Today I'm finally going to write a review about Essie's Help Me Grow. In Germany, we don't have Grow Faster like in the US for example, but I guess the two of them are similar products for longer and healthier nails. I got my bottle on 10th November when I and a friend of mine were shopping in Heidelberg, and started using it the next day.
Essie suggests to apply one coat of polish the first day, and a second coat the next day, and another one the third day, and so on. At the end of the week you remove all the layers with nail polish remover and start all over again. But I didn't do that, I decided to use it as base coat for my nail art. I could have never used it without nail polish on top of it because my nails were - and sadly, still are - so stained! That is, by the way, the reason why I used a "cinnamon" effect on all the photos in this post. I hate seeing yellow nails so I won't show mine to you either. :P
So. I had been using Help Me Grow since 11th November, and my original intention had been to make it grow out my stains. I didn't even want to get long nails because I always thought it would be awkward with them at school and volleyball and all that. I made a photo of my nails every week to show the progress, always the same hand pose, with flash. But on 7th December, I filed them really short and decided not to file them anymore and watch them grow "until they break".(I excluded my thumb nail from that project because I wouldn't like it being long - after all, I need to type with my thumbs on my smartphone! However, it's still on the photots because I wanted to see if the stains would grow out.) I had never broke a nail before but that was mainly because I've had short nails ever since I started painting my nails in 2010. I was just curious about how long they would get! So I kept using the Essie polish as base coat and painted nail art on my nails, as always.
This is how my nails looked like when I first used Help Me Grow:
And this was the day I started growing them:
This is what my nails look like today, 9th February 2013:
You can see, they have become soooooooooooooooo long. At least in my 16-year old point of view! And they aren't brittle, there are no breaks and chips either. I'm just so happy about that. Unfortunately, Essie didn't help to grow out the stains. That's a bit annoying, but yeah. I'll have to live with it. Stains are just another reason to wear nail polish, after all ;)
By the way, I'm going to file my nails shorter later, I love how long they are but I just don't want them to get too long, I'm sure they would split or break soon! Not because they are weak, but it's because of the sports I play. In my volleyball practice last Thursday I got a ball straight on the tips of my nails and it hurt so so much, and it made me want to cry because I was so scared they'd break or split! But I couldn't see anything because I had my nails painted. I took my nail art off earlier today (when I made today's photos) and I was very surprised to see that there were absolutely no breaks or split nails. But still, I don't want to live in that fear again .. Plus, I want the yellow stains to grow out fast! Let's hope it'll work!
Essie suggests to apply one coat of polish the first day, and a second coat the next day, and another one the third day, and so on. At the end of the week you remove all the layers with nail polish remover and start all over again. But I didn't do that, I decided to use it as base coat for my nail art. I could have never used it without nail polish on top of it because my nails were - and sadly, still are - so stained! That is, by the way, the reason why I used a "cinnamon" effect on all the photos in this post. I hate seeing yellow nails so I won't show mine to you either. :P
So. I had been using Help Me Grow since 11th November, and my original intention had been to make it grow out my stains. I didn't even want to get long nails because I always thought it would be awkward with them at school and volleyball and all that. I made a photo of my nails every week to show the progress, always the same hand pose, with flash. But on 7th December, I filed them really short and decided not to file them anymore and watch them grow "until they break".(I excluded my thumb nail from that project because I wouldn't like it being long - after all, I need to type with my thumbs on my smartphone! However, it's still on the photots because I wanted to see if the stains would grow out.) I had never broke a nail before but that was mainly because I've had short nails ever since I started painting my nails in 2010. I was just curious about how long they would get! So I kept using the Essie polish as base coat and painted nail art on my nails, as always.
This is how my nails looked like when I first used Help Me Grow:
 |
| 11th November 2012 |
 |
| 7th December 2012 |
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| 22th December 2012 |
 |
| 6th January 2013 |
 |
| 22th January 2013 |
 |
| 9th February 2013 |
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| 9th February 2013 |
.jpg) |
| 9th February 2013 |
By the way, I'm going to file my nails shorter later, I love how long they are but I just don't want them to get too long, I'm sure they would split or break soon! Not because they are weak, but it's because of the sports I play. In my volleyball practice last Thursday I got a ball straight on the tips of my nails and it hurt so so much, and it made me want to cry because I was so scared they'd break or split! But I couldn't see anything because I had my nails painted. I took my nail art off earlier today (when I made today's photos) and I was very surprised to see that there were absolutely no breaks or split nails. But still, I don't want to live in that fear again .. Plus, I want the yellow stains to grow out fast! Let's hope it'll work!