I’m not exactly sure why – stress, antibiotics, lack of calcium perhaps – but my nails have started flaking off recently.  So I was only too happy to agree when I was asked to try Nail HQ‘s new nail treatments.  They have an extensive range of nine new nail care products to take care of all aspects of your manicure regime.  I got to try three: Hardener, Gel Top Coat and Protect & Repair.

In my normal life I like to have pretty hands, though I am quite lazy about it and often spend days with disgracefully chipped red nails when I haven’t been bothered to remove the last coat.  Any nail product I use needs to be quick and easy. 

The first product I tried was the Hardener.  It says it is specifically for thin and weak nails, reinforcing and strengthening them with a mineral-enriched formula.  Applying a coat to clean nails, it went on easily and dried fairly fast.  My nails immediately felt stronger and harder; trying to bend them was unsuccessful.  The patches where they were flaky seemed to be stuck together satisfactorily.  Not exactly a miracle cure, but it seemed that they weren’t going to be getting any flakier in a hurry! 

A couple of days later I tested out the Gel Top Coat.  The packet claims that it protects against chipping, extends wear time and leaves a high gloss finish thanks to optical brighteners.  I put two coats of colour on each hand (OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid, if you’re interested), then applied a slick of the top coat on my right hand only – in the interest of comparison. 

You could see a difference straight away.  The nails with the top coat (right hand) were a slightly different colour and looked more professionally finished.  In fact, a friend asked me if they were Shellac a few days later (and she works in fashion, so there you go). 

The Nail HQ nails definitely lasted longer than the other hand, which started to chip around the edges after a few days.  A week after applying, the nails with the gel top coat were still perfectly intact.

I was concerned that this top coat might make the polish much harder to remove (as I mentioned, I am lazy when it comes to nail polish removal, so being easy to get rid of is an important feature for me).  It turned out to be just as easy as the non-gel nails.

I have yet to try the Protect & Repair which is a treatment to apply daily, especially if you’ve had gels or acrylics on for a while.

In conclusion, I’d whole heartedly recommend the Gel Top Coat.  You can get a bottle from various places including Amazon for £5.69 which I think is good value seeing as it makes your normal nail polish look like Shellac!  I’ll definitely be putting a coat of this on top of any colour in the future.

I was given free products to try out but not paid for this review.  All opinions are my own. 

Caroline Crimson x