what’s in here what does it do and can I
make it from scratch it’s the stuff
inside your Sun ingredients way back in
the day nail polish was actually pretty
simple the Egyptians used henna and the
Chinese used a mixture of egg white
beeswax gelatin vegetable dye this is a
beat and gum arabic today we’re talking
about regular old nail polish which it
turns out is neither regular nor that
old anyway compared to the nail polish
of the ancients nail polish of today has
a lot more ingredients because it has to
do a lot more things first and foremost
the color has to speak to some deep
longing within your soul
second that color can’t fade third you
need to be able to brush it onto your
nail evenly and smoothly fourth it needs
to be thin enough to form a film without
globbing but fifth it needs to be thick
enough to not run everywhere sixth it
needs to stick to your nail seventh it
needs to dry hard and glossy and keep
that appearance eighth it needs to be
somewhat resistant to water and oil and
whatever else might mess up your
manicure ninth it needs to avoid
chipping and tenth it needs to dry
somewhat quickly whoo that is a lot of
stuff but basically we just want our
nail polish to be easier and more
convenient than what the Egyptians and
Chinese used so let’s break this down
first up are the coloring agents or the
pigments the pigments are really really
really tiny particles that are suspended
in the polish now the pigments are
fascinating and similar to what you
might find in a lipstick we did a whole
episode about this and I will post a
link in the description then there are
the solvents ethyl acetate and butyl
acetate now chemically these guys are
esters and they evaporate quickly and
that’s why you don’t have to wait hours
for your nail polish to dry incidentally
most of that nail polish smell esters
next up is nitrocellulose which is a
polymer that’s made from cotton
nitrocellulose is what forms that hard
film on the outside of your nail and
because of its ability to form these
hard films it’s used in varnishes for
all kinds of stuff like playing cards or
guitars in fact in the 1920s it was used
as the base for a lot of car paints
though today’s cars use something
different anyway nitrocellulose is also
quick drying and pretty cheap but it
actually doesn’t stick to nails all that
well and it’s kind of brittle so
manufacturers add other polymers like to
sillim I’d formaldehyde resin which is
not formaldehyde to make your polish
glossy err and stick better and actually
if you see poly something something or
something something copolymer on an
ingredients label usually that polymer
is there to tweak the properties of the
polish in a way that makes sense for the
particular type that you are buying
then there’s camphor which comes from
asian evergreen trees and chemically is
a mix of terpenoids now camphor is a
plasticizer it’s used to make the polish
a little bit more flexible and less
likely to chip and you can actually see
this if you take a thin layer of polish
and peel it off some wax paper gently
and if you look right there you can see
it’s kind of stretchy so far so good but
there are still the conflicting
requirements of being thin enough to
paint an even coat and yet thick enough
to not drip everywhere plus you want
your pigments to be suspended in the
polish and not immediately settle down
to the bottom now part of the way that
manufacturers achieve all of these goals
is by balancing the amounts of all the
ingredients particularly the solvents
polymers and pigments to get sort of in
the ballpark of the right consistency
but the other and chemically magical way
is by using a molecule called sterile
cone iam Hector I or its cousin sterile
cone iam bentonite both of these guys
come from clay and they have this weird
but awesome property where solutions of
them if they’re just sitting there will
be thick or gel like but the second you
apply a force like for example brushing
them onto your nail they get thin now a
lot of foods actually have this property
like ketchup does for example and if
you’re interested check out the links I
will post a description know check out
the description I will post a link and
finally there’s benzophenone one which
chemically is similar to the active
ingredients in sunscreen turns out the
sunscreen is not there for you or your
nails it’s actually there to protect
color UV light from the Sun can actually
degrade colors in nail polish so
benzophenone one keeps them from fading
at this point you’re probably wondering
how the hell am I going to make nail
from natural or even remotely natural
ingredients after all most homemade nail
polish homemade is actually just adding
pigments to a premade clear base so I
just I quit so on this one I’m going to
go back to basics all the way back to
the Chinese recipe which actually is not
even a recipe it’s just a list of
ingredients specifically egg white
gelatin beeswax gum arabic and vegetable
dyes in this case beets that I blended
and then strained through a coffee
filter now looking at these ingredients
you would think they are nothing like
what goes into a modern nail polish but
chemically they’re actually not that
different
so gum arabic is a resin like
nitrocellulose or two sillim ide
formaldehyde resin it helps form films
now egg white that’s mostly protein and
water but also probably helps form films
along with the gum arabic gelatin is a
thickener just like sterile cone iam
Hector right and beeswax is a
plasticizer like kemper so when you look
at it like this really the biggest
difference between ancient polishes and
modern ones is that the ancient polishes
did not have quick evaporating solvents
but that’s okay I’m sure we’ll figure
something out
so let’s try this so because this is a
list of ingredients and not an actual
recipe I just made one up I’m using
components from jelly and custard
recipes so we’ll see what happens
[Music]
okay so there we go
nail polish I think that’s been sitting
for a while and now it’s ready to test
so I want to take my q-tip dip it in
here and a nice amount of color first
test doesn’t really drip so we’re doing
good
actually that is really good it’s not
dripping at all so Cass is the first
test now mm kind of liquidy all right
too liquidy it’s pooling all over my
nail and I can actually see some stuff
that’s not dissolved that’s probably
gonna became ting anyway and maybe if I
just leave it long enough and then
blow-dry it something good will happen I
who knows let’s try this
[Music]
okay so this is not coming off on my
finger when it’s dry which is a great
sign it is kind of chunky which doesn’t
feel that great but it kind of reflects
light in a weird and interesting way
which I don’t hate you now the real test
is will this come off under water and
there is only one way to find out here’s
some water let’s do this I’m just gently
rubbing it
it is definitely coming off
yeah just like beet dye it is water
soluble this is absolutely coming off so
basically you would be fine until you
went to wash your hands so I give this
overall three out of ten I mean it’s not
zero it painted my nail but it’s
basically useless I might as well just
taking beet dye and put that on my nails
if you guys have any ideas on how to
improve this recipe please let me know
in the comments or hit me up on Twitter
alright when Simon
you
make it from scratch it’s the stuff
inside your Sun ingredients way back in
the day nail polish was actually pretty
simple the Egyptians used henna and the
Chinese used a mixture of egg white
beeswax gelatin vegetable dye this is a
beat and gum arabic today we’re talking
about regular old nail polish which it
turns out is neither regular nor that
old anyway compared to the nail polish
of the ancients nail polish of today has
a lot more ingredients because it has to
do a lot more things first and foremost
the color has to speak to some deep
longing within your soul
second that color can’t fade third you
need to be able to brush it onto your
nail evenly and smoothly fourth it needs
to be thin enough to form a film without
globbing but fifth it needs to be thick
enough to not run everywhere sixth it
needs to stick to your nail seventh it
needs to dry hard and glossy and keep
that appearance eighth it needs to be
somewhat resistant to water and oil and
whatever else might mess up your
manicure ninth it needs to avoid
chipping and tenth it needs to dry
somewhat quickly whoo that is a lot of
stuff but basically we just want our
nail polish to be easier and more
convenient than what the Egyptians and
Chinese used so let’s break this down
first up are the coloring agents or the
pigments the pigments are really really
really tiny particles that are suspended
in the polish now the pigments are
fascinating and similar to what you
might find in a lipstick we did a whole
episode about this and I will post a
link in the description then there are
the solvents ethyl acetate and butyl
acetate now chemically these guys are
esters and they evaporate quickly and
that’s why you don’t have to wait hours
for your nail polish to dry incidentally
most of that nail polish smell esters
next up is nitrocellulose which is a
polymer that’s made from cotton
nitrocellulose is what forms that hard
film on the outside of your nail and
because of its ability to form these
hard films it’s used in varnishes for
all kinds of stuff like playing cards or
guitars in fact in the 1920s it was used
as the base for a lot of car paints
though today’s cars use something
different anyway nitrocellulose is also
quick drying and pretty cheap but it
actually doesn’t stick to nails all that
well and it’s kind of brittle so
manufacturers add other polymers like to
sillim I’d formaldehyde resin which is
not formaldehyde to make your polish
glossy err and stick better and actually
if you see poly something something or
something something copolymer on an
ingredients label usually that polymer
is there to tweak the properties of the
polish in a way that makes sense for the
particular type that you are buying
then there’s camphor which comes from
asian evergreen trees and chemically is
a mix of terpenoids now camphor is a
plasticizer it’s used to make the polish
a little bit more flexible and less
likely to chip and you can actually see
this if you take a thin layer of polish
and peel it off some wax paper gently
and if you look right there you can see
it’s kind of stretchy so far so good but
there are still the conflicting
requirements of being thin enough to
paint an even coat and yet thick enough
to not drip everywhere plus you want
your pigments to be suspended in the
polish and not immediately settle down
to the bottom now part of the way that
manufacturers achieve all of these goals
is by balancing the amounts of all the
ingredients particularly the solvents
polymers and pigments to get sort of in
the ballpark of the right consistency
but the other and chemically magical way
is by using a molecule called sterile
cone iam Hector I or its cousin sterile
cone iam bentonite both of these guys
come from clay and they have this weird
but awesome property where solutions of
them if they’re just sitting there will
be thick or gel like but the second you
apply a force like for example brushing
them onto your nail they get thin now a
lot of foods actually have this property
like ketchup does for example and if
you’re interested check out the links I
will post a description know check out
the description I will post a link and
finally there’s benzophenone one which
chemically is similar to the active
ingredients in sunscreen turns out the
sunscreen is not there for you or your
nails it’s actually there to protect
color UV light from the Sun can actually
degrade colors in nail polish so
benzophenone one keeps them from fading
at this point you’re probably wondering
how the hell am I going to make nail
from natural or even remotely natural
ingredients after all most homemade nail
polish homemade is actually just adding
pigments to a premade clear base so I
just I quit so on this one I’m going to
go back to basics all the way back to
the Chinese recipe which actually is not
even a recipe it’s just a list of
ingredients specifically egg white
gelatin beeswax gum arabic and vegetable
dyes in this case beets that I blended
and then strained through a coffee
filter now looking at these ingredients
you would think they are nothing like
what goes into a modern nail polish but
chemically they’re actually not that
different
so gum arabic is a resin like
nitrocellulose or two sillim ide
formaldehyde resin it helps form films
now egg white that’s mostly protein and
water but also probably helps form films
along with the gum arabic gelatin is a
thickener just like sterile cone iam
Hector right and beeswax is a
plasticizer like kemper so when you look
at it like this really the biggest
difference between ancient polishes and
modern ones is that the ancient polishes
did not have quick evaporating solvents
but that’s okay I’m sure we’ll figure
something out
so let’s try this so because this is a
list of ingredients and not an actual
recipe I just made one up I’m using
components from jelly and custard
recipes so we’ll see what happens
[Music]
okay so there we go
nail polish I think that’s been sitting
for a while and now it’s ready to test
so I want to take my q-tip dip it in
here and a nice amount of color first
test doesn’t really drip so we’re doing
good
actually that is really good it’s not
dripping at all so Cass is the first
test now mm kind of liquidy all right
too liquidy it’s pooling all over my
nail and I can actually see some stuff
that’s not dissolved that’s probably
gonna became ting anyway and maybe if I
just leave it long enough and then
blow-dry it something good will happen I
who knows let’s try this
[Music]
okay so this is not coming off on my
finger when it’s dry which is a great
sign it is kind of chunky which doesn’t
feel that great but it kind of reflects
light in a weird and interesting way
which I don’t hate you now the real test
is will this come off under water and
there is only one way to find out here’s
some water let’s do this I’m just gently
rubbing it
it is definitely coming off
yeah just like beet dye it is water
soluble this is absolutely coming off so
basically you would be fine until you
went to wash your hands so I give this
overall three out of ten I mean it’s not
zero it painted my nail but it’s
basically useless I might as well just
taking beet dye and put that on my nails
if you guys have any ideas on how to
improve this recipe please let me know
in the comments or hit me up on Twitter
alright when Simon
you
Please follow and like us: