What happens when you apply our favorite polish? We explain everything in this article.
At Manucurist, we value transparency: we believe cosmetics should not be opaque. That’s why we share our blacklist of ingredients on our Philosophy page. This allows us to explain what we replace these controversial ingredients with and their role in the formula.
But that’s not always enough to understand how a polish works. What’s the difference between a classic Green™ nail polish and a semi-permanent polish? And what about the Green Flash™ remover? Here’s an article to help you see things more clearly!
Key points to remember:
- A classic polish dries by solvent evaporation; a semi-permanent hardens by polymerization under a UV/LED lamp.
- Green™ polish is made of bio-sourced solvents, nitrocellulose (film-forming agent), resins, plasticizers, and pigments.
- Green Flash™ adds co-polymers that react to UV light to form a strong polymer network.
- The remover works by turning the solid polish back into liquid to remove it.
Classic Green™ polish: a story of evaporation
Let’s first try to understand what a Green™ polish is made of.
🌱 The solvents
Solvents make up the largest part of a polish: they allow for a smooth, liquid formula. In Manucurist polishes, these solvents are butyl acetate and ethyl acetate; both are bio-sourced (to learn more about bio-sourced ingredients, check out our dedicated article).
✨ Nitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose is known as a film-forming agent: it creates a smooth, shiny film that dries quickly.
💅 Resins
In classic Green™ polishes, resins are also found to ensure adhesion of this film to the nail.
💪 Plasticizers
Plasticizers make the nitrocellulose film elastic, which improves tenue: this way, the polish doesn’t crack and chips less easily.
🎨 Pigments and bentonite
Pigments and pearlescent agents (noted CI followed by 5 digits) provide color and shimmer.
Finally, bentonite is used to thin the formula: it’s called a thixotropic agent.
When you apply a classic polish, it’s in liquid form. Once on the nail, the solvents evaporate, creating a colored, solid, and shiny film.
Green Flash™ semi-permanent and light
The semi-permanent formula is very similar to classic polishes. However, it’s a bit more technical because the drying mechanism differs from that of Green™ polishes.
Green Flash™ polishes also contain co-polymers: these molecules react with UV light emitted by the lamp and bind together, forming a polymer network that hardens the gel layer.
Result: after this chemical reaction, you get a fully solidified polish layer; this is called catalysis or polymerization. Combined with solvent evaporation, this reaction allows for fast drying.
To learn more about Green Flash™ and its formula, check out our article Green Flash™: what makes it different?
And how does the remover work?
The principle of the remover is to turn a solid polish layer back into liquid form to remove it more easily.
In the Green™ remover, diethyl succinate enables this liquefaction of the polish.
In the Green Flash™ remover, the solvents at the base of the polish formula are used: butyl acetate and ethyl acetate.
To summarize:
- Classic polish dries by solvent evaporation, without any device.
- Green Flash™ semi-permanent dries by polymerization of co-polymers under a UV/LED lamp, which explains its enhanced tenue.
- The remover liquefies the solid polish to remove it: Green™ Remover uses diethyl succinate, Green Flash™ Remover relies on the base solvents of the formula (butyl acetate and ethyl acetate).
Any questions? Write to us via DM on Instagram: the Manucurist team will be happy to answer you.
