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Nail Polish

Nail Polish

There is no single formula for nail polish. However, a number of the same ingredient types are used in all nail polish. The basic components include: film forming agents, resins and plasticizers, solvents, and coloring agents. Different nail polish manufacturers’ formulation depends on the choices made by chemists and chemical engineers.

The primary ingredient in nail polish is nitrocellulose cotton, a flammable and explosive ingredient also used in making dynamite. Nitrocellulose is a liquid mixed with tiny, near-microscopic cotton fibers. In the manufacturing process, the cotton fibers are ground even smaller and do not need to be removed. Nitrocellulose is a film forming agent. In order for nail polish to set properly, a hard film must form on the exposed surface of the nail, but it also cannot form too quickly that it prevents material underneath from drying.



Plasticizers and synthetic resins improve flexibility, is resistant to soap, water and others. Some resins and plasticizers used are castor oil, amyl and butyl stearate, mixes of glycerol, fatty acids and acetic acids. In many cases the solvent such as butyl stearate and acetate compounds can also act as a plasticizer.

Early polishes used soluble dyes, but today’s products contain pigments of one type or another. The right pigment and its ability to mix with the solvent and other ingredients are essential in producing a good quality nail polish.

Nail polish is a “suspension” product, which means that the particles of color can only be held by the solvent for a limited amount of time, rarely over 2 or 3 years. Shaking the bottle before use helps to restore settled particles to the suspension. This issue of settling is one of the most difficult problems to be addressed in the manufacturing process.

In addition to the usual coloring pigments, other color tones can be added to the polish. Micas (tiny reflective minerals) are a common additive as well as “pearl” or “fish scale”. Guanine can also be mixed with gold, silver and bronze tones. Pigment choices are restricted by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). The FDA’s lists of acceptable and unacceptable pigments change with new findings and re-examinations of colors, and because of this, manufacturers occasionally have to reformulate polish formulas. Nail polish ingredients often include toluene, which has been linked to cancer. Formaldehyde, another ingredient that is in some nail polish, may cause allergic reactions and is unsafe for use by asthmatic people, it is also a carcinogen. Nail polish manufacturers are under pressure to reduce or eliminate toxic ingredients in their products.