Acrylic nails were invented in the 1950's by a dentist - Fred Slack - who tore a nail in the lab and used dental acrylics to repair it. He realized he was onto something and came out with the first "professional" acrylic product called Pattinails, using dental acrylic (he went on to start NSI Nail company which still exists), In the 1970s, Stuart Nordstrom came out with the first true professional acrylic nail product that was much easier to work with (also in the 1970s they discovered that dental acrylic was bad to use on nails). Nordstrom started Creative Nail design (now known as CND, inventor of Shellac). Historically, nobles of the Ming dynasty used extremely long artificial nails made of metals such as gold as a status symbol. This guide contains all you need to know about acrylic nails