OPINail Envy, Nail Strengthening Treatment

I've used OPI for 3 weeks now, following the process to the letter My observation is that the product is very nice, a good-quality attractive nail polish, but the product itself did not harden my actual nails. The process is to layer on the polish several times over a week, then clean it off and start again. My nails themselves are just as brittle as they were before, but the several new layers over a week help to keep them from breaking. Once the polish is cleaned off, I can see the nicks and peels just as they were before, and I haven't been able to grow them much. I've had to cut them down & file them every week.I like the product as a nail polish; it is better quality than drugstore stuff and looks better, with a nice semi-gloss. But my sense is that any reasonably good nail polish would work the same way, simply keeping the nails together, as it were, like a glue, if it was layered on several times over the course of a week. It reminds me of WEN, which purports to be a cleansing conditioner for the hair, making shampoo unnecessary, and making the hair more shiny & healthier. I suspected then (and now) that any good-quality conditioner would work the same way. Same with this nail polish.UPDATE June 13, 2014 -- 3 months later:Fair is fair -- I've upgraded my stars rating from 3 to 5. It did work!I continued to use OPI simply because I liked its looks, but stopped using it the way they recommend (i.e. every few days adding another coat )-- I told myself I'm too busy to obsess over my nails that way, and in any case I felt it wasn't working anyway. I just stripped & repolished my nails on Sunday nights and then not again until the following Sunday night.However, three months later, after this casual use, I can say that my nails are long and strong, without the cracking, chipping, and peeling I had had when I started. No one is more surprised than I, but I'm very glad to be wrong in this case! My recommendation now is to use this product, because it does work. My original review was 3 weeks in, which isn't long enough to grow a full nail. But now, after 3 months, I have grown a full new set of nails, and they are great.It is now clear to me that it is product, and not process, after all. When I cleaned off the polish before, my nails were still brittle & cracking (etc). When I clean it off now, the nails underneath are whole and not peeling & cracking. It really did make a difference.I will continue to use this product and I recommend it without reservation.

The media could not be loaded. I normally don't write reviews, but this one is sooo worth the money. I've had this for over a month now, and it's my holy grail. I've tried several nail strengtheners including the all famouse sally hansen ones, and those do not compare to this one.Small background: I'm an artist, but I also work as a security dispatcher. I use my hands a lot, whether it would be computer, phone, pushing, pulling, lifting, painting, whichever, so I am rough with my hands. This also means I'm constantly washing and sanitizing them due to cleaning work spaces very often, several times a day actually. I did not move/treat my hands any different when comparing the other products to this one.First, this one dries much quicker than the average ones: about 5-7 minutes.Personally, I still wait about 10-15 minutes before being normally rough with my hands and using them regularly.I've been fighting brittle nails for months. My nails would break even when they were only a 1mm long and would break at the pink parts of my nails (ouch..) very often. They would bend very easily as well. Nothing worked until I got my hands on this one. Usually with other nail strengtheners, there's always some sort of thick coating that you can 100% tell you have nail polish on of some sort; and they never last that long or actually help with brittle nails: they still break very easily. Other nail strengtheners work like a bandaid. When I would bend my nails, the polish strengtheners would crack like normal ones and deteriorate at a faster rate [~3days] (without bending purposely). With this one, from my experience, it goes to the root of the problem. The polish has a natural shineness and does not act as quick fix compared to others. Even when purposely bending your nails (for testing purposes), it doesn't crack and doesn't even look like anything was applied on top.Yes, orignially getting them done, will look similarly to a regular top-coat nail polish, but once it dries, it looks extremely natural. Even after a couple days, my nails look healthy and the shine on it looks like they have been buffed. It says to reapply every other day, but sometimes I go a week, and they still look good. I have pictures provided of when first applied (after cleaning up nails) and then the pic and video after is after 5 days.Also disclaimer: I started taking biotin & collagen supplements, but I've been using this nail strengthener way before i started them, so what I say still holds up. The supplements just give me extra support and make my nails and skin look a little more healthier.