Breathable nail polish a hit with Muslim women
Chemist’s new formula lets air and water permeate each layer
Manicures may no longer be off-limits to many Muslim women, thanks to a “breathable” nail polish.
The beauty innovation, created by Wojciech Inglot, a chemist from Poland, is formulated to let both air and water through.
“It’s made such an impact in the Muslim community,” said Regina makeup artist Sara Lindsay, who stumbled upon Inglot O2M Breathable Nail Enamel while searching for lines “that are not readily available” to carry in her studio.
“The Muslim church is only a couple of blocks from my store, and one of their heads came to see me and is very interested in sharing the breathable nail polish news with their community,” said Lindsay, who is the Saskatchewan distributor for the line. (In Canada, the polish was previously only available in Quebec.)
The Qur’an doesn’t specifically prohibit Muslim women from wearing nail polish.
But because regular polish is formulated to keep moisture and air from reaching the nail, some believe it interferes with Wudu, a ritual washing before prayers.
Muslims believe it’s important that water make contact with the fingernail to cleanse it before praying.
Because they would have to remove their nail polish every time they need to renew their Wudu, many Muslim women shy away from wearing nail polish.
Inglot’s nail polish is formulated to let both air and water through, so it’s considered Wudu friendly and Halal certified (allowed by Islamic law).
To achieve permeability, the O2M product line uses a polymer found in contact lenses.
“It will fill the technical requirement that water has to touch the nail bed. They feel that this nail polish gives them that,” said Zarqa Nawaz, the 45-year-old Muslim creator of the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie.
“That’s why they’re so happy.”
Nawaz said she chooses not to wear nail polish, but her decision has nothing to do with religious beliefs. If she did, however, Nawaz said she would be comfortable wearing regular nail polish.
“But I have friends and relatives who are quite careful about this sort of thing,” she said.
Nawaz said she heard about breathable polish on Facebook. “It was interesting for me because I watched all these women race all around the world asking every Islamic scholar ‘What do you think?’ ”
The appeal was lost on some scholars, who didn’t understand why women would prefer polish to colouring nails with henna, Nawaz said.
“They just didn’t get it. Henna’s only one colour. And it doesn’t really look that great on nails … It’s not a uniform colour. It’s kind of blotchy.”
“That is why Muslim women are so thrilled with this product,” she said. “They think that they have found a loophole.”
It’s all part of the rise in fashion-consciousness among young hijab-wearing Muslim women, Nawaz said. “They were the first to start advertising this nail polish. And then it got around.”
Initially, the breathable polish was created to offer a less harmful alternative to regular nail enamel, Lindsay explained.
“I like the idea of breathable polish for kids … I think it’s just safer,” the mother of a seven-year-old said. “It’s what I would put on my little girl.”
By allowing air and moisture to pass through, the polish inventor, who died earlier this year at age 57, was hoping to encourage a healthier nail while wearing nail polish.
“Little did he know that this product would also revolutionize nail polish possibilities for Muslim women,” Lindsay said. “He is catering to a niche he didn’t know existed.”
Breathable polish is available in a vast array of colours, everything from neutrals, pale and bright pinks, to green and blue.
The O2M line comes with a base coat and top coat. A bottle costs $17.
The buzz around breathable nail polish began in earnest in November, when Mustafa Umar, a Muslim scholar and blogger, wrote about it on his blog.
Umar described how one of his students tested the manufacturer’s breathability claim by applying both standard and O2M nail polish to a coffee filter, then placing another filter below the painted one, and squeezing a couple of drops of water over the polish to see if water would seep through.
It seeped through the O2M, but not the standard polish.
“This is sufficient to show that the claims made by the manufacturer are correct and water does indeed permeate through to the nail,” he wrote.
“The research on breathable nail polish points to its permissibility,” Umar concluded.