History of nail polish From the historical perspective, nail art was used in ancient times. It firstly emerged in ancient Babylonia when males coloured their nails with kohl. The nail colour indicated status where males of higher class wore black while males of lower class wore green.[1] From 5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.,[2] ancient Egyptian women used nail art to indicate social status. They decorated their nails using the juice of henna plant. For example, Queen Nefertiti used red colour to decorate their fingernails and toenails. Compared to Nefertiti, Queen Cleopatra used deep rusty shades with an undertone of gold. Ordinary women were not allowed to use the same colour as queen.[1] In ancient China, during Ming Dynasty nail lacquers and varnishes were created from the mixture of beeswax, egg whites, gelatin, vegetable dyes and gum arabic. As in Egypt, colour of the nails also represented class. In 600 BC, during the Zhou Dynasty, royalty used gold and silver colours and later they preferred black and red colours to indicate their status.[3] The well known French manicure emerged on Paris runways in 1976 by Jeff Pink, the founder of cosmetic company ORLY, who wanted to create nail style that would be practical and versatile.[4] In the film Pulp Fiction, it was said Uma Thurman started the dark nail polish craze during the 90s. Her character in the film wore dark red nail polish called Rouge Noir by Chanel.[5] In ancient times, nail art displayed social class while from the 19th century it became allowed for everyone and became considered as a part of fashion as well.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 01:52:52 +0000
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