This is something I've been meaning to try for absolutely months on end, but I finally got around to buying Orly's Nail Rescue Kit for myself last week. My nails have been prone to peeling, flaking, and breaking since I was a kid, regardless of how much TLC they get, and when one goes, they all have to go - I can't bear to have them different lengths so they all get filed down to nubbins.
I hoped that this repair kit, which promises a long-lasting, flawless mend for cracked or broken nails in three quick and easy steps, would put an end to all that.
What's in the box is a little bottle of brush-on nail glue, a pot of nail repair powder, and a small, flat, square, and completely rubbish buffing pad, together with an instruction pamphlet. The instructions are dead easy to follow, and run like this:
Step 1: Brush the glue evenly over the entire nail to be repaired [I've also tried using it just on the affected tip and it's worked fine.] Be careful not to get the glue on cuticles.
Step 2: Immediately dip entire nail into the powder, making sure it's evenly covered [you can also sprinkle the powder onto the glue, which makes for a finer result.] Remove excess powder.
Step 3: When dry, buff the repaired nail lightly to a smooth surface [I recommend using your own three- or four-way buffer for this; the one in the kit is pure awful.]
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If extra strength is required, repeat steps one-to-three when the nail is completely dry and all excess or loose powder has been brushed off.
I'm not going to lie to you: regardless of your buffing skillz, the end result ain't exactly pretty. You'll probably want to lash on some nail polish to disguise it - use a ridge-filling basecoat first to help ensure a smooth end result.
This definitely adds strength to weakened nails, but it's been my experience that this stuff works best to fix peeling, flaking nails, or nails which have a small vertical break at the tip. My thumbnails break on the horizontal and it was only able to hold those cracks together for a day, but it's still going strong with no lifting on the others after a week of wear and a couple of polish changes.
You read that right: provided you use an acetone-free nail polish remover, this is a fix that will stay put even if you decide you need to change your nail polish. To remove your repair job, just use acetone or an acetone nail polish remover.
Okay, so Orly Nail Rescue's not the magical cure I hoped it would be for pesky horizontal half-way-down-the-nail-bed thumbnail cracks, but it has sorted out my fingernail flakies and is quicker, less fiddly, and gives a neater looking result than the teabag method.
€14.81 delivered from Feel Unique*. If you're planning a big cross-Atlantic nail polish haul, Trans Design also have this in stock for $10.50 plus shipping.
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