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Nail polish (or nail varnish) is a lacquer applied to toenails and or fingernails for appearance, but also as nail protection. Polishing without adding chemical layers is called nail buffing. Egyptians used nail color to signify social order with shades of red at the top. Queen Nefertiti, the wife of the king Akhenaton, colored her fingernails and toenails ruby red Cleopatra favored crimson. Women of lower rank who colored their nails were permitted only pale colors. The Chinese used a colored lacquer, made from gum arabic, egg whites, gelatin and beeswax. They used mashed rose, orchid and impatiens petals combined with alum. This mixture applied to nails for a few hours, leaves a color ranging from pink to red. In the Chou Dynasty of 600 BC, Chinese royalty used gold and silver to enhance their nails. A 15th century Ming manuscript cites red and black as the colors chosen by royalty for previous centuries. The Incas decorated their fingernails with pictures of eagles, but it is unclear how the practice of coloring nails progressed following these beginnings. Portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries include shiny nails.