If you want to go indie, check out KBShimmer and Colores de Carol along with Anchor & Heart. They tend to be way more transparent about their formulas and practices than the bigger names, like ingredient lists, curing info, that kind of thing. Not always perfect, but better.
Madam Glam and Gelish are both solid. Dimension Nails is indie and has Leaping Bunny certification if that matters to you.
Butter London or Bio Seaweed Gel, both solid for what you’re after.
Zoya’s shade range is huge. You could probably find a dupe for every OPI and Essie bottle currently giving you side-eye from the shelf.
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KBShimmer’s jelly glitters are what sold me on the brand. The multichrome I grabbed later is gorgeous too, no complaints there, but those jellies are just doing something different. Something special. And I still can’t quite explain what.
They check the cruelty-free and vegan boxes, which is what you’re looking for.
Bio Seaweed Gel is one I use a lot. The big thing for me is that they do the same colors in both gel and regular lacquer, so you can match your manis when doing a full gel set or just want something quick. Same shade either way. That’s rare.
KBShimmer’s thermal shimmer is what I use all the time. Just one bottle, and somehow that was enough to sell me on the whole brand, which almost never happens with me.
Olive Ave is cruelty free and vegan, but I’m not so sure about the rest of your list.
Those X-free numbers are just marketing. No one checks that 10-free means the same thing from brand A as brand B, so a 21-free label might actually be less clean than a 7-free if they’re adding ingredients that were never in the polish anyway. Check the ingredient list instead.
The bunny logos aren’t all equal either. Leaping Bunny audits the supply chain and requires brands to recommit, while PETA’s list is mostly self-reported. Both are better than nothing, but they aren’t the same.
China relaxed its animal testing rules for many cosmetics in 2021, so some brands that dropped off lists years ago are back on them. An old 2018 blog post might have you avoiding products for no reason.
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