Orly – Nagelreparatur – Nail Rescue Set

Great product, and it arrived quickly! I used it to repair two split nails, and this nail kit sorted them out!

I had somehow split both my thumb nails down to the quick. I tried everything to protect my nails to let the split grow out long enough I could cut it off but I kept hitching the nail on things and making it worse. I couldn’t go around with bandaids on both thumbs all the time. Salons were closed in my area due to lock down so I couldn’t even go to a professional to get help. This kit had been a lifesaver. I have had to take it off and reapply it about once a week but I haven’t hitch the split nails even once since I started using it and just this week the split had finally grown out enough to be completely gone. This has done a number on the surface of my nail so now I’ll need to be careful until that all grows out, but it’ll be worth it. I would also recommend getting the remover, I tried with nail polish remover the first couple times and it didn’t work nearly as well as the purpose made stuff.

My maternal grandmother was blessed with nails so thick normal clippers couldn’t cut them. My mother and – to a slightly lesser extent – I, however, were cursed with my grandpa’s family’s paper-thin nails. I’ve only in recent years gotten into nail strengthening supplements & base coats, but there’s only so much you can do! Hence growing my nails out comes with relatively frequent heartbreak as my nails inevitably break.One particularly bad break WAY down on the nailbed of my thumb had me temporarily “patching” the issue with gel polish until I could research a better solution; letting it break wasn’t an option, as it would expose half my nail bed and be INCREDIBLY painful. This was one fairly well-rated product from a brand I trust so I decided to give it a go.In short, this worked EXACTLY as described and did precisely what I needed it to! The break in my aforementioned thumb nail occurred several weeks ago and has held up (with minor re-patching as it grows out) since. You can see it in the first two pictures with just the Orly Nail Rescue Kit & sanding (thumb photo with the dark background) and then with a clear nail patch sticker and clear basecoat (thumb photo against teal background) as I wasn’t initially sure which option would work best to patch the break. Spoiler alert: it’s this one!As you can see, in a modest 2-3 layer application where you carefully follow instructions and sand, it becomes darn near invisible. I’ve included a third photo of another broken nail (photo with the red arrow pointing to where it broke) that received a semi-sheer light pink base. Both patches have held and both nails still intact, with an unfortunately long growing out process ahead of me. If you’re going for completely bare nails, you WILL notice a difference between your repaired nail and the others, but only if you’re really looking. Under polish, however, you can only really tell that the repaired nail is slightly thicker than the others if you look at it edge-on.Some tips:1. After you’ve applied the glue and dipped in the powder, do be sure to give it a minute to dry before you sand it. I recommend using a little nail cleaning brush (the stiff kind you’d use at the sink) to remove excess powder first, then the included sanding pads. This actually gets it pretty darn smooth.2. I recommend against applying it to the underside of your nail, as tempting as it may be. I did so out of determination to avoid breakage, but I needn’t have: repairing the top was enough to hold it. Even with an e-file I couldn’t sand the underside of my nail completely smooth & it drives me crazy.3. If you see the far edge as your nail grows out, you can absolutely glue / dip the new growth to fill the gap. This worked fine for me as long as I filed the top nail bed edge of the existing “patch” to taper it down towards the outgrowth, then filed everything flat carefully after applying the new glue / powder. If I don’t do this, the edge is lumpy and I’m inclined to pick at it until it comes up.4. I’m not an Orly spokesperson (I promise!) but I do happen to really also like their Calcium Shield base & top coat that I highly recommend using on top of the fully cured repair kit to strengthen your nail further.I really have no downsides to this product: it’s SUPER quick & easy to apply, the instructions are clear & effective, it sets hard, lasts as long as you need it to, and while my nails haven’t grown out far enough for me to completely remove it yet, it gets tacky with a little acetone so I feel it would come off easily when the time comes. I’ve already recommended this to my mother and will absolutely be keeping some on hand for any future nail breaks!