Now that I’ve made some time over my away-from-home holiday, I just read a little bit about what nail polish is made up of. I found information from books and magazine articles, and of course, the internet (which I so desperately need access to more often) I found this simple information on Wikipedia.
Nail polish has a long history stretching back about 5000 years. It was first developed by the Chinese. They used mainly harmless ingredients such as beeswax, egg white and vegetable dyes.
The ancient Egyptians used henna and other natural products to colour their nails. Only the highest ranking people were allowed to wear bright red nail polish and you could tell a person's social status from the colour they wore.
Modern synthetic nail polishes are a relatively recent innovation.
Nitrocellulose, or gun cotton was developed in the 19th century. It is highly combustible and even explosive but it creates films which can hold other substances in suspension. It is the basis for most nail polishes. It also used to be the main constituent of cine film.
Some early 20th century nail varnishes even used scrapped cine film as the main raw ingredient.
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