality only on her left hand and no Mentality on the right. Below is a quote from her and her photos over the course of three months.

"The reason for the band aid in my only on the June pic is because I jammed my nail into the arm of the recliner and it broke all the way down by the cuticle. It came off a week later because it was only hanging on by a corner."

Next is Leesha (@4leesha on Instagram, you can see her post on her nails here) who wound up with a staph infection and fungus, in addition to the onchylosis:

"I have been to the doctor. It started with oozing, bleeding blisters under each nail as nail started to detach. Tests showed I had a staph infection under each nail and onchylosis. I'll attach a pic. Took antibiotics and infection healed, came back, took more antibiotics and healed again. It's been going on about 5-6 months."

Lastly for today I have a story that really touched me. She preferred to stay anonymous but I felt her story was important because she only used the polish ONE TIME before she started having a reaction. Most people have noticed the problems after multiple uses or days, but this reaction after one day just blew me away.

"I don't own a smartphone, so I realize they are not ultra quality, but I don't really care to display my nails to begin with, they are expressly embarrassing - I didn't want anyone to think there was only an isolated case or two - The polish I purchased and wore for one day, was called "Wreck", that is a beautiful irony in a horrendously ugly situation - It is now over four months later, excruciating pain has subsided with only occasional sensitivity, they are weak and bend like the sheets of aluminum a foley artists use to create the sound of thunder - They may appear filthy, but I assure you they are scrubbed & clean as a whistle, they just have a sickly, unhealthy pallor as well as some mutant blotches and see-through tips - I never received one notification about this, I am rarely on social media, but only this week did I find out what I had suspected was true due to the very fact that a blogger, The Girlie Tomboy, cared enough to inform & warn readers - Since finding out, I have done tons of research, each bit appearing more hopeless and scary for my hope to heal my nails, but it is less terrifying than the fear I felt when I was left in the dark, ignorant and left to the conclusion I had spontaneously developed some wasting-away disease - I had never tried this company before, I saw some swatches on a couple blogs, read about them, the color looked pretty, I gave it a try, I blame myself for this - I am not susceptible, I have never had an allergic reaction to anything, let alone nail polish - This is also the only bad experience I have had with any indie brands - I love the idea of supporting smaller/independent creative artists, I like the entrepreneurial spirit and I think the products they come up with are so fun, they make my day - And that is the point of bold, vibrant, bright and sparkly, to bring you joy - To have known this was hazardous and to have said nothing, to not have the simple decency, is unacceptable - It does not cause "panic", it quells it - Not only do people have a right to know, but knowledge is power and it serves no cause to remain ignorant, but it can help to soothe your terror over what could possibly be happening to you - To continue to sell it, decry others as "bullies" to sensationally divert attention from the truth, to paint themselves as "victims", that is unforgivable, and borders on inhumane - I have filed with the FDA, MedWatch, and PayPal, though they may keep my six bucks, I would trade it all and a bag of magic beans to find out how to heal my nails, which were absolutely fine & healthy before this - I have written to customer service and received no reply from Mentality Nail Polish, I did however comment on their facebook page and was promptly banned - I didn't know a thing about this for four months, other than my own personal experience, and I doubt I am that special to be the last one out there without a clue - I have seen no defense whatsoever from them, a lot of delusional puffery and bravado as if we had all descended to take them down in a steel cage match, mega disrespect, and most of all a pathology of a very sick, twisted behavior that would rather flaunt their disregard for anything other than the bottom line, rather than.. if not having taken the steps beforehand to guarantee something like this could never happen on their watch.. to just own up to their mistakes and try everything in their power to assist people and attempt to make something right come out of something so very, very wrong. ‪#‎MENTALITYPOISON‬"

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UPDATE 8/28/15

I was contacted by another former Mentality blogger this morning, Kelly from Nails for the Sake of Sanity. She was also affected by the polishes, though thankfully it did not affect all of her nails. You can read her entire story here.

I received an email from a reader today who asked to remain anonymous. This exchange took place starting May 11th, 2015. That is over one month before any of the (former) Mentality bloggers reported their issues to Danny and Hillary. Also included is a photo of her nails a few weeks after exposure. The exchange is a little lengthy but there is one important thing I want to discuss after you read it. I considered only posting the "important" part, but wanted to include the entire exchange so it was not altered in any way.

Note in the next to last image, in Danny's response, he mentions it looks like a chemical burn, and also mentions onycholysis. Then tries to divert attention away from their polish and onto other possibilities. The fact that they already knew about the possibility of this issue prior to the bloggers notifying them just adds another layer to the betrayal.

I hope anyone affected learns the truth and heals as quickly as possible. My heart goes out to each and every one of you. 

I have some information below about how to properly dispose of your Mentality polishes.
*If you are one of the victims who experienced burns and nail damage due to using Mentality polishes, please do not dispose of your polishes without seeking legal counsel. You may need these at a later date for evidence.* 

~ If you have Mentality polishes you would like to dispose of, please do not toss them in the trash or let them dry out prior to throwing away. (It has been said by a few chemists that since the ingredients are unknown it may not be safe to breathe in the fumes.) You can visit this link to find a hazardous waste disposal center near you. 

~ Another option for disposal of your polishes - Zoya must have found out what was going on because they decided to run their Polish Exchange (for more information you can visit my post) that they usually only have for Earth Day. This promo will run until September 12th.

~ And one last option - Wicked Polish is offering to replace your Mentalitys with polishes from her brand (how sweet is that?!) if you send her a photo and proof that you disposed of them properly. You can find more about that on her Instagram post.

If you have been affected by these polishes, please seek medical attention and report your problems to the FDA, at this link. You can also contact me at polishaddicted@gmail.com if you would like more information about others who were injured.

If anyone has news or documentation that has not been made public, please email me at polishaddicted@gmail.com. If you prefer to stay anonymous I completely understand, but the more facts we have as a community, the better it is for all of us.

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