Mission: Nail rescue! Part one

I have always had really weak, bendy nails, but unfortunately lately they have started splitting as well. I put it down to either using Seche Vite top coat or the cheap nail polish remover I bought from Sainsbury's. Or maybe neither, I don't know. In any case, I needed to take some action, so I bought a treatment pack from Nails Inc and supplements to boost my vitamin and mineral levels.

I'm going to show you over the coming weeks how I get on, hopefully I can report some improvement. Annoyingly I didn't take any pictures of my nails at the start of the treatment, but I have been taking them weekly since. So here's what my nails looked like one week into the treatment (beware, not a pretty sight!):

You can see what bad shape the nails are on my index and middle fingers especially, my thumbs are the same too. The skin around them is horribly dry too despite me using hand cream all the time. To be honest there isn't really a big change in their condition since I started the treatment, but they have stopped peeling even further, so I guess that's an achievement, and I know I have to wait for the weak bits to grow down to see any huge improvements (hopefully).

What products am I using?

I have started taking a food supplement called Skin, hair and nails (Sainsbury's own) that contains vitamins, minerals and natural extracts (for ingredients see below).

I have also invested in a nail treatment pack by Nails Inc that claims to "help grow strong, long & healthy nails". The only time I've ever had that was when I was pregnant, which is obviously not a long term solution especially as I don't want any more children (I have 3 already!). The pack contains a nail file / buffer, cuticle oil, Hyde Park base coat and Albert Bridge top coat. So far I've not used the top coat because the instructions on the pack say you're supposed to use the base coat on its own for 4-6 weeks, applying it once every day for 7 days, then removing it and starting all over again. I also use the nail file / buffer to smooth my nails before re-applying the base coat once a week, and the cuticle oil every day. I am not going to use any nail polish for the recommended 4-6 weeks and see how it goes. 

I leave you with some images of the Nails Inc treatment pack and I will be reporting about my progress weekly.