Soon your nail polish could tell you if your drink contains date rape drugs.
The innovative polish would work by changing color when it comes in contact with any date rape drug. So, the woman just has to discretely dip her finger in her drink to test it for safety.
The polish is called Undercover Colors and, although it's yet to be developed, it already has almost 4,000 likes on Facebook. The page describes the product as the "first fashion company working to prevent sexual assault."
Undercover Colors was created by four male undergraduates at North Carolina State University who said, "Our goal is to invent technologies that empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly pervasive crime."
While fashionable, the nail polish brings light to the issue of sexual assault. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports nearly 1 in 5 women experience rape at some time in their lives.
It also reports more than one-third of those rapes happen when women are college aged.
And unfortunately, date rape drugs are often used to aid in those rapes. Womenshealth.gov defines date rape drugs as drugs that are slipped into a drink without the victim's knowledge. The drugs are odorless and tasteless, and can cause weakness and loss of consciousness.
Undercover Colors' creators said, "Through this nail polish and similar technologies, we hope to make potential perpetrators afraid to spike a woman's drink because there's now a risk that they can get caught."
The product is still being developed and the creators are currently asking for donations to complete their work.
The creators are not yet saying when they hope to release the product, but told Newsy they are still early in the development process.
