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| CUTEX AD, Detail from a ca. 1960 ad. |
In the nail-painting craze of the 60s, the word CUTEX became a generic term for nail
polish products. It became such a dominant name in the Philippine nail care
market that all nail polishes were called “CUTEX”. When someone asked, “What’s your Cutex
brand?”, he or she actually meant—“what
is your nail polish brand?”.
The beginnings of CUTEX
could be traced back to 1911 when the Northam Warren Co, of Connecticut
developed its first ever nail care prouct-- a cuticle remover.
Three years
later, it created the first nail tints to color fingernails. Using pigments
developed from automobile paints, the product evolved into the CUTEX Liquid Nail Polish. Prior to
this, ladies prettified their nails using paste or powder tints. Other nail
polish manufacturers would follow suit, and by 1925 virtually all nail polishes came in liquid
forms.
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| CUTEX AD, ca. 1960 |
A major breakthrough happened in 1928 when CUTEX launched a nail polish remover
with acetone as base ingredient. The product proved to be such a hit, so it was
sold alongside CUTEX nail polishes.
CUTEX products
became available in the Philippines in the 1930s, a decade that saw the
introduction of new innovations—the gentler, nail conditioning “CUTEX Oily Polish Remover” , and a more
opaque, glossier nail polish cream (1934). CUTEX
Polish Foundation- the first nail treatment product that resulted in chip-free
nails with longer-lasting finish—was introduced in 1938.
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| CUTEX MANICURE SET, pPrint Ad, Graphic magazine, 1936. |
It is no wonder that CUTEX
became the world’s best-selling nail care brand for many decades. The brand was
highly advertised in beauty- conscious Philippines, and print ads regularly
came out from the 1930s thru the 1980s. Its heyday was in the 1960s when the
company was bought by Chesebrough Pond’s.
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| CHONA RECTO-KASTEN, for CUTEX. 1957 |
The CUTEX
dominance was seriously threatened by a Japanese brand—Caronia, which invested
heavily on TV advertising and made gains in the 1970s-80s. Eventually, CUTEX gave way to younger, newer
brands. It remained available on store shelves, however, although it was not
marketed as aggressively as Caronia and other fast-rising nail care brands,
which led to its being viewed as a somewhat passé , with an old image.
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| PEARL CUTEX, 1955 |
It was only in 2010 that CUTEX marketing was restored and intensified once more, mostly through digital and online platforms.
This was after the product was acquired by Arch Equity Partners, in September
2010.
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| CUTEX NAIL POLISH REMOVER AD, 1986. |
Despite several transfers of ownerships and the changing landscape of the
beauty business, CUTEX Nail Polishes
continue to be an indispensable partner of today’s generation of Filipinas who
want to nail their look right—from their fingers to their toes!!