The "semi-permanent polishes" launch shatters the world of the nail salons. The nail addict’s life as well. OK, but at what cost, and what are the consequences to your nails? A study in a world full of black-out and true chemistry.
A fashionable trend
No week when journalists do not receive a new full-range programme of nail polishes. Nails are currently trendy (a woman may go out without make-up, but not without nail polish!), and the nail polish market is now a colossal business for many brands specialized in nails.
A booming sector, the varnish market raises three times more than the make-up sector in France (source: Panels distributeurs Iri census CCP11/2010). This market has attracted more than a million of new French female consumers in 2010, and does not stop its rise (Source: Kantar Worldpanel Beauty Cumul 3T 2010). The inventiveness of this sector of the cosmetic industry is well under way.
Hybrid polishes
The latest innovation, to be used only by professionals: the semi-permanent UV gel treatment, also called hybrid polish, as it combines the fluidity of a polish and the lasting of a gel. Let us remind our readers that plastic stuck to nails, used to “manufacture” false nails, is by far more aggressive, due to its ingredients and to the fact it requires a pumicing to apply it and take it away. This pumicing weakens nails.
This “long-lasting” polish is very similar to a “classical” polish (a …
