History

Nail polish seems to have been originated by the Chinese around 3000 B.C. The Japanese and Italians are thought to have been the first ones to actually use nail polish. The Chinese used a colored lacquer, made from a combination of Arabic gum, egg whites, gelatin and beeswax. They also used a mixture consisting of mashed rose, orchid and impatiens petals combined with alum.Fact: date=February 2007 This mixture, when applied to nails for a few hours or overnight, leaves a color ranging from pink to red. The Egyptians used reddish-brown stains derived from henna to color their nails as well as the tips of their fingers. Today, some people still use henna dyes to draw intricate, temporary designs on their hands in a practice known as Mehndi. Chou Dynasty of 600 B.C., Chinese royalty often chose gold and silver to enhance their nails. A fifteenth-century Ming manuscript cites red and black as the colors chosen by royalty for centuries previous.Fact: date=February 2007 The Egyptians also used nail color to signify social order, with shades of red at the top. Queen Nefertiti,the wife of the king Akhenaton, colored her finger and toe nails ruby red; Cleopatra favored a deep rust red.Fact: date=February 2007 Women of lower rank who colored their nails were permitted only pale hues. Incas were known for decorating their fingernails with pictures of eagles.Fact: date=February 2007 It is unclear how the practice of coloring nails progressed following these ancient beginnings. Portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries include shiny nails.. By the turn of the 19th century, nails were tinted with scented red oils and polished or buffed with a chamois cloth, rather than simply painted."History of Nail Care." Originally published in Nails magazine, 2007. In addition, English and US 19th century cookbooks contained directions for making nail paints. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, women still pursued a polished, rather than painted, look by massaging tinted powders and creams into their nails, then buffing them shiny. One such polishing product sold around this time was Graf's Hyglo nail polish paste. Some women during this period painted their nails using a clear, glossy varnish applied with camel-hair brushes. When automobile paint was created around 1920, it inspired the introduction of colored nail enamels. Nail polish contains nitrocellulose which is available in many different grades and is measured by viscosity. Nail grade nitrocellulose should be used for nail polish, as opposed to industrial grade which is available for use in furniture finishes, auto-paints and other various non-cosmetic lacquer finishes. Nail polish manufacturers are known to use industrial grade nitrocellulose covertly to save money, as it is half the price of the nail grade nitro. Cosmetic companies should be aware of this practice when they are choosing a pan manufacturer.