Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and this is a classic episode
Speaker 1: from the Vault. In this one, we go into the
Speaker 1: perhaps surprisingly long history of nail polish, from ancient marks
Speaker 1: of class and military status to modern materials from the
Speaker 1: automotive industry.
Speaker 2: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel Bomb. Here with a look
Speaker 2: into the history of an everyday item, nail polish. It's
Speaker 2: actually been an everyday item for folks going back at
Speaker 2: least five thousand years. The very first people to apply
Speaker 2: color to their nails were likely in India during the
Speaker 2: Bronze Age, and they probably used hannah to do it.
Speaker 2: The use of hannah as a dye for body art
Speaker 2: was very common, so extending the designs and color onto
Speaker 2: the nails was a natural next step. The Chinese took
Speaker 2: the nail game up level sometime around three thousand BCE.
Speaker 2: They created a sort of nail varnish using a mixture
Speaker 2: of egg whites, beeswax, gelatine, amarabic which is a sap
Speaker 2: from the acacia tree, and alum, a compound frequently used
Speaker 2: in dyeing to help colors stick. These varnishes were then
Speaker 2: colored with flower petals or gold or silver dust. They
Speaker 2: further personalized the looks with artificial nails made of silver
Speaker 2: and gold, covered with jewels or closwine as well. These
Speaker 2: elaborately designed and colored nails were exclusively reserved for royal
Speaker 2: classes only. Around the same time, the Babylonians were getting
Speaker 2: into the nail game, but it was the warriors who
Speaker 2: were wearing color. The men pigmented their nails with coal,
Speaker 2: which is finely powdered sulfide before going into battle again.
Speaker 2: Even among these soldiers, class mattered. Higher class warriors had
Speaker 2: their nails colored with black coal, while lower class fighters
Speaker 2: used green coal. Enna has also been found painted on
Speaker 2: Egyptian mummies, including their nails. Nail colour signified class in
Speaker 2: Egypt too. The redder ones nails in ancient Egypt, the
Speaker 2: more power that person had. Queen Nefertiti, the stepmother of
Speaker 2: King Tutan, common, wore dark red nails, a color rumored
Speaker 2: to have blood in it. Cleopatra is said to have
Speaker 2: painted her nails from the juice of the hennaplant, which
Speaker 2: created a deep and rusty color. Women of lower rank
Speaker 2: were only allowed to wear pastel colors colored nails were
Speaker 2: popular in Europe by the Renaissance era, when trade with
Speaker 2: countries in Asia opened up. Coloring and bejeweling nails hit
Speaker 2: another high in eighteenth century French quartz, where outlandish fashion
Speaker 2: trends were the rage. By the Victorian era, women were
Speaker 2: creating color and shine with tinted oils. Women were also
Speaker 2: using tinted powders and creams on their nails to give
Speaker 2: them color and shine. That apply the mild abrasive and
Speaker 2: buffet for a shiny look, but it took time to
Speaker 2: apply the powdered cream, polish and buff each nail. In
Speaker 2: nineteen sixteen, q Tex changed that when it introduced its
Speaker 2: first clear nail lacquer. Painting a layer of shine on
Speaker 2: fingernails became much easier than all that buffing. It wasn't
Speaker 2: until the early twentieth century that polish as we know
Speaker 2: it came into existence, though, and we have the automobile
Speaker 2: industry to think. In the nineteen twenties, automotive paint was invented,
Speaker 2: and not long after French manicurist Michelle Minard adapted the
Speaker 2: formula to create opaque nail polish. Her employer, Charles Revson,
Speaker 2: knew a good thing when he saw it, so he
Speaker 2: and his brother Joseph launched a new company, Revlon, with
Speaker 2: the first colored nail enamel appearing in nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 2: Manicures were far from being the exclusive territory of the
Speaker 2: upper classes at this point. A bottle of q Tex
Speaker 2: nail polish cost thirty five cents in nineteen thirty four
Speaker 2: and affordable luxury in a time of type purse strings.
Speaker 2: When America entered World War II and women joined the
Speaker 2: workforce in huge numbers, manicures changed accordingly. Long nails were
Speaker 2: not going to last doing shift work at the factory.
Speaker 2: Even the New York Times ran remedies for motor mechanic hands.
Speaker 2: Rather than trying to keep up brightly painted nails, women
Speaker 2: working manual jobs turned back to clear polish or even
Speaker 2: buffing with cream polish. After Manard invented colored nail laquer,
Speaker 2: women were having their nails coated from base to tip
Speaker 2: with solid colors. But it didn't take long before the
Speaker 2: French manicure became a mark of sophistication. Rather than using
Speaker 2: two colors as we often do today, women would leave
Speaker 2: the moon at the base of the nail and the
Speaker 2: tip completely and very carefully unpainted. Black nail varnish was
Speaker 2: introduced in the nineteen thirties, though there's no evidence of
Speaker 2: any soldiers getting their nails done a lah the Babylonians.
Speaker 2: At the same time in England, women were having landscapes
Speaker 2: painted onto their nails, a level of detail not attempted
Speaker 2: since the Chinese Closbonne nails of nearly five thousand years before.
Speaker 2: You can now find nail polish nearly everywhere, in nearly
Speaker 2: every color, and for as little as a few dollars
Speaker 2: a bottle, But the echoes of the upper class Chinese, Babylonian,
Speaker 2: Egyptian and French still linger in products like Acid Tour's
Speaker 2: Black Diamond Polish. It contains two hundred and sixty seven
Speaker 2: carrots of black diamonds and costs a cool two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand dollars a bottle.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article The Colorful History
Speaker 1: of nail polish on houstuffworks dot com, written by Christie
Speaker 1: Hall Geisler. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with how stuffworks dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
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