Opinion: Chemists belong in the nail salon conversation

Walk into any nail salon and you can smell the chemistry before you see it.The glossy winter nail trends filling Instagram—high-shine gels, acrylic extensions, elaborate nail art—depend on acrylate oligomers, photoinitiators, and solvent mixtures that most chemists immediately recognize as respiratory irritants, sensitizers, or endocrine-active compounds. For the millions of clients who visit salons occasionally, this chemistry is fleeting. For nail technicians, it is an everyday occupational reality.If there was ever a place where chemists could make an immediate, tangible difference in public health, it is here. And if we do not bring our expertise into this conversation, who will?A 2025 review by Aislana Cole de Paula and colleagues in Dermatology Research and Practice underscores what many chemists already suspect: despite decades of reformulation and “free from” marketing, many nail products still contain sensitizing acrylates, volatile organic solvents, and inadequately labeled toxicants. Nail polishes and gel systems are, at their core, chemical formulations dominated by solvents, polymers, resins, and plasticizers—materials that chemists teach, synthesize, regulate, and assess every day. Yet the people working most closely with them often lack the training or protections afforded to laboratory professionals.teach, synthesize, regulate, and assess every day. Yet the people working most closely with them often lack the training or protections afforded to laboratory professionals.The nail salon workforce in the US is overwhelmingly female, largely immigrant, and concentrated in small businesses. In states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts—now the fifth-largest employer of nail technicians—workers may spend 8 to 10 hours a day exposed