Ingredients In Nail Polish

Nail polish is invention of twentieth century. Colouring of nails is not a new concept. In ancient days upper class of Egypt used henna to colour their hair and nails. Modern nail polish consists of small bottle which has thick liquid inside and nails are painted with the help of small brush. After five minutes when the nail polish is painted on nails the liquid gets hard and dry. It is normally their on nails for some weeks but it starts chipping when it comes in contact of water. If you want to remove it before then you can use nail polish remover which is available in the market. It helps in removing the nail polish quickly from your nails.

Raw material for Nail Polish

There is no single formula of Nail polish. The secret totally depends on the corporate chemical formula and chemical engineers. The basic components are:

• Film forming agents
• Resins and plasticizers
• Solvents
• Colouring agents

The above components are necessarily present in nail polish.

• Nitrocellulose cotton or Filming agents- It is highly flammable and explosive ingredient used in making dynamite. It is the liquid mixed with tiny and microscopic cotton fibres. The cotton fibres are grounded into fine particles. Nitrocellulose is purchased in different viscosities and it acts as filming agent. A proper film is needed in nail polish as it prevents material underneath film to prevent drying quickly and loose its shine.
• Resins and plasticizers- It is added by manufactures as they are soap resistant and water resistant and to improve flexibilities. Earlier day’s nylon was used for the same purpose. Now a days in place of Resins and Plasticizers castor oil, amyl and butyl stearate, mixes of Glycerol, fatty acid and acetic acid.
• Solvents- A Nail Polish should have a solvent which holds the colour and other material until polish is applied. A solvent should evaporate immediately after application. Sometimes plasticizers act as a solvent for example butyl and acetate is common one.
• Colouring agents- A nail polish should always have a colour. During ancient days soluble dyes were used as colouring agents but now days different pigments are used which are mixed well with solvents and other ingredients to make a better and improved product. With colouring agents’ desired hue and colour tone is also added.

Quality of pigments is look after by Federal food and Drug Administration (FDA) which look after pigments used are not dangerous for health. Manufacturers are inspected regularly for this. Now a day different variety of nail polish are available in the market depends on variety of colour, shades and company. As there is a huge revolution in cosmetic department it is difficult for competitors to compete with each other but for consumers they have great choices.