Last summer, Sephora OPI came out with a fantastic shade of green/blue called Mermaid to Order. It reminded me of the nails that AndrAIa had in the old computer animated series, ReBoot. (Hi, geek alert!) I tried it as soon as I got home and I loved it!
The inevitable happened of course – even with a polish that is Big Three Free, after a week of wear, my nails started peeling. This is the main reason I had stopped wearing polishes and hadn’t put any on in almost 10 years. Still, I was really loving the colors that Sephora OPI had and I bought a few more to wear, just resting my nails a week or two between each color like I used to. I figured that once again, there was no way I was going to be able to wear polish constantly without ruining my nails!
In November, I came across OPI’s Nail Envy in a beauty supply shop, but decided not to buy it as it was $15. I did, however, check out some reviews for it on MakeupAlley and discovered that Sephora OPI had something similar for a little less money; the reviews were generally positive.
The next time I stopped in Sephora, I had a look at the Sephora OPI Strengthener. I hadn’t tried nail strengtheners before, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I figured I would give it a try. If nothing else, it would make an expensive base coat.
The product itself looks ivory in the bottle, but applies nearly clear. You can wear it alone as a treatment, which gives your nails a nice gloss, or you can wear it as a base coat before applying color. Some people say you shouldn’t mix base coats/products from different companies, but I’ve used this item with all OPI lines, Zoya, Essie, and drugstore polishes without any chipping or drying problems.
I’ve been using this product since December as a base coat and I love it! I’ve had a polish on every day since I bought it and I change nails colors about once a week. I have not had any of the peeling problems I’d previously experienced.
Well, okay, except last week, but it was only both index fingers and was probably due to all the shoveling and my hands getting cold/wet/dry. There was no peeling on my other nails and I didn’t experience any breaking, which my nails have previously been prone to do.
Along with using this strengthener, my nail care routine also includes using a 4-way buffer, which is supposed to help stop peeling as well. I think both of these things together have really helped improve the quality of my nails.
If you’ve had problems with peeling and breaking nails, I highly recommend trying this Sephora OPI Strengthener. It’s definitely my HG nail product!
3 March, 9:19 am
I should try this (or something like it) for my mummy dearest. She is always complaining about how crappy her nails are & asking me to either help her or take her to get a mani… she uses polish once in a while but doesn’t do a great job & doesn’t know about basecoats, topcoats etc. One problem she has is they break easily and they’re ridgy. Something like this may help…
3 March, 12:26 pm
If they’re not deep ridges, a base coat would definitely help smooth them out.
Sally Hansen a product called Thicken Up! that seems like it might be similar to the OPI Strengthener if you want to check it out. They also have a few other strengtheners, but I’m not sure which would be better!