Nail History - 1921 Edition

This article from the November 12, 1921 Athens Banner-Herald offers "simple" beauty methods from the "famous Spanish prima donna" Lucrezia Bori. Ms. Bori provides tips on moisturizing, cleaning, and polishing the nails, so that the reader can avoid such "distressing appendages" as hang-nails. I chose this article to share because it includes recipes for the home production of some of the nail care products referenced in a number of contemporary articles.

Being unfamiliar with the first two ingredients in the polishing paste recipe, I did a little online research and found out that tragacanth is a plant product still in limited use as a binder in some products, though I couldn't find anything about it's use in beauty products. I really can't even guess why you would want it in your nail polish paste. Stannous oxide is a tin-based compound, which I gather was (or possibly still is) used to polish glass and gemstones, so I assume it is abrasive and that was it's purpose here.

You can view the full page this article was taken from, which includes some really lovely 1920's art, here.