Hi everyone! Before I take you to this post, I just want to say, this is my 100th post!! I can't believe it. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this little blog. Thank you to any of you who share your thoughts, comments and suggestions with me and thank you to all of you for inspiring me! OK, on with the post.
I have always been intrigued by Zoya Remove+, and finally got some a couple of months ago. What you see above are the results of one swipe of each polish remover on index, middle, and ring fingers.
You can see that the homemade moisturizing remover and Zoya swabs look similar, with the top layers of stamping and topcoat coming off very easily (you can almost see the little curly-q from the flower on the homemade remover swab) and the red polish swiped off pretty cleanly on both those swabs. Notice how the cotton fibers are stretched on the Julep polish remover swab. That swab dried out considerably faster than the other two.
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| fully polished nails |
You can see after one swipe of remover that the homemade and Zoya removed nail polish is thinner than what remains on the Julep remover nail. You can also see that there is significantly more cotton fibers hanging off that Julep removed fingernail. I think that is due to the fact that the Julep remover dries so quickly.
When it comes down to it, all three removers do a fine job of removing the polish and ultimately take about the same amount of time to remove the polish, but the Julep remover has to be applied to the swab about twice as often as the other two because of its drying speed and ends up requiring the use of more swabs.
All the nails are clean of polish and moisturized. The homemade polish remover leaves a little bit more of a sticky residue after removal and the Julep remover leaves the least residue of the three. Also, the Julep remover is acetone free, so if that is important to you, it would be a better choice of the three.
Julep Acetone-Free Conditioning Nail Polish Remover (4 oz) $14 non-Maven/11.20 Maven
Zoya Remove+ Nail Polish Remover (32 oz) $25, so 4 oz for $3.13
Homemade Moisturizing Nail Polish Remover (4 oz) $2.24***
I tweaked the remover recipe from loodie loodie loodie to make my homemade polish remover. I use an old children's medicine bottle with a childproof cap and a very clear "Poison" marking on it to make my remover. It is a 4 oz container:
1 tablespoon (0.5 oz) glycerin
3 oz acetone
1 tablespoon (0.5 oz) tap water
20 drops lavender essential oil
Add the glycerin first, then most of the acetone. Add water a little at a time, closing and shaking the bottle periodically until the remover is evenly mixed and the glycerin no longer beads at the bottom of the container. Top with acetone if needed and add the essential oil.
What polish remover do you use? Have you ever tried a homemade moisturizing remover? Do you think you ever will?
I know this is not my usual contribution to The Nail Files, but I figured that I'd start off the new year by showing a bare canvas. If you save a few bucks on polish remover, you have more to spend on beautiful polish, so it makes for a better year. But if you feel let down that I haven't shown you any new nails, here is a little cheat.
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| Lavendairy, Chelsea, & Emma |
I wore Lime Crime Lavendairy with Julep Chelsea tips. The polish was on the verge of chipping after a number of days, so I added a coat of Julep Emma. It gave the manicure a glass fleck shimmer and prolonged its wear. Do you like it better without Emma or with the shimmer of Emma?
Take care, friends.
~Alexis
***My local price for ingredients:
$9.49/.5 fl oz lavender oil (~225 drops/.5 oz)
$2.29/2 oz glycerin
$2.19/8 oz acetone (I normally buy acetone in bulk, so the homemade remover is an overestimation of price, while the Zoya Remove+ price is the very minimum price.
