Review: Orly Nail Defense Strengthing Protein Treatment

I recently bought a bottle of the Orly Nail Defense treatment, because I keep my nails constantly painted and they are often peeling on the ends. I don't have much experience with the Orly brand, but based on the price, I assumed it would be similar to Essie, OPI, and China Glaze.

The instructions say to use it as a base coat, and to replace the coating every 3-4 days. It can also be worn by itself over bare nails. It is only a little shinier than natural nails when it is put on by itself.

Things I Liked:

* It dries in less than a minute
* It doesn't smell terrible

Things I Didn't Like:

* It caused my nail polish to chip off in chunks after only a day

In general, I think this nail treatment should not be used as a base coat. Anywhere my nails were peeling, the nail polish came off, even with Seche Vite top coat over it. I ended up redoing my nails after less than 24 hours three times, which is about 10 times more often than I usually do, so actually made my nails worse.

I have yet to try this by itself, since I pretty much always have nail polish on. Perhaps I will use it in between manicures, maybe once a week. So far, I have not noticed a difference, but I only used it for about 5 days before it got on my nerves so much that I gave up on it. I don't think it is worth the $10.50, unless you are planning to take a break from nail polish for a week or two at a time in order to give it a chance to work. For me, that doesn't suit my lifestyle so I probably won't use it again.