In reality, developing a wearable chemical detector was a complex materials-science problem.
A product like this would have to function in a wide variety of beverages. Drinks can contain alcohol, sugar, acids, carbonation, artificial colors, fruit compounds and countless other ingredients.
Those substances can potentially interfere with chemical reactions.
The detection system would also need to distinguish between a target substance and everything else present in the beverage.
A useful consumer test cannot simply change color whenever something unusual happens. It has to provide a result that users can interpret consistently.
There was another problem: sensitivity.
If a substance were present at a concentration capable of producing harmful effects, the detector would ideally need to recognize it before someone consumed enough of the drink to become impaired.
At the same time, the system could not be so sensitive that ordinary ingredients caused constant false alarms.
And then came the practical problem of cosmetics.
A nail polish must remain stable inside a bottle. It must spread evenly across a nail. It must dry properly. It must survive ordinary wear. It must be safe for skin and nails. It must remain functional over time.
Adding a chemical detection mechanism makes all of those requirements more complicated.
NC State reported in 2015 that the team had developed several color-changing compounds and was testing them first in tubes and then on nail surfaces. The company was considering working with established cosmetics manufacturers to bring the technology to consumers.
At that stage, the concept was still very much a work in progress.
That matters because many social-media posts later presented Undercover Colors as though consumers could simply walk into a store and buy the nail polish.
They could not.
The viral myth surrounding Undercover Colors
The popularity of the story eventually created a second problem: misinformation about the status of the product.
Images and posts circulated online implying that Undercover Colors had become a commercially available nail polish.
But that was not what happened.
AFP later investigated the claim that people could buy the drug-detecting nail polish and found that the original nail-polish concept had not been brought to market. The company eventually abandoned the nail polish approach after consumer testing revealed limitations that made the team uncomfortable about launching it.
This is an important part of the story because it changes the ending completely.
The students did not simply invent a revolutionary nail polish and then disappear.
Instead, they encountered a common reality in product development: the original idea was not necessarily the best final product.
Their research continued.
Their technology evolved.
And the company moved toward a different form of detection.
From nail polish to SipChip
The next major step was a small testing device called SipChip.
Rather than putting the detection chemistry directly onto a fingernail, the new approach used a compact test strip.
The basic principle was similar to that used in lateral-flow tests such as pregnancy tests.
A small amount of beverage could be placed onto the test surface, after which lines would appear to indicate the result.
Undercover Colors introduced SipChip in 2018 as a portable personal drink-testing device. Contemporary reporting described it as a coin-sized test that could provide results in roughly 30 seconds.
According to company information reported by AFP, the device was designed to detect several benzodiazepines, including substances such as Rohypnol, Xanax, Valium, Serax, Versed and Restoril.
This was a major change in design philosophy.
The nail polish had been visually appealing because it disappeared into something familiar.
But the testing device could potentially provide greater control over the testing process.
Instead of putting a finger directly into a beverage, a user could place a small drop of the drink onto a dedicated testing surface.
The product therefore moved away from the original beauty-product concept and toward a more conventional diagnostic-testing format.
Ironically, the less glamorous idea may have been the more practical one.
Why the change mattered
The evolution from nail polish to SipChip illustrates an important principle in consumer technology: the most memorable product is not always the most usable product.
Undercover Colors was a brilliant communication concept.
Everyone understood the metaphor.