A Short History Of: Nail Polish | Blogmas Day 8
It was just a typical Saturday afternoon and I was supposed to be doing something for school so, naturally, I didn't. Instead, I decided to browse through a few fashion&beauty magazines and listen to Ed Sheeran and 5 Seconds of Summer. And boy, was it a good idea! I read an amazing article about the origin and progress of some makeup bits, so I figured it would be fun to explore the topic a bit more and introduce you to it. That's when I said ''Scratch Tag Week, this is way more fun''. After doing a lot of research, I think it's only right that nail polishes come first.
▸ Nail polish is a Chinese invention that dates from about 5000 years ago. It's components used to be: beeswax, egg whites, natural dyes, gelatin and gum arabic. For pigmentation, they used flower petals such as roses and orchids.
If you moan about waiting for nail varnish to dry, remember that back in the day, they had to wait for hours for it to dry.
▸ Zhou Dynasty (11th to 3rd century B.C.)
▸ Zhou Dynasty (11th to 3rd century B.C.)
Something you should also be grateful about is the fact that you can wear any colour nail polish under the sun. During this period, only royals used to wear silver and gold, while average Chinese women could only wear light pink colours. Disobeying this would be followed by death penalty. By the time of Ming Dynasty (14th to 17th century B.C.) royal colours became red & black.
▸ Ancient Egypt
From China, nail polishes spread across India, Middle East, northern Africa, especially Egypt. In Ancient Egypt, nail polish colours also used to determine social status: only those of high rank were able to wear deep red hues. Ingredients were henna (which Cleopatra was a big fan of) and berries.
▸ After the fall of Roman Empire, nail polish disappeared from Europe, but with renaissance it returned. It became commonplace in France in late 18th century.
▸ After Michelle Menard invented the modern version of nail polish, Max Factor launched a nail colouring cream in 1927. The real revolution of nail polish began back in 1932 when Revlon made nail polishes that match lipsticks. Rita Heyworth, the actress, was responsible for the expansion of nail polish as she was famous for her love of red nails. In 1966, Mary Quant, a designer famous for her discovery of mini skirts, invented nail polishes in more colours so that they can match different outfits. A few years later, Biba London made black nail polish, which is still one of the best selling nail polish colours along with red.
There, that's it for this installment of this series. I hope you enjoyed it, next up is makeup. Talk to you tomorrow!
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