Product Review: Nailtiques Formula 2 Nail Strengthening Polish

Raise your hand if you were/are a nail biter.  It's been a habit since I was a kid and sometimes if I was super nervous, I could bite them without even knowing I was doing it.  I did the acrylic thing in high school and while it looks nice until they grow out and need a balance, it weakens your nails beyond belief.  Ever since I stopped, my nails were never the same...very thin, weak and brittle.  I used a zillion top coats claiming to strengthen but none of them ever did.  In March, I noticed my nails were in particularly rough shape.  Thin, brittle, not able to grow them out at all and the nail bed stripes were red and angry looking.  I've had ridges and "stripes" for about 7 years, way before my time.  (No underlying health conditions or anything, already checked.)  When I was able to grow my nails out, the stripes were a major weak point and I could have them longer for about a week or two and then they would break or split.

There's this vlogger I sometimes check out and one time someone asked her how long she'd had acrylics and she noted that her nails weren't acrylic, they were real.  I was in utter shock because they were PERFECT.  Long, strong, thick...basically everything mine weren't.  Because of how embarrassing they'd gotten, I thought I'd give the product she recommended a try.

Nailtiques Formula 2 Protein  (affiliate link) is made for "soft, peeling, bitten, weak or thin nails."  Um...*raising hand.*  Now I choke having to pay like almost $10 for a top coat but this stuff was $17 at the time but I was desperate.  (I know, it's not that much, I'm just cheap.)  I bought it on a road trip when I saw it at Target because we were two months out from our Hawaii trip and I wanted decent looking nails or at least the start of them by the time we got there.  So this is what I was working with on day one.

At this point, this was considered "long" for me.  Any sign of white was good but as you can see especially on the right just how red the nail beds were.  When I showered, my nails would go completely clear and be transparent for like an hour or two.  This was going to be my last ditch effort to see if nails were ever going to be a possibility for me.  I painted my nails in the parking lot because I was serious, yo!  You have to make the commitment that if you want the product to work you must paint your nails DAILY.  I would paint them and every 3-4 days remove it if it was looking dull to start with a fresh coat.

These are the results after a week.

You can see the whites are whiter and the red seems to have calmed down a bit.  I know your nails growing out is a very slow process but I was encouraged with what I saw so I kept it up.

Another week passed and these were my results.

You can see major growth between week one and two.  My pinkies are slow growers and always the ones most likely to split but my pointer fingers apparently grow like champs.  Keep it up!

Here's one week later...

Okay, not only am I seeing amazing length in a short period of time but as you can see by the arrow on the right, the new nail bed is already growing in and it's significantly lighter which was one of my hopes because it doesn't advertise my zebra stripes on my nails.

I was so happy with the progress, I vowed to keep it up and that meant including every day on vacation for a month.  By the time we were in Hawaii, my nails were so strong that any time I spent in the shower or pool didn't phase them a bit.  I'm talking by day seven I'm usually able to peel my nails off in the pool they get so soft and weak.  Nope.  They were strong, white and not going anywhere!  I even jammed them into something three or four times, stubbing it like a mofo and it was painful but not a chip or split in sight.  There was a time where I chipped the side of one nail and usually that would've been the end of it but it actually stayed in tact and I just kept it that way since it wasn't too noticeable and within two weeks, you couldn't even see it anymore because it grew so fast!

When I got to the point where my nail beds grew out completely, I wasn't quite as diligent about it and would paint them every other day and the strength has stayed consistent.  Obviously if I want them even stronger, I'd need to do it daily.  I'm just over 6 months in and my friend (who has acrylics) commented on how beautiful my nails looked and she doesn't know I was doing anything to them.  So if others are noticing, then yeah...totally keeping it up but more so for myself because I never in a million years thought my nails could look like this all the time...

The left pinky got a split but I think that one needs daily painting for sure because it's always been my problem child.  I also think if I were better about doing it daily the nail beds would be a consistent color instead of seeing new growth lines.  But given what they looked like before, it's negligible in the scheme of things so I'm not going to complain!

Nailtiques Formula 2 Protein  (affiliate link) has been an utter God send for me and no I wasn't sent the product to try or anything like that.  I bought it with my own money and am reporting back what it did for me because I know what it's like to have embarrassing nails and wanting to do something about it.

As long as you're diligent about applying it daily especially in the initial grow out phase, you will see results.  I frequently have to cut them back.  (The final pic is a recent cutback because they were almost twice that length (!) and getting in the way of being able to type.)  I still smile like a dork when I get out of the shower and see they're totally white and not clear at all even if I'm giving them a few hours break going totally bare.  About every other week, I will remove the polish and lightly buff  (affiliate link) out any deep ridges growing in and then paint on a mix of almond oil and tea tree oil  (affiliate link) to keep them moisturized and fungus/bacteria free.  (I keep that mix on for about an hour and then rub it into the nails if it hasn't absorbed in yet then paint on my new coat of Nailtiques.)

I am utterly thrilled with the results and will use this forever because no way in heck do I want to go back to what I had!  It's just a matter of keeping it on the side table and in front of my face to remind me to do it.  This stuff is an 11 for sure and I hope it can help others with nails in as poor shape as mine used to be!

Do you have strong nails or weak, brittle ones like mine were?

*This post contains affiliate links for amazing nail wizardry.  

====================
Like this post? Don't miss another one...subscribe via email or RSS feed. (Or you can follow me on Facebook )