"Yamajin" (Aburakawa, Aomori City), a seafood processing company in Aomori, released a new color of water-based nail polish "CYAN" made from scallop shells on March 31st.

A nail polish developed from scallop shells by a company that does everything from scallop farming to processing. Four colors were released in May last year, and five pastel colors with the image of spring have been added this time.

Last year, the company launched a product development project to reuse the 8,000 tons of scallop shells that are discarded annually. Rie Aizawa, who is in charge of product planning and development, says, "Since the SDGs have become familiar, I have always had the awareness that we must do something instead of leaving seashells as industrial waste."

The project team consists of 5 women. Since both the managing director and the managing director are women, they agreed to create something exciting and cute from a female perspective. Aizawa said, ``While doing research, I learned that scallop shells are also used as pigments, so I decided to create a nail polish that is friendly to both nails and the environment. I did a lot of research and looked for a company that would cooperate with manufacturing, so I started from scratch.”

The product is a water-based nail polish that uses naturally-derived ingredients that are gentle on the nails. "It has no peculiar pungent odor and can be easily removed by soaking it in hot water." The idea of the project team, "I want people with weak nails and people who can't usually do nails because of their work, to enjoy fashion even on holidays". “It seems that some parents and children are enjoying applying it, so I’m glad it became a product that people can use with peace of mind,” says Aizawa.

For the new colors, we conducted a survey of the company's Instagram followers, researched their requests, and selected five popular colors. Aizawa smiled, "I wanted to make it with my followers. At first, I was planning to make about two colors, but all the five colors I made as samples were cute, so I decided to sell them all." "When scallop shells are baked at a high temperature, they become pure white. All colors are mixed with white, so you can enjoy the soft coloring. I want many people to try it."

The content is 9ml and the price is 1,850 yen each. In addition to being sold on the company's website, it is also available at the Aomori Prefectural Tourist Product Center Aspam (Agata, Aomori City), "KISUKE" in Aomori Station Building Lavina, HOME WORKS (Hirosaki), and Hachinohe Portal Museum Hacchi (Hachinohe).