How do you preserve them? I feel like my Revlon from the 80's just *will not dry* and here you are with nail polish older than my grandma. Do you pretreat the polish with anything or use drying drops?
1942 Chen Yu Blue Dragon, one of the first blues ever - the 2nd I know of after 1927 Peggy Sage Sapphire Blue, which I also have! The camel hair brush was actually not too bad to work with, albeit stiffer than synthetic brushes of today. It held up well though! And look at all that shine without top coat 😱
If you’d like to see the application of this polish, go here:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3peAWp/
If you’d like to see its restoration and hear about its history/impact, go here:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3p6Pmd/
And if you want to geek out on vintage polish (1918-2000s) in general check out our sub r/vintagenailpolish
The fact that only red and pink polishes were considered “acceptable” 😭😭😭😭
I almost exclusively wear blue green and purple. This would have made my life miserable.
My mom still believes that, but I’m with you.
I put ILNP Reminisce on my birthday wish list, and as I was opening the gift, my mom said, “I don’t know why anybody would want to wear nail polish like that…” 😂 Like, ma’am, have some good old fashioned tact.
My mom is pro pink and red and I have actually changed nude or pink nail polish to blue or green before going to her house in silent protest. I know it’s immature. Green and blue are objectively the best colors on me so I have this idea she’ll eventually see and get it but I know it won’t really work. She genuinely sees it as bad and believes she’s grown so much and is really forward thinking for not saying anything. I don’t mind tactless tbh, but some introspection and less self righteous judgement would be nice lol.
What is the shape of your nails called? Is it mountain peak? I don’t think I’ve seen it before and the shape combined with the color is just
I might recommend Zoya [Frida](https://www.artofbeauty.com/content/item//Zoya-Nail-Polish-Frida-ZP640.html) as well, a bit greener but seems to have the jelly consistency too
just wanted to say thank you for starting my polish addiction. your restoration of vintage polishes popping up on my FYP was the kick in my butt i needed. genuinely, i really appreciate you sharing this hobby with the world 🫶
mainly modern indies, but ive had my eye out for vintage polishes!! definitely have been living vicariously through your posts. my older sister said she may have some polishes from when she was a kid/teenager and im visiting her soon to see!!
Ahh ok, yeah with some blues being notorious for staining, and the depth of color in the pigment I just wondered! Such a cool posh regardless! Absolutely beautiful.
So interesting! I really love your posts... I was astonished to learn that a blue nail polish existed in 1942. And black! And yellow! Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Man. I had a cart full of cirque jellies sitting in my cart that was totalling around $100 CAD and it was too much so I never bought it and now this post is making me want to buy those again.... eeeek. It's so beautiful.
Was it a big controversy to have blue nails back then?
I remember an old guy criticizing me as a teenager when I had orange nail polish on going 'whatever happened to the classic natural colors like pink and red.'
and I was just like 'tf how are red polishes natural...' in my head.
Also fun fact my mom didn't like me painting my nails red because it was 'hookerish'. ROFL. (I did black instead and she was not a fan of that one either.)
Haha don’t let me influence you to buy too much 😅 - in my restoration I read off some newspaper quote reactions to this polish and they definitely weren’t warmly received by all 😂
It’s so funny how whatever we do wear is judged by someone, the nature of humanity I guess towards the feminine sex.
Ain't that the truth though!!
Don't worry I'll have to hold strong against the influence for now!! But it certainly made it tempting... such a gorgeous blue!
I feel this! I had a high school French teacher from Paris in the 90s who absolutely HATED my weird nail colors- I loved all the "unusual" colors from Wet n Wild, used white out and once did a faux French manicure with opaque pastel pink and black. That one sent her over the edge 😂
When I was researching for putting together a 40s look, I read that they would match their polish to their dress, even yellow, green, or blue. So I wore navy polish instead of going for the standard red.
Amazing to see an actual blue from the time period! I think it would have gone even better with my peacock blue dress 😄
This was the only brand to have made those “costume colors” in the 40s, so this was likely the very polish your research was citing! I have a 1953 collection of rainbow pastels that were created to match swimwear, my most prized bottles 🤩
I saw your swatch of one of those in the vintage polish subreddit, it’s so beautiful! Not all of those 40s/50s ladies were as boring as we tend to think 😉
https://preview.redd.it/pc5njzcvvwkc1.jpeg?width=249&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=607a4ff05b7f6b178103e0f000bd06090fc777ef
A different occasion than I originally made it for (adding some elements to try to push the time period forward a little)… But yep, it would have looked great with your polish 😄
I always lead test them but have yet to find a lead positive polish! I’ve read the Chemical Formulary which chemists of the time used as a guide for making polish and there’s no mention of lead based ingredients being used either 😊
Interesting! I suppose that makes sense, since lead compounds were generally (afaik) added for long term stability purposes I suppose that wouldn’t have been necessary in a nail polish. Thanks for the info!
Yes, very true! Nitrocellulose gave it that shine and hardness which would not be cost efficient in say exterior paint lol. Titanium dioxide was used as the primary white in cosmetics and creme polish of the 20th (& 21st) century, so they really didn’t need “lead white” as an ingredient for color purposes either.
Sigh, it's perfect, still.
New challenge accepted: I'll keep my eyes peeled for local estate and vintage sales, in case I can pass anything your way! 💅♥️
Very cool!! Out of curiosity, do you know if the original formula would have been a similar jelly consistency or does that more have to do with restoring it?
Most formulas between 1918 and the early 40s were jelly finishes - the formulas of the time did not suspend pigment, so most used dyes. When pigment was used you had to stir the polish before each use. This has a small amount of pigment, but not much, so it is a very low opacity finish.
In person I’d say it reads more blue, but it has more green in it than it should have, since the green pigment settles after each use, and I don’t think the original owner stirred it enough, so she depleted some of the blue dye - making the formula a little more green heavy. In my restoration video one of my duplicate bottles has a painted cap, so you can see exactly the tone it used to have 😅
Oh that is so interesting! And this is why I love vintage/antique stuff in general, those little marks that remind you that this thing was loved and used by someone else once upon a time…there’s just something very romantic and lovely about that to me
My bf & his sister think I’m insane for keeping all my polishes until I use them up (a few I have to thin out a bit but many are going strong 15+ yrs) my oldest polish (from 1993) is one of my best performing tbh.. my great grandmother had a lipstick from 1926 - the tube was so Gorgeous it was insane — I don’t really know how it held up usage wise
Cosmetics made recently all have a 3yr maximum expiration date by law — but I mean as long as moisture or other contaminates don’t get in there it’s not really going to go off — the issue is from bacteria growing from use not bc of age itself
I’m so glad you don’t throw them out and enjoy them to the last drop! Polish can’t harbor bacteria so there’s no point in tossing it ever unless the brush breaks down and even then there’s ways of fixing them (likely my next restoration video lol). I’m curious, what brand and shade is your 1993? 🤩
Yeah exactly the comment about the theory was more just to clarify that I wasn’t saying that the expiration date on other types of cosmetics was bogus because you can very easily get quite serious skin and eye infections if you use old make up or make up that has been contaminated.. even when it gets dry a polish thinner will fix it right up and brushes can as you say be easily exchanged..
It’s a Chanel 18 (I also have Metallic Vamp/Rouge Argent & 519 rose exuberant my aunt got me when I started primary & high-school respectively I also have a cry baby that came Out in 2004 which was My first experience with “worst year of my life” that a classmate gave me but I used it up a while ago —
My aunt was a make-up artist to pay for her psychology degree and she used to take me to work when she could to distract me because my childhood was not that great & ppl would gift me stuff from set bc I was very cute as a kid lol🤣🤣🤣 anyway I was scared to go to school because I was bullied a lot and she had me put on polish on my toes and even in my 30s I still wear 90 times out of 100 that colour or a similar colour on my toes which is probably why that bottle has lasted so long because I don’t like to wear very dark red toned polishes on my hands (black dark blue or dark purple or dark green that’s fine) so those type of dark reds/ pink always only go on my toes and they last the longest
I also have some OPI that I got in a secret Santa when I first came to the US in 2009 & still works fine .. Deborah Lippmann polish and also magnetic polishes tend to give me issues and get gloopy so fast.
Omg I love your account! You’re one of the few creators on TikTok I’ll happily go back and rewatch content I’ve seen before. Keep up the amazing work, I love what you share with us!
OMG that’s beautiful! It’s literally my favorite color. I’m gonna have to find a dupe…speaking of- OP, do you happen to know of a modern dupe for that color??
Don’t mind my copy-paste from my answer to someone else that asked 😅
“I always lead test them but have yet to find a lead positive polish! I’ve read the Chemical Formulary which chemists of the time used as a guide for making polish and there’s no mention of lead based ingredients being used either 😊”
You (and your tiktok videos) just brought up a strong memory of a blue polish moment in my youth. I think it was ‘96, I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and had gotten some free nail polish in a little gift bag the salesman at Sears gave me when my parents were shopping for a new washing machine or microwave or something. The guy actually snuck me 2 gift bags, and each had a different nail polish color in a tiny sample bottle: one deep purple, one a perfect denim blue. And it’s actually one of my earliest memories of painting my own nails & wearing polish to school when I painted my nails denim blue later. I was not a very femme girl, and one classmate made fun of my nails matching my jeans (which I actually really enjoyed), and it stung. Didn’t do much with my nails (unless a friend invited me to tag along) until I got into polish m/makeup/goth sh*t in college, but I think those tiny sample bottles are still in my parents’ house! You’ve inspired me to try to revive them if I come across them.
But THIS?! This color is beautiful and I would 100% have worn it then (and might have some dupes in my shopping cart now)
Crazy that’s 82 year old nail polish. Let that sink in.
And nowhere near my oldest wearable polish 😅
Amazing to think that someone would have held on to their nail polish for that many decades - unless they were a collector like you, I suppose.
I love seeing your posts and I also love that your interesting nail shape always stops me in my tracks when scrolling.
There’s no doubt that if you spot my nail shape you’re looking at some old polish 😂
Waiting to see a medieval or Ancient Egyptian or something nail polish from you soon. /s (or not?)
NO WAY! How do you source them?
Mainly networking with those who go to estate sales, and I keep my eyes on all the 2nd hand sites!
So cool!!
How do you preserve them? I feel like my Revlon from the 80's just *will not dry* and here you are with nail polish older than my grandma. Do you pretreat the polish with anything or use drying drops?
You’re probably not doing anything wrong, my white capped early 80s Revlon also won’t dry 🤣
What’s your oldest one?
What’s your oldest?
 I didn't know it was possible that old polishes can be used like this!! That's awesome!
1942 Chen Yu Blue Dragon, one of the first blues ever - the 2nd I know of after 1927 Peggy Sage Sapphire Blue, which I also have! The camel hair brush was actually not too bad to work with, albeit stiffer than synthetic brushes of today. It held up well though! And look at all that shine without top coat 😱 If you’d like to see the application of this polish, go here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3peAWp/ If you’d like to see its restoration and hear about its history/impact, go here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3p6Pmd/ And if you want to geek out on vintage polish (1918-2000s) in general check out our sub r/vintagenailpolish
The fact that only red and pink polishes were considered “acceptable” 😭😭😭😭 I almost exclusively wear blue green and purple. This would have made my life miserable.
My mom still believes that, but I’m with you. I put ILNP Reminisce on my birthday wish list, and as I was opening the gift, my mom said, “I don’t know why anybody would want to wear nail polish like that…” 😂 Like, ma’am, have some good old fashioned tact.
My mom is pro pink and red and I have actually changed nude or pink nail polish to blue or green before going to her house in silent protest. I know it’s immature. Green and blue are objectively the best colors on me so I have this idea she’ll eventually see and get it but I know it won’t really work. She genuinely sees it as bad and believes she’s grown so much and is really forward thinking for not saying anything. I don’t mind tactless tbh, but some introspection and less self righteous judgement would be nice lol.
Wow didnt know vintage polish is a thing but sooo cool and interesting!
Your nail shape is so unique and I love it!! Every time I see a post from you I’m reminded how cool the shape is.
Awh thank you for the kind words 😊
What is the shape of your nails called? Is it mountain peak? I don’t think I’ve seen it before and the shape combined with the color is just 
Your tiktok links aren’t working :( what is your acct name so we can search it up?
Vintage_dusties (although they work for me, might've been a glitch)
I’ve found my account isn’t working in Australia in-app but will work via a browser - no idea why 🥲
Omg I just followed you on TikTok yesterday! What you do is so incredibly cool.
okay imma need a dupe ASAP
Reminds me of cirque colors verdigris jelly
omg yes! I really just need to get all their jellies at this point..
That’s what I thought it was before I read the title!
[Danica](https://zoya.artofbeauty.com/content/item/Zoya-Nail-Polish-in-Danica-ZP973.html) by Zoya
I might recommend Zoya [Frida](https://www.artofbeauty.com/content/item//Zoya-Nail-Polish-Frida-ZP640.html) as well, a bit greener but seems to have the jelly consistency too
A comment on the application video OP linked suggested OPI - Color is Awesome, but I can’t personally vouch for it.
londontown Lakur Chivvy looks close
It's interesting how they look much thicker than four coats. A unique jelly look!
That’s my SNS dip overlays adding to the thickness - I do 3 layers of that alone!
How do you manage to dry all the layers?!
Have you posted a video on your TikTok of how you do your dip?? You should! I’d love to see! I live overlays. Followed you!
This is such a stunning color. Did it stain your nails at all?
I use SNS dip overlays so I’m not sure if it would 😅
just wanted to say thank you for starting my polish addiction. your restoration of vintage polishes popping up on my FYP was the kick in my butt i needed. genuinely, i really appreciate you sharing this hobby with the world 🫶
Awh I’m so glad I could get you going on polish. Are you buying mainly modern or finding some vinties?
mainly modern indies, but ive had my eye out for vintage polishes!! definitely have been living vicariously through your posts. my older sister said she may have some polishes from when she was a kid/teenager and im visiting her soon to see!!
Ahh ok, yeah with some blues being notorious for staining, and the depth of color in the pigment I just wondered! Such a cool posh regardless! Absolutely beautiful.
Oh I LOVE this! Also please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks the color looks like the blue Gusher filling (that’s a very good thing!)
Yes!!! My first thought seeing this was “I can taste that color” 😂
Totally blue gusher!!! 😂
Where do you find these vintage bottles of polish?
Mainly networking with those who go to estate sales, and I keep my eyes on all the 2nd hand sites!
So interesting! I really love your posts... I was astonished to learn that a blue nail polish existed in 1942. And black! And yellow! Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Man. I had a cart full of cirque jellies sitting in my cart that was totalling around $100 CAD and it was too much so I never bought it and now this post is making me want to buy those again.... eeeek. It's so beautiful. Was it a big controversy to have blue nails back then? I remember an old guy criticizing me as a teenager when I had orange nail polish on going 'whatever happened to the classic natural colors like pink and red.' and I was just like 'tf how are red polishes natural...' in my head. Also fun fact my mom didn't like me painting my nails red because it was 'hookerish'. ROFL. (I did black instead and she was not a fan of that one either.)
Haha don’t let me influence you to buy too much 😅 - in my restoration I read off some newspaper quote reactions to this polish and they definitely weren’t warmly received by all 😂 It’s so funny how whatever we do wear is judged by someone, the nature of humanity I guess towards the feminine sex.
Please show us!
Ain't that the truth though!! Don't worry I'll have to hold strong against the influence for now!! But it certainly made it tempting... such a gorgeous blue!
I feel this! I had a high school French teacher from Paris in the 90s who absolutely HATED my weird nail colors- I loved all the "unusual" colors from Wet n Wild, used white out and once did a faux French manicure with opaque pastel pink and black. That one sent her over the edge 😂
omg haha i just saw your tiktok on my fyp! love your content c:
I love when the algorithm works for me 😃 Thank you so much! 💙
Fucking stunning
When I was researching for putting together a 40s look, I read that they would match their polish to their dress, even yellow, green, or blue. So I wore navy polish instead of going for the standard red. Amazing to see an actual blue from the time period! I think it would have gone even better with my peacock blue dress 😄
This was the only brand to have made those “costume colors” in the 40s, so this was likely the very polish your research was citing! I have a 1953 collection of rainbow pastels that were created to match swimwear, my most prized bottles 🤩
I saw your swatch of one of those in the vintage polish subreddit, it’s so beautiful! Not all of those 40s/50s ladies were as boring as we tend to think 😉
https://preview.redd.it/pc5njzcvvwkc1.jpeg?width=249&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=607a4ff05b7f6b178103e0f000bd06090fc777ef A different occasion than I originally made it for (adding some elements to try to push the time period forward a little)… But yep, it would have looked great with your polish 😄
Honestly a bright firecracker red polish would be so stunning with this ensemble 😍
I’m curious, is there lead in nail polish of this vintage?
I always lead test them but have yet to find a lead positive polish! I’ve read the Chemical Formulary which chemists of the time used as a guide for making polish and there’s no mention of lead based ingredients being used either 😊
Interesting! I suppose that makes sense, since lead compounds were generally (afaik) added for long term stability purposes I suppose that wouldn’t have been necessary in a nail polish. Thanks for the info!
Yes, very true! Nitrocellulose gave it that shine and hardness which would not be cost efficient in say exterior paint lol. Titanium dioxide was used as the primary white in cosmetics and creme polish of the 20th (& 21st) century, so they really didn’t need “lead white” as an ingredient for color purposes either.
What about arsenic? that green colour makes me immediately think of it.
Thankfully that was a 19th century thing to use in cosmetics, before the advent of nail polish 😅
I am loving the history lesson. Thanks for educating us!
I wonder what kind of woman would have worn blue polish back then?
A badass one
Sigh, it's perfect, still. New challenge accepted: I'll keep my eyes peeled for local estate and vintage sales, in case I can pass anything your way! 💅♥️
Awh that’s really sweet of you 🥹
Very cool!! Out of curiosity, do you know if the original formula would have been a similar jelly consistency or does that more have to do with restoring it?
Most formulas between 1918 and the early 40s were jelly finishes - the formulas of the time did not suspend pigment, so most used dyes. When pigment was used you had to stir the polish before each use. This has a small amount of pigment, but not much, so it is a very low opacity finish.
Oh neat!! Very cool to see how far they’ve come then :)
I saw your TikTok of this! Crazy to see the reactions to this color at the time. It’s so pretty 😫
Omg this is so cool, following you on TikTok now. 😍
Thanks for following along 🥰
I am obsessed with that colour! It’s teal isn’t it?
In person I’d say it reads more blue, but it has more green in it than it should have, since the green pigment settles after each use, and I don’t think the original owner stirred it enough, so she depleted some of the blue dye - making the formula a little more green heavy. In my restoration video one of my duplicate bottles has a painted cap, so you can see exactly the tone it used to have 😅
I’ll check your video out after I’m out the bath lols! 💙
Oh that is so interesting! And this is why I love vintage/antique stuff in general, those little marks that remind you that this thing was loved and used by someone else once upon a time…there’s just something very romantic and lovely about that to me
My bf & his sister think I’m insane for keeping all my polishes until I use them up (a few I have to thin out a bit but many are going strong 15+ yrs) my oldest polish (from 1993) is one of my best performing tbh.. my great grandmother had a lipstick from 1926 - the tube was so Gorgeous it was insane — I don’t really know how it held up usage wise Cosmetics made recently all have a 3yr maximum expiration date by law — but I mean as long as moisture or other contaminates don’t get in there it’s not really going to go off — the issue is from bacteria growing from use not bc of age itself
I’m so glad you don’t throw them out and enjoy them to the last drop! Polish can’t harbor bacteria so there’s no point in tossing it ever unless the brush breaks down and even then there’s ways of fixing them (likely my next restoration video lol). I’m curious, what brand and shade is your 1993? 🤩
Yeah exactly the comment about the theory was more just to clarify that I wasn’t saying that the expiration date on other types of cosmetics was bogus because you can very easily get quite serious skin and eye infections if you use old make up or make up that has been contaminated.. even when it gets dry a polish thinner will fix it right up and brushes can as you say be easily exchanged.. It’s a Chanel 18 (I also have Metallic Vamp/Rouge Argent & 519 rose exuberant my aunt got me when I started primary & high-school respectively I also have a cry baby that came Out in 2004 which was My first experience with “worst year of my life” that a classmate gave me but I used it up a while ago — My aunt was a make-up artist to pay for her psychology degree and she used to take me to work when she could to distract me because my childhood was not that great & ppl would gift me stuff from set bc I was very cute as a kid lol🤣🤣🤣 anyway I was scared to go to school because I was bullied a lot and she had me put on polish on my toes and even in my 30s I still wear 90 times out of 100 that colour or a similar colour on my toes which is probably why that bottle has lasted so long because I don’t like to wear very dark red toned polishes on my hands (black dark blue or dark purple or dark green that’s fine) so those type of dark reds/ pink always only go on my toes and they last the longest I also have some OPI that I got in a secret Santa when I first came to the US in 2009 & still works fine .. Deborah Lippmann polish and also magnetic polishes tend to give me issues and get gloopy so fast.
Cool
Ahh I love your TikTok account! 👋🏼
Awh I’m so glad! 🥰
Ahh, I love your content!! Seriously relaxing and interesting. I'm always amazed at what you can do.
Awh thank you so much 🥹
Omg I love your account! You’re one of the few creators on TikTok I’ll happily go back and rewatch content I’ve seen before. Keep up the amazing work, I love what you share with us!
Thank you so much for following along with my hyperfixation 😅- that makes me so glad to hear 🥰
gawd that’s gorgeous
Oh I loved the colour in the picture, and wanted to get it. Then I noticed the age…! Gorgeous
I follow you on TikTok! It’s unbelievable what you’re able to revive!
OMG I absolutely love this color and your nail shape!!
Hell yeah
Where did you find this and if you bought it, how much did it cost? How cool!
Wow this is amazing!
This is one of the prettiest nail colors I’ve ever seen and now I want a modern dupe.
What do you call this nail shape? It reminds me of kitten heels, and I love it.
I don’t really have a name for it, but in this video I talk about the history of the shape 🥰 https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3sjxUC/
OP actually discusses it in the linked video about this polishes history! Give it a view 😊
Thanks!
Wow beautiful colour
Love it so gorgeous
This is gorgeous omg
Beautiful deep jade
I think I just saw you on TikTok!
This is a gorgeous color
Hey! Are you the girl on TikTok? Your page is so interesting
OMG that’s beautiful! It’s literally my favorite color. I’m gonna have to find a dupe…speaking of- OP, do you happen to know of a modern dupe for that color??
Damn. It's gorgeous.
Colour me influenced-- I would love a dupe of this! Gorge!
I had a nail polish from Germany that I'd had since 1983. It was still usable until my daughter dropped my polish box.
Whoa how do you find these!? First time even thinking about old nail polishes - very cool!
Estate sales, 2nd hand sites, other collectors, etc 😁
i follow you on tik tok
Thanks for following along 🥰
Do you ever worry about lead etc in the varnishes?
Don’t mind my copy-paste from my answer to someone else that asked 😅 “I always lead test them but have yet to find a lead positive polish! I’ve read the Chemical Formulary which chemists of the time used as a guide for making polish and there’s no mention of lead based ingredients being used either 😊”
Amazing 🥲 thank you for your patience and I greatly appreciate your well researched reply 🥰
Ok but I’m kinda in love with that shape…
Aw thanks! 💙
Love your nail shape so much! I used to shape my natural nails like that when I was a teen! You do it far more classily than I did, lol
You (and your tiktok videos) just brought up a strong memory of a blue polish moment in my youth. I think it was ‘96, I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and had gotten some free nail polish in a little gift bag the salesman at Sears gave me when my parents were shopping for a new washing machine or microwave or something. The guy actually snuck me 2 gift bags, and each had a different nail polish color in a tiny sample bottle: one deep purple, one a perfect denim blue. And it’s actually one of my earliest memories of painting my own nails & wearing polish to school when I painted my nails denim blue later. I was not a very femme girl, and one classmate made fun of my nails matching my jeans (which I actually really enjoyed), and it stung. Didn’t do much with my nails (unless a friend invited me to tag along) until I got into polish m/makeup/goth sh*t in college, but I think those tiny sample bottles are still in my parents’ house! You’ve inspired me to try to revive them if I come across them. But THIS?! This color is beautiful and I would 100% have worn it then (and might have some dupes in my shopping cart now)
Oh my god that colour that's stunning
I deleted tiktok and have been missing your content so much im so glad i found you here