It is long known that with respect to the property of having a finitely axiomatizable equational theory, there is no relationship between a general involution semigroup and its semigroup reduct. The present article establishes such a relationship within the class of involution semigroups that are unstable in the sense that the varieties they generate contain semilattices with nontrivial involution. Specifically, it is shown that the equational theory of an unstable involution semigroup is not finitely axiomatizable whenever the equational theory of its semigroup reduct satisfies the same property. Consequently, many results on equational properties of semigroups can be converted into results applicable to involution semigroups.