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After several months of gel manicures, poor attempts at self-removal of said manicures, freezing cold temperatures, and just general abuse, my nails were looking rough. They’d peel, split, and break at the slightest touch. I was over it, and willing to take a break from the pretty gel manis to get my hands back into shape.
Enter OPI Nail Envy
I don’t remember how I came across OPI Nail Envy at first, but I liked what it was selling me. It’s a nail strengthener that goes on like a polish, and can be used as a lightly tinted polish, or as a base coat. The instructions say to apply two coats at first, and then every other day apply one more coat. After a week, remove the strengthener and repeat the process. Reviews on Amazon are pretty good at 4.7 stars, so I thought it would be worth a shot.
So bought the “Bubble Bath” color and I applied it as instructed, patiently waiting for results. I perhaps wasn’t the best at applying every other day exactly, but Nail Envy took up residence on my desk, and I regularly applied it during boring meetings before getting started with my workday.
And… I didn’t see any significant progress. My hands themselves improved because I was applying cuticle oil and not exposing them to cold and chlorine. But my nails kept cracking and I could not maintain any length on anything except my pinky finger and ring finger.
At first I thought it was my application, as I am not the best at applying polish to my own hands, and it always ended up kind of streaky. But I improved that (and just accepted that maybe self applying pastel colors on my right hand is not my forte) and still didn’t see any significant change. I tried making sure that the first coat was super extra for sure dry and didn’t see any improvement in application.
I tried the Nail Envy as a base coat, and also did not have good luck there. My nail polish chipped pretty significantly after two days, and the nail polish kind of glommed on top, not going on smoothly like I would expect.
Verdict
So here’s my results, after 8 weeks of trying OPI Nail Envy.
The left hand is… alright, although the pointer finger still looks pretty rough. The right hand – oh my poor right hand! It doesn’t seem any better off than when I started using the nail strengthener. The ring and pinky fingers have done a bit better, but the other fingers look awful.
The photos, unfortunately, tell the story on this one. I can’t recommend OPI Nail Envy. I saw little-to-no improvement in my nails after using the product for quite a while.
What do you use to help sorry nails? This product seems to work really well for some people, so is there something I’m doing wrong? I’m going to ruin my nails again with a gel manicure for an upcoming Vegas trip, so I will definitely have more reviews in this area.
