Is butter LONDON Nail Polish Vegan?

I’ve always thought butter LONDON’s nail polish were all vegan-friendly and did not contain any animal-derived ingredients or by-products but I was creeping around their website recently and didn’t see them mention anything about being vegan. So out of curiosity, I emailed the company asking for clarifications.

Without much of an explanation, they sent me a list of their products that are vegan and to my surprise, most of the products they mentioned were just nail treatments and top coats– with the exception of their Patent Shine 10X™ Nail Lacquer.

Related: 40+ Vegan and Cruelty-Free Nail Polish Brands

So I followed up asking if they had changed their regular nail lacquer’s formula/ingredients because I’ve purchased a few nail polish from butter LONDON in the past and thought they were vegan at the time of purchase. A rep from their Canadian distributor wrote back and said to their knowledge, “the regular nail lacquers were never organic/vegan, only non-toxic. We have certainly not changed our formula/ingredients for the regular nail lacquers.”

**Update! (July 6, 2015) It has come to my attention that some readers have been skeptical about the response I’ve received from a butter LONDON rep, so I emailed them again to triple check if the statement was correct and received the following response:

Yes. We have verified this with the manufacturer. As per the list that I provided you with in an earlier message, please note that only the new Patent Nail Lacquers are considered vegan. The regular nail lacquers are not.

So to set the record straight now, butter LONDON’s line of nail polish are NOT entirely vegan. Their regular nail lacquers are NOT vegan but their Patent Shine 10X™ nail lacquers ARE vegan and so are the following butter LONDON’s nail treatments: 

• Get Your Kit Off Cuticle Remover
• Handbag Holiday Cuticle Oil
• Hardwear P.D. Quick Topcoat
• Horse Power Nail Fertilizer
• Matte Finish Top Coat
• Melt Away Cuticle Eliminator
• Nail 999 Rescue System
• Nail Nosh Strengthening Serum
• Patent-Gel Top & Tails
• Patent Shine 10X™ Nail Lacquer

You can tell the difference between butter LONDON’s regular nail lacquers and their Patent Shine 10X (vegan) one by the packaging; they have conveniently printed Patent Shine 10X™ on the vegan-friendly one and the bottle cap is a chrome, silver color versus black on their regular nail lacquer bottle.