Change of the guard, nail style

I have had the flu for the past week which offered me the opportunity to spend time with my nails. Turn a negative into a positive, right? Well, after my last post I thought about the products that I was using to try to get my nails to grow. 

My Pinterest account Jennipher Dallas has been getting a lot of "likes" and repins. My board 'Nails I wish I had'  has especially been getting a lot of attention. One picture in particular has had over 300 likes/repins since my last blog. The picture is of the OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener. I did look up OPI and although they do not do animal testing but there is formaldehyde in it. 

When you're sick you think about how you got sick and what you need to do to get better. So this got me thinking about the stuff in the products that I use. Formaldehyde has been linked with Cancer. Now, I'm not going to go into to all that stuff and preach about it. Everyone has to make their own decisions. But I decided to change products for myself. So I had my husband go to the store and buy me Keratin 3-Day Growth by Nail-Aid.

I started looking into what ingredients were in the polish. It's all vegan, made in the USA (which is not really important to a lot of people but I find it to be a bonus) , they support women's issues and they are on the PETA partner list. Wow! For me this just couldn't get any better. I also had him get me a non-acetone nail polish remover, Mineral Fusion and it smells nice. Now I know that I can't get away from ALL chemicals. I'm not that naive but I can try to limit how much I use.

I got into this weak, thin nail mess because I poured chemicals all over them. I'm trying to change that. I had used Sally Hansen's Hard as Wraps but I didn't see much of a difference or change. Now admittedly, I only used it for three days but some of the products offer wild promises. I switched over to the Keratin and in three days I did notice two nails had new growth. Of course I am alive and well growth is bound to happen. So what I am looking for in this new product is not just the growth factor but the thickening of my nails. I think that if my nails were thicker then they would not tear. So here's my update. This is what my nails look like now. 

This is the healthiest I have seen my "naked" nails in a long time. Notice my pinkie finger on the picture above. It tore down to the quick after I took off my Solar nails. Very painful but healing fast. You can also still see the ridge between my cuticle and where my Solar nails were. I am still doing the coconut oil and hand salve everyday, once in the morning and before I go to bed. 

But I have added another step. I am now also using Natural Additions by DeLore. They don't seem to have a website I can locate (if you find it please send me the link). It's an organic nail hardener and nail polish dryer. It's kind of hard to see. 

I use this after I use the Keratin. This dries the Keratin fast. I know that this step is extra and not on the Love4Nails list of things to do but I just thought it would help. I have only been using this product for the three days since I started using the Keratin so not sure if it really works but I will make sure to document everything. 

And of course I am doing this under the ever vigilant and watchful supervision of my cat Milo aka Poopsie. 

Poopsie is here for purity control, accurate documentation and holding the down the chair to make sure it doesn't float away. I will keep you posted and hopefully in three more days it will look like I am finally making some nail growth/thickening progress. 

Until next time...