Egyptian Nail Art History

While we may think that nail art is a modern concept it was the inca in the 1500s who first started to decorate their fingernails with images of eagles.

Egyptian nail art history. Chinese dipped their nails in this mixture for several hours or left it on to dry. Color in ancient egypt was used not only in realistic representations of scenes from every life but to illustrate the heavenly realms of the gods the afterlife and the stories and histories of the deities of the egyptian pantheon each color had its own particular symbolism and was created from elements found in nature. Upper class males wore black nail polish middle class males wore green. Ancient egyptians used henna to pain their fingernails.

Royal people choose their own color and normal people were not allowed to use those colors. Even today red nails represent elegance and sophistication. Among the egyptians as well nail coloration came to represent one s place on the social ladder with shades of red used by those at the uppermost rung. Egyptians and indians also practiced nail art in a similar period using an orange dye derived from the henna plant.

Back in the 1300 bc the colour of nail polish symbolized social class. The colors however determined the class and status. Beauty and manicure shops flourished in ancient egypt around 4000 b c. The colours gold and silver were considered to be the royal however were later changes to black and red.

The ancient egyptian s scarlet manicure 1300 b c. As in ancient egypt nail color indicated one s status black for noblemen and green for the common man. Around the same time 3000 bc the first nail polish originated in ancient china. Cleopatra also wore red nails during her rule of egypt and nobody else was allowed to dye their nails red.

The chinese started to experiment with different ingredients to create nail polish. Myrrh oil was used in ethiopia for nail care. In ancient greece it was a sign of power and wealth to carry long nails and decorate them with gold leaf or miniature paintings very similar to modern nail art. Egyptologist margaret bunson writes how artisans began to observe the.

Cleopatra and queen nefertiti pioneers of all things opulent popularized the manicure by rubbing their hands in rich oils. 1st century b c. In the history of art the earliest known instance of nail decoration was in ancient babylonia around 3200 bce when men coloured their nails with kohl an ancient cosmetic obtained by grinding galena lead sulfide and other materials in order to indicate their social standing. Nail care history in ancient egypt ancient egyptian manuscripts reveal that women at that time used henna also known as mehendi to polish their nails.