I need a miracle cure for my poor nails

[baubletits]

As you can see from the picture, my nails are a state! Especially the middle and ring fingers, where the nail seems to flake and brake so easily. (Apologies for the dodgy old varnish, I don't usually paint them but DD wanted to play salons so the polish is courtesy of her)

I've tried an array of vitamins (vitamin D+calcium, biotin, evening primrose oil) but not seen any positive results (probably doesn't help that I'm not good at remembering to take them!) I've tried regular hot oil treatments with almond oil, regularly moisturising my hands and oiling my cuticles, wearing washing up gloves when doing the dishes, tried Sally Hansen's Miracle grow varnish and hard as nails varnish but they are still shit.

The only time my nails have felt really strong and grown and looked good was on a 2 week holiday in a hot country. I'm not sure if this was the sunshine, or the fact that I was applying suncream on what felt like an hourly basis. Got back home and my nails soon returned to their bedraggled state.

Does anyone have a guaranteed miracle solution that will make my nails strong and stop flaking and snapping?

I'd prioritise diet over supplements. Do you eat oily fish?

@PeggyOlsen47 unfortunately not, I hate fish 😭 I have tried cod liver oil supplements in the past but hated swallowing such a large pill (it made me gag)

Yup. Sorry. Diet.

Weekly veg box. Wholefoods every day. And if you can’t manage the CLO capsules you’ll have to force down pure liquid. Although oily fish, almost every day, is better.

And yes, sunshine is miraculous for nails and hair. Mine always grow at ridiculous speed in tropical countries. You could consider emigrating …

Best thing I've ever tried was Dr Hauschka Neem Oil. It's a huge bottle though.

Get BIAB by a decent nail tech

Isn’t that missing the point, @SulkySeagull? The OP isn’t (as far as I understand it) asking for cosmetic suggestions but for how to improve the health of her nails.

I've tried a lot of nail strengthening polishes - the only one that helped slightly was the Sally Hansen complete care 7 in 1.

What did help massively was applying Mavala strengthener to the tips of my nails regularly -https://www.mavala.com/en/900-mavala-scientifique I've switched to their formaldehyde-free version which seems to work as well.

Another one here saying it’s what you put in your body that will make the hugest difference - to enable your biology to create fully formed nails. Think of your body as a bio-chemical process so what you put in will affect what the body does.

My nails are exactly the same and they split from the top right down the middle of the nail, I now has acrylics every 3 weeks now for the last 12 months
I eat a good variety of fruit, veg & fish and it doesn’t help me

Nails are protein. Take a multivitamin and a scoop of protein powder a day and you'll be set.

Stop with all the fads. As long as you're not sticking your hands in detergent and soil every five minutes, a healthy diet will fix it.

Just don't expect an instant fix. They'll be crappy and fragile until they grow out in six months.

I go to the gym so my protein intake is through the roof. I could Wolverine my way through doors if I wanted.

My diet isn't appalling, but could be better! I think I'll have to consider trying the cod liver oil capsules again because the idea of swallowing it in liquid form is 🤮
@BlossomBlossomBlossom emigrating definitely not an option, unless a handsome millionaire wants to sweep me off my feet and whisk me away to the Bahamas. I wouldn't object 😁
Definitely looking for something to make my natural nails healthier, I've never had my nails professionally done. I'd worry that having anything on top of my nails would cause them to be even more brittle and fragile when it comes to removing them

@C1N1C I've just started using protein powder as I'm trying to really up my protein, so that's good to hear that it can also help my nails!

Since I started on a high protein diet - 100g a day plus consistently - my nail growth has notable got faster. I've actually stopped painting them because I can't be bothered to keep repeating it as varnish grows out so quickly.
So I'd be advocating diet over supplements too.

I take Absolute Collagen and my nails have become really healthy. Quite pricy but I do think it works

I’m impressed with almond oil, grocery store stuff. A few drops rubbed around the cuticle daily.
For me nail tx like OPI hard as nails dried them out and made the breakage worse.

I've tried all the paint on/rub in stuff too. They work for a few weeks then are everything worse. Save your money and try the dietary stuff people are suggesting (I'm going to do that). Keep your hands out of water if you can as well.

All scientific papers I've read on this say there is no benefit to oral collagen supplements. The stomach simply cannot/does not take up large proteins. Essentially, everything you eat will be broken down to single amino acids, whether it's a whole cow, collagen, or if you were to ingest, say, insulin (another protein) orally.

Basically they all end up as the same building blocks in your stomach before being taken up and rebuilt into 'actual' collagen. The 'hydrolyzed' collagen is just a slightly broken down form, but even this is still 50x too big for absorption. As I said, protein powder will achieve the same result.

A 'good deal' would be about £50 for about 5 kg of protein powder (ebay).
At (average) 25 g out of 30 g being protein (the rest is filler, flavour etc). One scoop is about the same amount of protein as a chicken breast, so you're basically getting ~150 chicken breasts for £50.
Collagen tablets are about 200 g and maybe £25. So basically you're paying ten times as much for the same 'raw material'.

The average woman really only needs about 50 g protein a day. So with a scoop a day and even a glass of milk, you're there! To be honest, even a half a scoop a day will be more than enough for the average woman assuming they eat 'something' else the rest of the day.

I'd agree diet will help. They'll make the nail you grow stronger and more able to resist damage/flaking/splitting. Moisturizer/oil helps my cuticles/skin around my nails look loads better.

The biggest single improvement for my nails was not getting them wet. This means wearing rubber gloves whenever I turn on a tap unless I'm walking my hands. I never live up to this though so it's a balance between practicality and the desire for decent nails 😂

In reality I use rubber gloves a lot more than I used to, and I always put varnish on the ends of my nails to provide a little more protection against water.

@C1N1C totally agree. All broken down to amino acids and used as the body needs them. It's not as if collagen is recognised by the body and sent to the skin hair and nails! Also collagen too big a molecule to go through the skin so creams are a waste of time too imo.

Duke nearly every day and Vaseline at night. In a week your nails will be lovely.

I have been using Leighton Denny Renovate nail cream which I got in my M&S calendar and have found it has made my nails a little better. I leave
the table downstairs and put it on while watching tv so I don't forget

Nailtiques Formula 2 is amazing. My nails were worse than yours; very brittle and split at the ends. You put a thin layer on daily and remove it once a week.

I've tried most of the things listed here, without success. I do believe that nutrition has a lot to do with it, but I also think that if you have a generally balanced diet then extra supplements may not make much difference.

However Sally Hansen Diamond Strength has been brilliant. I can't remember when I last had a soft/split nail.

I can only think that nails are complex so although your symptoms may be the same as someone else's, the cause may be different so the solution will be different too.

Find a supplement aimed at nail and hair health and take that.

A good collagen supplement has also helped my nails and many friends'. Doesn't tend to be wrapped up in other supplements, tho obviously if you did find one that included it you wouldn't need to take both.

It's definitely an inside-out not outside-in solution that you need.

And you'll need to wait 3 months or so to see real results as of course your nails need to grow into their new found strength!