Cutex

Cutex is an American nail-care brand founded in 1911 and best known for nail polish removers. It was created by the chemist Northam Warren, who registered the formula for a liquid cuticle remover and built a full manicure line around it [5]. The brand has changed hands many times over its history and has been owned by Revlon, Inc. since the mid-2010s; it remains actively marketed, with a current product range and an online store.

The name comes from the original product itself: a liquid that removed dead cuticle tissue without cutting, hence "Cut-ex". Over the following decades Cutex moved from a single specialist preparation into colour, treatment and removal products, and for a time was among the most widely distributed nail brands in the world.

Cutex was developed in 1911 by Northam Warren (1878–1962), a chemist who had studied at the University of Kansas and worked for Parke, Davis & Company in Chicago before moving to New York in 1907. According to the company, the brand was "founded in 1911" [2]; Warren registered his cuticle-remover formula that year and sold it through his Special Products Company.

The original Cutex Cuticle Remover was a liquid that eliminated dead cuticle tissue without cutting. The beauty-history site Cosmetics and Skin describes the early formulation as a weak alkaline solution of potassium and sodium hydroxide with glycerine and rose oil, and notes that Warren first distributed it to professional manicurists and hairdressers for feedback before selling it at retail for fifty cents a bottle [6]. In 1915 the business was incorporated as the Northam Warren Corporation in New York, with capital of $85,000.

Through the 1910s and 1920s Cutex expanded quickly beyond its first product. Nail tints arrived in 1914, and the brand introduced liquid nail polish to a mass market — dated to 1917 by Wikipedia and by Revlon, while Cosmetics and Skin records an earlier Liquid Nail Enamel in 1916 [4][6]. A dedicated polish remover followed in 1926. In 1928 the company introduced an acetone-based nail polish remover marketed as safe for home use, a step that the brand and later commentators link to the broader adoption of liquid nail polish.

The brand was also an early adopter of national advertising. From 1916 the agency J. Walter Thompson ran a long-running campaign — designed by Helen Lansdowne Resor — that began as educational copy and later moved toward lifestyle and celebrity messaging. Packaging and retail innovations followed over the next decades, including Bakelite caps with built-in brushes in 1931, colour-coordination wheels in 1933, the first dedicated Cutex manicure salon in Chicago in 1935, and spill-proof bottles in 1951. Expansion abroad reached Canada, England, continental Europe and South America, beginning with a Montreal subsidiary in 1919.

Cutex has passed through a long chain of corporate owners. Northam Warren's company controlled the brand until it was acquired by Chesebrough-Pond's; the Cutex Wikipedia article and Cosmetics and Skin date this to 1960, while the Wikipedia biography of Northam Warren gives 1961 [4][5]. At the time of that sale, Cutex nail polish was reported to be selling in 109 countries [4]. Unilever acquired Chesebrough-Pond's, and with it Cutex, in 1987.

A series of further transactions followed. Carson, Inc. bought the U.S. and Puerto Rico operations for $41 million in April 1997, and the Shansby Group acquired the brand for $30 million in December 1998 [4]. Ownership then passed to Prestige Brands under GTCR Golder Rauner II in 2004, before Arch Equity Partners acquired the brand in September 2010 and established Cutex Brands. Revlon, Inc. acquired Cutex Brands and its U.S. operations in 2015, and in June 2016 purchased Cutex International — the United Kingdom and Australia business — from Coty, consolidating the brand globally under Revlon [6][7]. Within Revlon's portfolio, Cutex sits alongside brands such as Elizabeth Arden, Halston, CND and American Crew.

Cutex presents itself as a heritage nail-care specialist with a long record of product innovation. On its own site the company calls Cutex "an iconic brand, synonymous with nail polish remover globally" and says it offers "a full range of innovatively-formulated solutions for your nails, hands and feet" [2]. The brand describes its removers as delivering salon-quality results and says each is "infused with a special blend of ingredients" to improve the experience of at-home removal. It is positioned as an accessible, drugstore-tier brand and is sold through multiple channels, including a branded store on Amazon.

The brand's defining products are its nail polish removers, sold in both acetone and non-acetone formulations, alongside nail treatments and hand- and foot-care items. Its founding product, the Cutex Cuticle Remover, established the line in 1911, and the 1928 acetone-based remover is the product most often associated with the name. In 2012 Cutex introduced the Advanced Revival and Baseworx lines.

Cutex's place in the history of nail cosmetics has been covered by trade and editorial sources rather than through formal awards. Its 2016 consolidation under Revlon was reported by WWD, which quoted Revlon's chief operating officer Gianni Pieraccioni describing the brand's history of innovation "from its invention of liquid nail polish in 1917 to its popular nail polish removers widely used today" [7]. Cosmetics and Skin has published a detailed retrospective on the brand's early product timeline and advertising, and the Hagley Library has cited Cutex as a foundational brand in the history of modern nail polish [8].

Cutex is owned by Revlon, Inc. and is no longer an independent company, but it continues to operate as an actively marketed brand. As of 2026 its website carries a current product lineup of acetone removers, non-acetone removers and nail treatments, and the brand maintains a live presence including an Amazon store [1]. Its distribution is global, drawing on Revlon's infrastructure.