#FridayNails, I think, shoud not be only about nail polishes as such, but also about how to take care of your nails. Or more likely about how I take care of my nails, and trust me, it is hard work #nailbiter. This year's saviour - OPI Original Nail Envy.
When I was researching on the internet about how to get rid of nail-biting, I really wished there were more blog articles about it. Although I can see that it is probably one of the issues that everyone needs to deal with on their own, it wouldn't be too bad if more people were trying to encourage you and give you hints that work for them. (I'm not saying that there is nothing on nail-biting, but in my opinion, it is just not enough, or at least not easily-enough-googleable #doesthatwordevenexist?)
To begin with me, I have been biting my nails since ever. My mum would probably agree that I jumped out of there biting my non-existant nails straight away. It has never been that bad, like when you imagine people with whole nails bitten off #yuck, but I would just never grow them, not even a tiny bit, and so they became extremely weak and started peeling off etc. Sometimes a bit of coloured nail polish would help, but only for a few hours or so. #ohwell When I started uni, the trend of acrylic nails came about and it seemed like the easiest way how to not be able to bite your nails (as they covered), to grow them and to have nice looking nails straight away #dreamcometrue. However, after about two years of wearing these I ended up with literally the tiniest layer of nails ever, which was extremely painful and even yuckier than the bitten off nails. #yeahdreamcometruereally So in desperate attempt to stop the pain, I tried all sorts of first-aid nail treatments, but that would make it even worse as the ingredients in the polishes would penetrate straight onto my nail bed, killing it. So I turned to fake nails, the stick on/glued on ones. That did help in a way, as my nails were covered and it only needed a bit of glue. Alas, the glue penetrating my tiny nails did not help growing them at all. They just stopped growing. #verysaddesperateface As they were not hurting anymore, I decided to man-up and take action. I bought about a ton of nail treatments, starting with Sally Hansen, ending with all sorts of oils and creams and soaks. My nails were so-so gettin back to the bitten-off state, but they were so thin it was unreal. They seemed like only one of the layers was growing back. I was panicking. Then suddenly I came across OPI Nail Envy.
I read a few reviews online and was thinkin #hmmmwhatifthatreallyworks but wasn't overly excited as A) it was about £18 and B) nothing ever really worked for me before so why would this. Now I should just appologize to OPI, because they saved my life. Well, nails. I have been using this for about half a year. You are meant to put two coats on the first day, then every day put one more coat and after a week take it all off and start again. You can use normal nail polish on it as well, which to me helped a lot because I don't bite my nails that much when they have a colour coat on.
Now to be honest with you, you need to follow the instruction and it works miracles. After half a year, my nails are so strong it's unreal. Well, probably not as strong as nails that have always been healthy, but to me, they have never been this strong. I almost don't bite them, because the thought of getting back into the state of all the pain and trouble (not mentioning how embarassing it is to walk around with such awful nails), is just not appealing anymore. OPI Nail Envy does not peel off, like some treatments do, it stays on for whole week and is easy to take off after. It is see-through, so a usual nail polish is perfectly fine on it. It takes a little bit longer to dry as it just makes another layer on your nail, but it makes your nails looking healthy and thick. It has a nice flat brush which makes the application easier and more even.
Oh and one advice, if you have already weak nails and are thinking about acrylics, do not get them. It is not a joke when people say it ruins your own nails. It definitely does when your own nails are unhealthy. My mum as well is dealing with the aftermath of it, and her nails are responding to all sorts of treatments even worse than mine did.
Has any of you tried this before? Is there anything else that helped you with your nails? Has anyone got a good experience with post-acrylic nails?