OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener | Clear & Opaque Crème Nail Polish Treatment | Strengthen Weak & Thin Nails

One gel manicure in advance of a long trip and my nails were totaled. Thin, peeling, cracking and it went on for months. My sister had same experience after a gel manicure and she found this product and told me about it. It work extremely well at restoring your natural nails but you need to keep up with it. Miracle product but it won’t fix your nail permanently overnight. It takes almost a year.

I’ve been using this specific product from OPI for several years. I’m a fingerstyle guitarist that relies on my right hand nails for optimal volume, projection and tone. Nail envy helps strengthen, nails for long-term playing. Two decent coats (drying each coat in between) give me a solid week of practicing and performing, no chipping or peeling. I’m also a swimmer and chlorine is the worst thing for keeping your nails strong. I’m sure that women who are doing their own nails use this product as a base coat for whatever color they want to put on top. Everyone I’ve told about this (both women and men) rave about it. It’s pricey, but one bottle lasts a very long time and the quality of the product is top shelf.

I like the color a lot. If you don't use the free app, Yuka, you will be missing out on knowing what foods and cosmetics contain potentially harmful chemicals. They are rated from zero - 100. The nail polish I'd been using has a Zero (Bad) Rating and this Opi nail polish has an 83 excellent rating. Note that brands may have Bad, Poor, Good, and Excellent ratings for different products. So don't assume that one excellent product from a brand means that all are rated excellent.

Works best if you keep up with it every day. My nails are recovering from several months of extensions and builder gel at a chop shop. They are very bendy. The strengthener wears away through daily activities on the nail sidewalls, so they are uncovered and vulnerable to breakage. I try to use it each day for maximum effect and coverage. Helps my nails look better than if they were bare in this state.

I can see this making my nails a little stronger than they were when the gel polish was taken off 3 days ago. I did 2 coats of the nail strengthener, 2 coats of a sheer dnd color and one more coat of the strengthener. It dries quickly, but I do a lot of check writing at work and where my pointer finger touches the pen, the polish gets pushed up and reveals my bare nail. It’s polish, but it’s not 100% hard like polish. It doesn’t chip like polish either. It lifts and little pieces peel off, but it’s not a lot. I’m going to keep using it and see if I can stand my nails without gel for a while. I got the shade, pink to envy and it’s basically a clear coat.

I ordered OPI Nail Envy polish instead of their regular polish line to strengthen my weak nails. Although my nails are short, I thought a color would look nicer on me instead of a nude or light colors. I chose Tough Luv. Following the instructions of applying the coats to a clean nail bed (not over a base coat as traditional manicures would begin), I applied my first coat and was glad that 2 coats were indicated on this first day. The color was streaky and uneven. The brush & the viscosity of this bottle seems off, actually. I've been polishing my nails at a friends house and her OPI (and other brands) are very fluid and apply with adequate body within the polish itself. Unhappy with 2 coats of this OPI Nail Envy "Tough Luv", I applied a third coat and skipped the additional coat the following day. One of my nails chipped already. That was a real surprise to me, since each of my nails are so short. However, the polish doesn't flow as smoothly as the regular OPI. In fact, "loading" the brush with the right amount of polish is not as easy with OPI Nail Envy. Lastly, the dried polish (instructions do not say to add a top coat) lacks both the shine and protection a traditional manicure would have by finishing with a protectant glossy top coat. The Tough Luv color I have on is difficult to distinguish, ridges in my nails are very visible and the overall effort seems to be wasted. SEE PHOTOS: Zoom in to see the dried polish texture and uneven finish. Yes, polish is on my cuticles. I"ll try this a couple of weeks, but I'm not pleased. For the big increase in price versus a bottle of regular OPI polish, my goals as a consumer would be that the polish would have the appearance of a nice manicure: self leveling surface, shiny hard finish, and protection at the tip to lessen chipping. The "Tough Luv" one I purchased dried as a maroon/raisen color with low level shine. The finish shows too much texture. In fact, the thick polish itself seems to be the factor for some of the texture, unlike the smoother surface of my nail. If all the OPI Nail Envy colors perform this way, I will not buy any more of them. The market has plenty of products to strengthen my nails ... and still allow for a smooth and shiny surface when dry.

I recently had French tips painted onto my natural nails at a salon. This polish is what the tech used for the pink. I wanted a natural nail color, not the opaque or very pink colors I've seen used by other salons. She said this would look natural and was a strengthening polish too. I think the color is perfect! It's very, very slightly pink but in the bottle, it's see thru hot pink. That's deceiving because as you can see in the picture, it's not hot pink at all. I do construction for a living and though I wear gloves moat of the day, my hands and nails get dry and sometimes the nails get brittle and break. I've used this for 2 weeks and so far no breaking. The polish is high shine so if you're looking for a matte finish, keep hunting. I feel like as hard on my hands/nails as I am due to my line of work, the polish holds up really well for the better part of a week, and though it's clear, I do see some chipping at the tips of my nails after about a week. Once I removed the polish the nail tech initially painted on, I felt my nails were truly strengthened which is what prompted me to buy the polish so I could keep up on keeping my nails healthy.

I was working with Gemini to find a way to speed up the healing of my thin nails after 11 straight years of gel manicures with virtually no breaks. I got into a brief period of Dips, Press-ons, and a recent run of semi-solid-gel strips, and realized my nails were a complete wreck. Peeling, splitting, thin, mushy. I thought they were forever ruined. But Gemini recommended Repair Mode + Nail Envy. I completed my cycle with Repair Mode, and feel it did help a lot and I didn't have any negative side effects. But my experience with Nail Envy was a complete disaster. It could be because I am not used to painting my nails with anything other than self-leveling gels, or it could be because this is just a terrible user experience. The Good: nails do seem a bit stronger to the touch after 4 days. It dries in a reasonable timeframe when your nails are properly bare. It slides around like a summer water park if you have any oils or serums on your nails. Also, the attention I'm giving my nails every day is helping me focus on the skin and cuticle health. The Bad: Who has time to paint their nails every day? This polish is very clumpy, streaky, and miserable to apply without just putting a whole glob on there and praying it levels out. You get one shot, and more touches with the brush and it looks terrible. It chips easily. By day 4 with 5 layers, it dents with the most simple of tasks. Need to reach into your purse? Dent or chip. Need to wash your hair? Chip! I can't even make it to day 5 or 6, I have to take this off because I look like a 3 year old who got into Mommy's nail polish and had a go at it. I'm a professional businesswoman, I can't go into public looking like this! The Double Nude-y color is kind of gross, like wet ceramic clay. Maybe this alone is why I don't like the polish. The ugly: My nails. My nails are the ugly, just look at my photos. OPI needs to update their user instructions to stop recommending daily application. 3 coats were ok, 4 and beyond a disaster. Some advice: if you are going to go through with this, make sure you swipe your nails first with acetone first. It won't bond to your nail if there is any hint of anything on it, including Repair Mode. I also swiped with alcohol daily before the next layer, and that helped some with adhesion. I'm going to try the pink clear version and see if I can tolerate the nonsense better. For a polish that is so well recommended, I am just not sure about it. It does appear to help nails get stronger, so for that function it deserves 2 stars, but don't expect to win any hand-modeling contracts with this one.