Some Interesting Information About Nail Polishes

Our Team is presently doing research on how nail polishes are healthy for your nails – both petro-based and our unique plant-based versions. Once that report is done, we will be sending it out as one of our email blasts. In the meantime, we found some nail polish facts that we though might interest our customers and fans.

The first record of nails being polished came from China about 3000 BC. Those polishes have been analyzed and found to contain beeswax, gelatin, eggs, and vegetable dyes – basically and ancient plant-based polished. In pyramid era Egypt nail polish was used to signify a person’s class. The lower classes wore the lighter, more subdued colors, while high society usually wore vivid red.

Modern (Relatively) day colors were originally inspired by automobile colors. Famously Henry Ford is known for quipping to people “you can have any color you want as long as it is black” – once they got past this black mania nail polishes followed the car colors in there hue and saturation. Revlon introduced a cream color in 1932 and the selection grew from there. A company called Essie at one time had over 300 colors. Many were so close to others one would have to use a spectrometer to see a difference. One person expressed the opinion you spend more time picking a color than wearing it.

Back in 1932, Cutex nail polish cost 35¢ a bottle. Many quality brands sell for around $10.00 now. With only normal inflation that should be $189 so basically it is a real bargain. However, if you want to go crazy, or just won the lottery, you can get Black Diamond King which is made from 267 carats of black diamonds and spend about $250,000 for the bottle.

As with many things today, celebrities drive the trends in most markets. Once color was introduced to movies, Rita Hayworth is credited with popularizing red nail polish. Uma Thurman started the dark color nail trend when she stared in Pulp Fiction.

Nail polishes have a shelf life of about two years once opened. If you have old bottles the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) of the U.S. government considers unused or partially used bottles of petro-based nail polish household hazardous waste and should not be thrown in the regular trash but taken to a hazardous waste facility. This is not necessary with natural plant-based nail polishes.

Another no-no with petro-based nail polishes is they cannot be used on airplane flights. While plant-based versions are technically legal to use it’s recommended you err on the side of caution. Arguing with the flight crew, even if your technically correct, can get you booted off the flight.

Overall, in today’s COVID-19 environment many people have switched from going to the salon to doing their nails at home themselves, or with friends. Only using plant-based versions will keep you even safer in that regard.