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Nail polish
Nail polish (also known as nail varnish in British English or nail enamel) is a lacquer that can be applied to the human fingernails or toenails to decorate and protect the nail plates. The formula has been revised repeatedly to enhance its decorative properties, to be safer for the consumer to use, and to suppress cracking or peeling. Nail polish consists of a mix of an organic polymer and several other components that give it colors and textures. Nail polishes come in all color shades and play a significant part in manicures and pedicures.
Nail polish originated in China and dates back to 3000 BCE. Around 600 BCE, during the Zhou dynasty, the royal house preferred the colors gold and silver. However, red and black eventually replaced these metallic colors as royal favorites. During the Ming dynasty, nail polish was often made from a mixture that included beeswax, egg whites, gelatin, vegetable dyes, and gum arabic.
In Egypt, the lower classes painted their nails a reddish brown with henna. Mummified pharaohs also had their nails painted with henna.
In Europe, Frederick S. N. Douglas, while traveling in Greece in 1810–1812, noticed that the Greek women used to paint their nails "dingy pink", which he understood as an ancient custom.
It was more common to polish nails with tinted powders and creams, finishing off by buffing the nail until left shiny. One type of polishing product sold around this time was Graf's Hyglo nail polish paste.[self-published source]
In Victorian era culture it was generally considered improper for women to adorn themselves with either makeup or nail coloring, since natural appearances were considered more chaste and pure. In the 1920s, however, women began to wear color in new makeups and nail products, partly in rebellion to such prim customs of their recent past.[citation needed] In 1920s France, a big pioneer of nail polish was the hairstylist Antoine de Paris, whose cosmetic company produced some of the first modern polishes, and he himself shocked the newspapers by wearing each nail painted a different color.
Since the 1920s, nail colors progressed from French manicures and standard reds to various palettes of color choices, usually coordinated with the fashion industry's clothing colors for the season. By the 1940s the whole nail was painted; before that, it was fashionable to leave the tips and a half-moon on the nail bed bare.[citation needed]
Modern nail polish consists predominately of a film-forming polymer dissolved in a volatile organic solvent. The most common polymer is nitrocellulose, although the more expensive cellulose acetates such as CAB are claimed to give better performance. In gel nail varnish, the polymer is usually some sort of acrylate copolymer. The solvents are commonly butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. Low levels of various additives are included to give the desired finish:
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Nail polish
Nail polish (also known as nail varnish in British English or nail enamel) is a lacquer that can be applied to the human fingernails or toenails to decorate and protect the nail plates. The formula has been revised repeatedly to enhance its decorative properties, to be safer for the consumer to use, and to suppress cracking or peeling. Nail polish consists of a mix of an organic polymer and several other components that give it colors and textures. Nail polishes come in all color shades and play a significant part in manicures and pedicures.
Nail polish originated in China and dates back to 3000 BCE. Around 600 BCE, during the Zhou dynasty, the royal house preferred the colors gold and silver. However, red and black eventually replaced these metallic colors as royal favorites. During the Ming dynasty, nail polish was often made from a mixture that included beeswax, egg whites, gelatin, vegetable dyes, and gum arabic.
In Egypt, the lower classes painted their nails a reddish brown with henna. Mummified pharaohs also had their nails painted with henna.
In Europe, Frederick S. N. Douglas, while traveling in Greece in 1810–1812, noticed that the Greek women used to paint their nails "dingy pink", which he understood as an ancient custom.
It was more common to polish nails with tinted powders and creams, finishing off by buffing the nail until left shiny. One type of polishing product sold around this time was Graf's Hyglo nail polish paste.[self-published source]
In Victorian era culture it was generally considered improper for women to adorn themselves with either makeup or nail coloring, since natural appearances were considered more chaste and pure. In the 1920s, however, women began to wear color in new makeups and nail products, partly in rebellion to such prim customs of their recent past.[citation needed] In 1920s France, a big pioneer of nail polish was the hairstylist Antoine de Paris, whose cosmetic company produced some of the first modern polishes, and he himself shocked the newspapers by wearing each nail painted a different color.
Since the 1920s, nail colors progressed from French manicures and standard reds to various palettes of color choices, usually coordinated with the fashion industry's clothing colors for the season. By the 1940s the whole nail was painted; before that, it was fashionable to leave the tips and a half-moon on the nail bed bare.[citation needed]
Modern nail polish consists predominately of a film-forming polymer dissolved in a volatile organic solvent. The most common polymer is nitrocellulose, although the more expensive cellulose acetates such as CAB are claimed to give better performance. In gel nail varnish, the polymer is usually some sort of acrylate copolymer. The solvents are commonly butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. Low levels of various additives are included to give the desired finish: