A History of Nail Polish

If you ever wondered when nail polish first came into production, you're not alone. We use so many beauty products on our nails, hands, faces, hair, and bodies on a daily basis, but most of us have no idea when or where they originated.

Most sources point to China as the originator of nail polish, and there is evidence of its use as early as 3000 BC. Early formulations included egg whites, gelatin, and beeswax as ingedients, and dyes generally came from vegetable sources.

While the formula has changed significantly since then, the purpose hasn't. Nail polish began as an adornment that royals used to distinguish themselves from the masses. Colors like gold and silver represented money and wealth--and later these metallic shades were replaces by trendier colors like red. It's not so different from why we paint our nails now--to distinguish ourselves and add a little color to our appearance.

Years later, many people turned to oils, powders, and pastes to tint their nails. We can only imagine that these products, much like lipstick, tended to stain a lot and weren't nearly as long-lasting or durable as modern nail polish as we know it.

So, how did nail polish get to where it is today? It has a lot to do with advancements in paint. Specifically, car paint. In the early 1900s, companies like Cutex and Revlon modified the formula of paint used in the automobile industry to create a varnish suitable for use on nails.

Flash forward to 1981, when Essie Weingarten debuted a collection of 12 unusual nail polish shades and changed the industry forever. Three of those shades (Blanc, Bordeaux, and Baby's Breath) might still sound familiar, because they're still popular colors being produced as part of the line. It's hard to imagine now that white, pale pink, and wine-colored nail polishes were unusual even in the '80s, but the rainbow spectrum of shades we enjoy today is a fairly new development.

In 1983, Joan Rivers (then a host of the Tonight Show) mentioned her nail polish on air (it was Essie's Jelly Apple, a bright red shade). This moment was one of the first celebrity endorsements of a major nail polish brand, and it skyrocketed Essie to public fame. Queen Elizabeth only wore Essie's iconic Ballet Slippers shade, to give you an idea of how quickly it became the first name in nail polish.

Since then, there have really been only two major advancements in nail polish categories:

1. The addition of blues, greens, and other pastel shades.

Hard Candy and Urban Decay gained popularity in the '90s for their unexpected nail colors. Suddenly, everyone was wearing mint green and sky blue--colors we previously hadn't seen much of on nails at all.

2. The creation of gel and other long-wearing formulas.

From OPI to Shellac and everything in between, the creation of "gel" polish formulas that cure and harden by the time you leave the salon were revolutionary. They changed the way women approached their manicures, giving us zero dry time and the freedom to go on vacation without worrying about our nail polish chipping.

So, what's next in nail polish? We're predicting two primary trends that actually will take the industry in two opposing directions at once: For one, we expect to see more "natural" formulas with fewer unnecessary chemicals, like three-free formulas. But we also expect more "advanced" formulas like Vinylux and other innovative products.