The history of nail fashion begins around 3000 B.C. with the Japanese, who started to add colour to their nails. Soon afterwards the Chinese started to apply a type of 'lacquer' to their nails made out of various flower petals, such as roses, impatients and orchids, mixed with beeswax and gelatine. This would be applied to the nails overnight and the next day they would have 'stained shiny nails'. They also used a type of enamel on their fingers that once applied, after leaving for several hours, would turn their nails a reddish/pink colour, which along with black was the chosen colour for Chinese Royalty for many centuries. By the Chou Dynasty of 600 B.C., Chinese Royalty would often used silver or gold to enhance their nails.
Nail condition and a fine manicure was associated with aristocrats from ancient times. Only the wealthy could afford to have finely trimmed and decorated nails. Common labourers, were identified by poor nail condition, as they worked with their hands. The Egyptians, also used nail colour, usualy made from henna, to signify social order, with shades of red denoting higher classes. Women of lower clases were only permitted to wear pale shades. Queen Nefertiti, wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, always used a ruby red colour, while Cleopatra favoured a deep rust red. This social significance was also evident in India.
In the 1800s the Almond shaped nails became popular. They were short and slightly pointed, and sometimes tinted with scented red oils, and buffed with a chamois cloth. By the 1900s women used tinted creams or powders to massage into their nails to create a shine.
Glossy nail varnish had become available, which was applied with a camel-hair brush, but this only lasted for one day.
It took until the developement of paint for the automobile industry, in the mid 1920s, for nail polish to become available for the mass market.
In 1925, a sheer rosy red shade of nail polish became available, and gave rise to the popular manicure called 'The Moon' manicure, where colour is applied only to the centre of the nail, leaving the half moon base free from colour and sometimes the tips of the nails also. Soon afterwards, Revlon dramatically chaged the nail industry when they invented nail polish which used pigments instead of dyes. This allowed for a wide range of nail polish colours to be available to everyone. It was clear that nail polish was here to stay.
