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Can your nail varnish tell you if your drink has been spiked?

10 January 2022 By Eloise Feilden

New Netflix hit Stay Close has got fans talking, as it features a special nail varnish which changes colour when dipped into a spiked drink. But does it actually exist?

Can your nail varnish tell you if your drink has been spiked? — Credit: Netflix

The Netflix adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller Stay Close dropped over the festive season, and the series has got fans talking.

It’s not just the ‘whodunit’ element of the crime drama which has viewers reeling, though. One scene in particular has got people excited about the possibility of a nail varnish which can detect whether a drink has been spiked.

During one scene in a club, teen Bea becomes suspicious that the man she and her friend are talking to may have spiked their drinks. To see whether this is true, she dips one finger into the suspicious drink and watches her bright yellow nail varnish turn black, indicating the drink has indeed been spiked.

Fans of the show have taken to Twitter to investigate whether the nail varnish is real, and to point out its usefulness in keeping women safe, particularly in light of recent reports of rising spiking incidents.

One commenter wrote: “I’m loving the anti spiking nail varnish idea!! I was spiked and thankfully got home due to good friends but not everyone is as lucky!”

Others are more interested in how to get their hands on such a clever invention, with one person tweeting: “Can someone please please invent that changing nail varnish from #StayClose coz that’s a really good fricken idea”

If the concept of colour-changing nail varnish sounds familiar, it may be because there was much talk about it a few years ago.

According to Metro, in 2018, nail-tech company Undercover Colors revealed they were developing a nail polish that can detect drugs, such as rohypnol and ketamine, that may have been added to someone’s drink without their knowledge.

It was even reported that the company received $5.5m worth of investment to develop the product.

Sadly, the product never made it to market, as such an invention proved challenging to create. But the brand has come up with an alternative detection device, which works much like a pregnancy or lateral flow test, using just one drop of the suspected drink to indicate whether it has been spiked.

But with Netflix fans so excited by the idea of a colour-changing nail varnish, it might be time to go back to the drawing board on this one.

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