polished is shiny.

If you love it right now, use it.

Living finishes are typically not tryuly finished, they leave off the clear coat. I have not reallyu seen a nickle living finish nor know how nickle would patina. But in my mind polished is not a living finish in any finish. It is finished.

wait elunia I think that actually looks beautiful! I think the water spots make the shine a bit less garish and more natural looking

sounds like you may be happier with a brushed finish? lots of choices with that finish for sure

Well, I deleted my post/photo (too embarrassing!), but I will say that overall I do like polished nickel fixtures. I have it in two other bathrooms in addition to the powder room. I have found that the nickel mellows/becomes warmer over time. For me at least, its a much more liveable living finish than the uncoated brass fixtures which I removed from another bathroom.

The polished finishes of chrome, nickel and brass have a more formal appearance.

The brushed finishes have a more casual appearance.

Elunia is your polished nickel faucet PVD coated??

No, my polished nickel fixtures (Axor, Rohl and Perrin and Rowe) are all living finishes.

Elunia- that is what I want! Dont be ashamed of your faucet just know that your photo inspired me to buy a living finish! (I just discovered Kingston Brass is PVD)

Yes—PN in a living finish will “act” and often look a bit differently from one that is PVD or lacquered. I will have a Waterstone PN (living) faucet. It’s quite shiny, but it came with a jeweler’s cloth to polish. I was told it’ll develop a hazy/milky finish overtime, and I should polish it off along with regular water spots, regularly. My PN hardware is lacquered, so I’ll need to polish it to remove fingerprints. The tones match well, but some PVD PN faucets look too warm—almost with a hint of “gold” or brown. I recall Delta/Brizo looking this way. Maybe that is the PVD doing that? PVD is supposed to be very durable, but I didn’t care for its PN tone. I think Kohler’s PVD PN was not as “warm.”

Brushed nickel is usually an electroplated finish using actual nickel as the finish material. Since nickel, unlike chrome, is a "soft" metal, it scratches easily and the brushing is to disguise the inevitable small scratches. Electroplated nickel is usually not lacquered.

It will patina very slightly over time through oxidation which is easily removed with a dry cloth. It is usually not considered a living finish.

Polished nickel is usually not nickel, but another, non-reactive, metal, commonly titanium or zirconium, that has gone through a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process to make it look lie nickel. PVD finishes will not patina, are unlikely to change color, and are almost impossible to scratch.

Kingston Brass buys its faucets from ten different Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers, so its usually impossible to determine who made what faucet or what process was used to finish the faucet,, but my guess is that the finish is a PVD coating that has no risk of tarnish, scratches, or developing any sort of patina.

For our review of Kingston Brass and its faucets, go here.