Gel Nails vs. Solvent-Based Nail Polish

Modern LED  and UV cured nail polish formulations, also known as gel nails, have become the go-to option within the nail care market. This is because they offer excellent durability and faster cure times compared to traditional solvent-based nail polish. Additionally, gel nails can be applied in both professional and home settings.

LED- and UV-curable gel coatings, however, are highly resistant to mild solvents, requiring prolonged exposure to solvents such as acetone, making removal difficult compared to solvent-based nail polish. To completely remove gel nails, using foil wraps or full nail immersion is required, increasing the risk of skin irritation, nail plate dehydration, and potential monomer transport into the skin.

Eastman offers Solus™ cellulose acetate butyrate to help formulators reduce challenges pertaining to gel nail insolubility while maintaining gloss, hardness, and film aesthetics.

---

What Is Cellulose Acetate Butyrate?

Eastman Solus™ cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) is a plant-based ingredient, harvested from softwood trees in a process that complies with the Forest Stewardship Council^®. These ingredients have long been used to improve smoothness, color control, gloss, durability, and dry time in various types of coatings.
 

---

Why Consider Cellulose Acetate Butyrate in Nail Polish Formulations?

In traditional solvent-based nail polish formulations, CABs provide many of the same benefits mentioned in the previous section. CABs can also help provide improved safety and resistance to discoloration upon UV exposure when they are used in place of nitrocellulose. For more information on this topic, check out this article.
In gel nail polish formulations, Solus™ cellulose acetate butyrate acts as a film modifying additive, enabling improved solubility during removal, while maintaining gloss and durability. To demonstrate the improvements that Solus™ provides to gel nail polishes, an addition of 9.0% by weight of Solus™ was made to commercially available unpigmented gel nail polish. Formulations with and without Solus™ were drawn down and cured on glass panels at 100 µm film thicknesses.

---

Solvent Removal Improvements

Above, the formulation containing Solus™ demonstrated substantially reduced acetone-immersion time compared to the control. This confirms that Solus™ promotes faster solvent penetration, enabling safer and more user friendly polish removal.

---

Gloss Maintenance

Gloss measurements showed no significant change between the control and Solus™ modified systems, indicating that Solus™ did not introduce haze, dullness, or surface irregularities.

---

Hardness Development

 

Hardness progression across 0, 1, 7, and 14 days remained almost identical between the control and Solus™ modified films, showing that Solus™ did not slow curing or reduce film strength.

---

Solus™ Grades for Gel Nails

Recommended Solus™ grades for gel nail polish are presented below with relative formulation qualifications listed. 
 

---

Summary

Incorporating Solus™ into gel nail polish formulations helps overcome one of the biggest challenges for adoption: the speed of removal using common nail polish remover solvents. In tests shown using an addition of 9% by weight to a gel nail formulation, Solus™ reduced solvent removal times by more than half of the solvent times of formulations without Solus™.  Click below to request a sample and formulation guidance using Solus™ today.