blog assignment #31/My Choice Feature

My Topic Choice: The History of Nail Polish

           My topic that I chose to this assignment with is the history of nail polish.  I love to wear nail polish to events, boring times, and family gatherings. I always have to have my toes polished in order to wear flip flops anywhere. I love wearing exotic colors and designs on my nails. Nail polish has a very interesting history that I wanted to share.
           
           Nail Polish was originated at the time of China. The early mixture of nail polish was bees' wax, gelatin, gum Arabic, and egg whites. Gum Arabic is a natural is a product found in African trees with genus Acacia. The Chinese also added the flower petals of roses, orchids, and alum to their polish. I am surprised that China gets all the credit for inventing nail polish.

                Around the same time period of China's invention, upper class Egyptian members wore nail polish. When they wore it,  they wore it of the same texture to lacquer paint. The paint they wore signified money and prosperity. They wore nail polish for all kinds of different reasons than people wear it today. I wonder what color of paint Cleopatra preferred? 

                 Around the time of the Chou dynasty, about 600 B.C., the colors that the royals preferred metallic, gold, and silver. Back then only the upper class were allowed to wear nail polish. If any of the lower class even attempted to wear nail polish, they would be sentenced to death for their punishment. The nail polish at the time was colored with natural pigments. Whatever color the ruling dynasty wore, the Chinese would wear the same.

                 Michelle Minard invented the modern nail polish used today in the 1920s. Hollywood starlets and Flapper girls all wore the nail polish color of bright red. Lana Turner, a Pin-up girl, wore the bright red lipstick with bright red nail polish for the red carpet and photo sessions. Nail polish is similar to car paint because it requires a remover made with acetone. In Britain, they call nail polish 'nail varnish'.

                 Nail Polish today are produced with nitrocellulose, a polymer dirived from cellulose with pulfuric and nitric acids and mixed in a sulvet. Nail polish runs rampant in Florida where the sandal is the shoe of choice by the population. By putting your nail polish in the refridgerator keeps it from not turning clumby. If you can't put it in the fridge, just keep it away from direct heat; sunlight. Now you don't have to be royalty, so go ahead and paint your nails.