If you don’t remember much from Brad Womack’s most recent season of The Bachelor, you probably remember his girlfriend Michelle Money mysteriously waking up with a black eye. Rumors and jokes flew around the house (and the press) regarding how Michelle got the black eye and that she must’ve beat herself up, either on purpose (for attention) or by accident while she was asleep. Viewers assumed that it was most likely for attention, like almost everything else Money did to try to win over Brad’s love and affection throughout the season.

I think this is the worst picture of Michelle in history...she's actually stunning gorgeous, if you're not familiar with the show. photo via Hollywood Life

Last night, however, fellow contender from Brad’s season, who is now a contestant (with Money) on the second season of Bachelor Pad, Melissa Schreiber (@MelisSchreiber) posted a screenshot of a girl with not one, but two black eyes with a tweet … I looked at the screenshot and tweeted back to her, asking if she could share the link to the original article, and to my surprise (you know, most of these Hollywood-types never respond), she actually replied to me with the link cc’ing Michelle Money (@moneymichelle), an article originally published by my friends at AOL Stylelist! If you don’t have time to read the whole article, I’ll give you a brief overview…a girl woke up with two black eyes and her boyfriend told her it looked like someone had punched her. She went to the doctor and the doctor told her she must be allergic to something and she tried to figure out what had changed in her routine, which she couldn’t.  The reaction occurs when blood around the eyes is unable to drain so it stays put and causes the appearance of a black eye. Usually this reaction is a result of allergies from pollen or a sinus infection, rather than from a manicure. The doctor then noticed her fresh manicure…Turns out that she had gone to her regular manicurist, but selected a brand of polish she had never heard of/used before, and she was most likely allergic to something in the polish. By removing the polish and applying a topical steroid prescribed, her skin was clear in about 2 days.

Talk about scary beauty! So what’s the culprit? Chemicals like formaldehyde and toulene and DBP have been subject to question for years, and despite claims that many brands are going 3-Free and 4-Free (the 3 above + no formaldehyde resin), no one is actually regulating whether or not this information is true. Nail polish companies are not required like many other cosmetics to list their ingredients on the bottles and no one is checking what’s in them. Besides the risk of allergic reactions, formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and can all three can cause serious reproductive and respiratory problems.

What’s being done? Many health organizations are pushing the Safe Cosmetics Act, a bill that would require pre-market safety assessments of all personal care products-not just nail polish. (As of right now, the Safe Cosmetics Act is expected to pass early next year.) And you can help…

What can you do in the meantime to protect yourself? Use 3-Free and 4-Free polishes and ask your manicurist to use non-Acetone polish remover. My favorite polishes include Butter London ($14), Orly (about $5),  Zoya ($8) and OCC-Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics ($8).

So let’s bring this full-circle–Michelle is not totally crazy, she didn’t punch herself, and this is the likely culprit of her mysterious black eye– Use 3-Free and 4-Free polish Michelle! You can catch both Michelle Money and Melissa Schreiber along with many other former Bachelor and Bachelorette contenders (including Vienna Girardi, Jake Pavelka and many more) compete for $250,000 (“and another shot at true love…”) on the Jake and Vienna Show…I mean….Bachelor Pad season 2, Monday nights from 8-10pm (EST) on ABC.

Oh, and some bachelor gossip… Reality Steve says that he won’t know who the next Bachelor is going to be until September and he won’t have details until they begin filming, if you were wondering.

However, William Holman (remember the wannabe comedian who told Ashley Hebert he thought he was signing up to date Emily or Chantal?..you can catch him on Bachelor Pad 2, too) leaked on his Twitter account that he’s “heard” (not sure how reliable that is) Jake Pavelka might be pulling a Brad Womack and trying his chance as The Bachelor again. In a conversation with a fan who wrote, “I think you should be the next Bachelor… just sayin’” Holman replied… I’m pulling for Ames Brown or Ryan Park (I can’t decide who I love more though–Ryan’s exit(s) broke my heart and Ames would be so much fun to watch.)

Have you ever had a beauty disaster? What happened? And…do you watch Bachelor/Bachelorette? Who’s your pick for the next contender and why?