Go for a mani-pedi in Europe from this month forward, and you might not get the type of finishing touches you’re used to. As of September 1 this year, a chemical widely used in gel nail polishes has been banned in the European Union – while, as so often happens in cases like this, the substance remains legal and unregulated in the US. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Now, we admit that sounds bad – so what’s really going on? The ban concerns trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide, more commonly known as TPO for obvious syllable-related reasons – a chemical photoinitiator that gives gel polishes their quick curing time under ultraviolet light. It’s been used like this for decades , and not only in nail polishes – bu

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