Happy Monday! Today I’m doing something a bit different, and that is a true wear test of one of my polishes. I recently posted about my experience at the Julep Pop-Up Store in NYC (see that post HERE), and I received a couple comments warning me that Julep Lena is a stainer. I was quite surprised to hear that news, so I decided to put my nails to the test! Let me share my experiment with you, and how it turned out!
My experiment began with two base coats – Sally Hansen Double Duty and Sephora Collection. I used Sally Hansen Double Duty on my right hand as a control, and then painted my left hand as follows: one coat Sally Hansen, two coats Sally Hansen, one coat Sephora, and two coats Sephora (I wore one coat of Sally Hansen on my thumb). Because one of my commenters mentioned that she used two coats of base coat, I wanted to do the same to see if it made a difference. Once my base coat was completely dry (a very important step!), I applied Lena in two coats.
After three full days of wear with no top coat, I had slight tip wear and just one substantial chip in my manicure. I was a bit nervous to take off my polish, but to continue my experiment I grabbed two removers to test out as well – CVS Strengthening Polish Remover and Julep Acetone Free Conditioning Nail Polish Remover. I used the CVS remover on my control hand, and the Julep remover on the experiment hand. Are you ready to see the results?!
Ta da! No staining at all! The only places you can even see remnants of the polish are under the nail on my ring finger (where I accidentally got polish stuck during application) as well as a tiny bit on the ring finger’s cuticle. Other than that, I did not experience any staining whatsoever, and both nail polish removers worked equally as well. I am thrilled with the result, and glad I don’t have any stained nails!
All in all, my Julep Lena wear test turned out well! Of course, I’m not 100% sure why others experienced staining, but it could be due to an old formulation, body chemistry, or even the type of base coat. Whatever the case may be, you should be safe to wear Lena with either of the base coats I mentioned. My biggest tip is to just make sure it is completely dry before applying Lena. You always want to have a strong, impenetrable base for your color no matter what polish you’re using. Please be sure to let me know in the comments if you’ve tried Lena, and what your result was. Also, if there are any polishes that you want me to do a wear test on, let me know that as well!