Nail Polish

As I was sitting in a hotel room last night - enjoying some beautification time whilst painting my nails - I started to wonder where exactly did nail polish -&- the painting of nails originate - so I decided to research it -&- of course share my findings with you!?!

As it appears the history of nail polish is as follows:
The Egyptians used reddish-brown stains derived from henna to color their nails and fingertips. They also took the color from their own blood. Egyptians 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 crimson. Women of lower rank who colored their nails were permitted only pale hues.

The Chinese used a colored lacquer, made from gum arabic, egg whites, gelatin and beeswax. They used mashed rose, orchid and impatiens petals combined with alum. This mixture applied to nails for a few hours, leaves a color ranging from pink to red. In the Chou Dynasty of 600 B.C., Chinese royalty used 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.

The Incas decorated their fingernails with pictures of eagles. It is unclear how the practice of coloring nails progressed following these 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. English and US 19th century cookbooks had directions for making nail paints. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, women 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 with clear, glossy varnish applied with a camel-hair brush. When automobile paint was created around 1920, it inspired the introduction of colored nail enamels.

Nail polish has been traditionally worn by women, but sometimes popular with men. Traditional colors for nail polish were red, pink and brown, and it can now be found in virtually any color. French manicures traditionally mimic the color of natural nails, using a clear, beige or soft pink polish on most of the nail with a white finish at the tips!?!

Black has been a popular color of nail polish with goths and punks of both genders since the 1970s, and has recently gained acceptance as a color for both men and women.

Some types of polish are advertised to cause nail growth, make nails stronger, prevent nails from breaking, cracking and splitting and stop nail biting. Nail polish may be applied as one of several components in a manicure. However, some nail treatments contain ingredients such as ammonium hexafluorophosphate.

And, in case you were wondering what my favorite color is...
it is Plum Pudding by CoverGirl!?!