09/23/2026
Flashback to 1976. ORLY Founder Jeff Pink was at the helm of one of the largest personal care supply stores serving nail salons, movie studios and the professional beauty industry when he was faced with a quandary: actresses needed their nails redone with every costume change. The drying time of reapplying new coats of polish was time-consuming, slowing down production and the actors who needed to move quickly through set changes. It caused headaches and cost studios money.
Thinking about women who used white pencil beneath their nails to yield a clean, natural look, Pink’s eureka moment—a white polish he’d later trademark as the French Manicure—would forever change the nail industry.
“I had no idea it would become what it is today,” Pink told Happi via email. “When I called my supplier, Abe, and told him I wanted to order a large quantity of white nail polish, he thought I was crazy. Nobody was buying white nail polish at the time.”
In retrospect, that observation was a good omen.
Here for the full story:
As Orly hits the 50th anniversary of the French Manicure, the brand has submitted its original Orly French Manicure Kit for consideration by the Smithsonian.
