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What Makes the Perfect Polish?

13 Jul 2022

I got my nails done for my convocation ceremony. My friends and I were greeted with a number of options: basic, shellac, acrylic… not to mention the selection of colours we had to choose from as...

From Bugs to Plastics

20 Aug 2021

During the first years of the twentieth century, the demand for shellac outstripped the supply. It wasn’t because people developed a sudden penchant for shiny furniture. Electricity was starting to...

Why is there shellac in my chocolate mints?

27 Sep 2018

Indeed, it is the same substance. The revelation that furniture varnish can appear in food would probably send scientifically primitive bloggers into a tizzy. This varnish, or shellac, is the...

How an Asian Bug Led to the First Synthetic Plastic

20 Mar 2017

During the first years of the twentieth century the demand for shellac outstripped the supply. People did not develop a sudden penchant for shiny furniture, but electricity was starting to take the...

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