Nail polish
Nail polish, or nail varnish, is a lacquer applied to human fingernails or toenails to decorate and/or protect the nail. Today’s nail polishes are usually nitrocellulose in a solvent such as butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. They may be clear or coloured with pigments. The coating has a plasticizers (e.g. camphor). This links polymer chains, spacing them to make the film flexible after drying. That way it resists cracking or flaking caused by the natural movement of the nail.
History Nail polish
was used in the ancient world. In China it started off being made from a combination of beeswax, egg whites, gelatin, vegetable dyes, and gum arabic and rose petals. The Chinese would dip their hands in this mixture until their finger nails turned red or pink. In Ancient Egypt henna was used. The henna stained their fingernails orange, which turned dark red or brown after the stain matured.In 1300 BC, the colour of the nail polish reflected social rank. The colours gold and silver were favoured; later, black and red were the favoured colours. Red is the colour Cleopatra wore.
By the turn of the 9th century, nails were tinted with scented red oils, and polished or buffed with a chamois cloth, rather than simply polished. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, people pursued a polished rather than painted look by massaging tinted powders and creams into their nails, then buffing them shiny. After the creation of automobile paint, Cutex produced the first modern nail polish in 1917. Synthetic nail polish was introduced in the 1920s in Paris.
Ingredients
Nail polish consists of a film-forming polymer dissolved in a volatile organic solvent. Nitrocellulose that is dissolved in butyl acetate orethyl acetate is common. This basic formulation is expanded to include the following:
- Plasticizers to yield non-brittle films. Dibutylphthalate and camphor are typical plasticizers.
- Dyes and pigments. Representative compounds include chromium oxide greens, chromium hydroxide, ferric ferrocyanide, stannic oxide, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, carmine, ultramarine, and manganese violet.
- Opalescent pigments. The glittery/shimmer look in the color can be conferred by mica, bismuth oxychloride, natural pearls, and aluminum powder.
- Adhesive polymers ensure that the nitrocellulose adheres to the nail's surface. One modifier used is tosylamide-formaldehyderesin.
- Thickening agents are added to maintain the sparkling particles in suspension while in the bottle. A typical thickener is stearalkonium hectorite. Thickening agents exhibit thixotropy, their solutions are viscous when still but free flowing when agitated. This duality is convenient for easily applying the freshly shaken mixture to give a film that quickly rigidifies.
- Ultraviolet stabilizers resist color changes when the dry film is exposed to sunlight. A typical stabilizer is benzophenone-1.
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