Fading nail polish - 18 months in a window

This is a completely useless and admittedly somewhat nerdy post about fading in polishes when subjected to light.

Maybe it isn’t completely useless, because it does tell us that dark storage is the best because light also affect our bottled polishes…

March 26th 2013 – 1½ years ago – I decided to do a nail polish color fading test.

I chose blue and red because in paper those colors easily fade – but much to my surprise it turned out that a completely different nail polish color range fades much worse even if it’s not subjected to direct sun light…

I painted two sets of false nails: one side in red and one in blue, and one set was left in a dark drawer – and the other set was placed in a south facing window for 18 months.

Click on photos to enlarge…

Upper row kept in a dark drawer – lower row kept in a south facing window for 18 months, right half of each nail has been top coated with Seche Vite at the beginning of the experiment.

Red going from large to small describing the change:

China Glaze Snap My Dragon, light fading (more visible in person), the top coated part is less faded.

Vogue Manzana Fatal, has become darker and slightly more purple toned in the sun.

Seche Smitten, a light fading (more visible in person), the top coated part is less faded.

China Glaze Poinsettia, no change, maybe a slight fading in the non top coated side.

China Glaze Velvet Bow, no change.

Seche Red, no change, maybe a slight fading in the non top coated side. 


and the blue polishes:

Upper row kept in a dark drawer – lower row kept in a south facing window for 18 months, left half of each nail has been top coated with Seche Vite at the beginning of the experiment. Blue going from large to small:

Barielle Berry Blue, no change.

Jesses Girl Girls Night Out, no change.

Essie Butler Please, no change.

Zoya Song, no change.

Nubar Indigo Ocean, no change.

Sinful Why Not, faded completely after 2-3 weeks – less than a month.

And now to the shades that really, really fade - even if they are kept out of direct sun light....
Do you remember I used to organiz my swatch sticks like this?

Until I got this drawer cabinet - click HERE to read more!

I had noticed that several of my swatch sticks in mint, "Tiffany box" and other colors in a mix of green and blue faded dramatically from just hanging on their chains - even if they never were subjected to direct sunlight, and I had to re-swatch a lot of them when I reorganized them.

Just a few examples, the newly swatched to the left, the fade ones of the same polish on the right:

Do you have any experiences with fading polish??