The concept of nail polish began a long long time ago when the first groups of women to wear nail polish were the Chinese, Japanese and Egyptian who first began staining their nails with henna or other herbs to give there nails a different look. Then nail polish was born back in 3000 BC by the Chinese and made out of Arabic gum, egg whites, gelatin and beeswax. Royal Chinese woman were typically seen with painted nails that were silver or gold. Cleopatra was said to have worn shades of red nail polish. The stronger the shade of red an Egyptian woman would wear the more power she possessed. Cleopatra must have had some pretty red polish.
Fast forward a bunch of years to the 20th century and Charles Revson and Charles Lachman had the idea to come up with the idea to sell nail polish which later became Revlon. (They took the "L" from Lachman to combine it with Revson to come up with the name.) Thanks to these guys great idea, nail polishes started selling in 1932. It went from being sold only in nail and hair salons and worked its way down to department stores. Soon enough, nail polish being sold in drug stores.
Nail polish became a big trend fast thanks to Hollywood. (No surprise there.) Once colored movies and TV shows were invented women were filmed wearing red and mauve nail polished and that's when women around the world caught on to the craze of painting their nails. The trends have changed through the years beginning with reds and pinks, to more neutral colors being popular to nail polishes coming in all colors, then stickers, then press on and the list goes on. But as the trends have changed so has the economy.
During some of our countries harder economic times, women would continue to treat themselves to a new lipstick or a new nail polish to boost their mood because they were cheap and it gave them different color options to help them stay positive or feel pretty during hard times. It has even been said that nail polish is the newest recession proof trend. In 2008 it's was up 65% in sales. I specifically remember 2008 in the beauty world because I worked at a department store selling three make-up lines. I remember gas was where it's at now at nearly $5.00 a gallon and no one was shopping at the mall I worked for. It was a really sad time. But women still came even if it was a few to get there favorite lipstick color that they'd been wearing for years, or their favorite eyeshadow or face cream. Estée Lauder said it best:
"We have long observed the concept of small luxuries, things that can get you through hard times and good ones."
(Miss Estée Lauder herself)
Now that you have had some historic background on nail polish I wanted to share with you what I've been doing in my free time. My girlfriend Joanna got me these Migi Nail pens recently and I've been playing around with funky nail art. Check out the site (http://miginailart.com/)
If you buy these pens and sign up online you get unlimeted refills on the paint for life. How cool is that? Not to mention you can each color separately as nail polish and a nail pen. So much fun!! They come in a pack of four pens for $24.99. There are 4 different color combos to choose from as well.
Check out the designs I've made on my nails recently. I've been having a blast sitting in front of the tv and painting my nails with these things and just had to share it with you.
Here is a little slide show I created.
For more inspiration you also got to check out this other nail blogs I love!!!
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