Sorry about the slow update, I had troubles trying to find my after pictures.
I think the pictures kind of speak for themselves as to how well the products worked on me.
First, I want to show one of the best "Good" parts of this product. The shiny coat does an excellent job of instantly making bad nails look good. You can go out looking like you just have a clear coat on and not be embarrassed that your nails have horrible peeling like mine do! I don't know how, but it made my bold white peels look like the regular nail color, and make them appear melted away. The peels are still very much there, as Trind didn't "fix" the damage that was already there, however it did prevent any new peels from developing, and it prevented my current damage from worsening. After 2 weeks, all of my peels did show that they grew out, and did not cause any deeper peels. (Obviously once they grow out enough, I can cut them off and finally say goodbye peels!)
The picture below shows how my nail looked before (significant peeling, nowhere close to being able to be cut off), after (the peel is now touching the white area of my nail) with the shiny coat in the middle (no visible peeling!). The peel has obviously grown out, even though the shiny coat made them look perfect throughout the challenge. (Hey, it's still a plus. If I can SEE a peel, I want to peel it off. If I can't feel nor see it, I have less of an urge to pick at it.)
Now the ultimate pictures. (You can click on each pic for a larger version)
Just to point out, that all of my nails did grow during this time period, so any nails that are the same length or shorter had breaks occur during the two week challenge.
Left picture, then right picture:
Pinky: No peeling. Significant growth, looks healthy. (The "perfect" Trind nail example, imho...out of my nails anyway)
Ring: Peel on the inner corner looks like it grew out, no visible "growth"
Middle: Peel has definitely grown closer to the edge of the nail, however the short nail is now much shorter
Pointer: Can't tell if the peel grew out by the pictures, but the nail is the same length
Thumb: No peeling. Nail is shorter.
Other hand--
Pointer: The big peel has grown out, with no new peels developing. The nail is still shorter due to breakage.
Middle: You can kind of see the "before" a peel that's about a quarter down the nail bed. The peel has obviously reached very close to the white tip on the "after" picture. Nail length looks shorter.
Ring finger: MAJOR growth, although the outer corner has obviously chipped. Still, obvious major growth. This would now be my longest nail, even if I cut it even. I can see some damage on the white part of the "after" nail, but that portion could EASILY be cut off anyway as it's a tad longer than I personally like. Can't tell if the damage was there in the before pic since it's not the best quality picture.
Pinky: Slightly shorter, there might be some minimal peeling made out in both pictures, but I could be trying to look for something that's not there.
Thumb: This one actually did have significant growth before it had my worst break of the challenge. pictures below
These pictures are labeled left thumb because it's on my left hand. On the pictures above, my left hand is actually the hand on the right column.
As you can see on Day 13, the nail did have significant growth compared to the before picture.
<---Shows there was no damage on Day 8
That last break was painful and took a few days before I was able to cut the nail down since a portion of the nail above the crack was still attached to the nail bed. I had to go a few days with a bandaid over my thumb to prevent the nail from being torn off. The day 8 picture is just there to show that the damage from Day 13-14 were new from my 2nd week of the challenge. I honestly don't know when or how the damage happened as I didn't notice the side tear until the next morning, and the top tear wasn't there the week before. I couldn't recall hitting anything that might have caused something like that to happen.
Final Thoughts:
PROS -
- I did not notice any new significant peeling during this challenge.
- All peels got a chance to grow out.
- All nails saw growth.
- Plasticky feeling on nails made them "feel" like I had a shield protecting my nails from nature. They felt like I had fake nails and not just polish on. (I really did like this part and kept tapping on my nails for the first week straight.)
- Peels were hidden during the challenge, even with just a "clear coating" even though my nails were honestly in pretty bad shape.
- I'm confident that with continued use, my nails would grow out and I'd be able to cut the peels of entirely.
- Process was very quick, as the nail repair dries quickly. (Normally while waiting for nails to dry, after a few minutes you forget that you were "waiting" and go to grab something an invariably dent your polish. By the time that happened with this product on, it was dry enough to handle slight bumps or touches, which was nice.)
This process was completed in under 20 minutes (completely dry and able to do things like wash my face) and that's mostly because I'd watch tv while waiting for the moisture balsam to absorb and leave it on for 10 minutes instead of 2-3. However, after 14 days in a row (the first week was easy!), sometimes it feels more like a hassle (the second week I was getting a bit tired as I'd forget until late at night sometimes). Thankfully, the daily usage and removal is only for the two weeks of the challenge, and Trind says you only need to do this once a week after the first 14 days, which is a lot easier and much more reasonable to maintain.
CONs -
- Nails that were already long had some pretty bad issues with breaking. It caused my nails to break VERY easily as I had quite a few major breaks during such a short time span, with normal activity (I'm normally not that active...I went shopping, typed on a computer, did some cooking and eating...not super hard core on my nails.)
- The repair balsam has a very strong odor that hurt my nose while I was applying. I'd have to take small breaks after 2-3 nails to give my nose a rest.
- 14 days in a row gets tiring, but you only need to apply once a week after that.
- Nails squeak while removing each night. (Not sure if this is a con, or maybe a pro to some? My sister shuddered while listening to my nails because it sounded to her like scratching against a chalkboard. To me it kind of sounds like wiping a mirror with a towel and cleaner spray, squeak, squeak, squeak. It didn't bother me as much, I just mostly found it odd.)
- The other girls noticed drying of the cuticles, likely due to 14 days of polish remover, but I guess my cuticles never were "awesome" -- I did have some extra hangnails than normal, but I don't know that it was significant enough for me to have put that connection together had the other girls not said anything. Some of the other girls suggested cuticle oils or just using creams or lotions to help. We also did not receive polish remover for this challenge, so it would make sense if one person used a harsher remover that their cuticles might have taken a harder beating than someone who used a gentler remover. My remover was nothing special, it was just one from Target, but I did ending up going through about a third to a half the bottle for this challenge.
Recommendations -
Keep your nails cut relatively short during the challenge so they have a lesser chance to break on you. My shorter nails seemed to remain relatively short with only minor damage throughout, but almost all of my longer nails had major breaks happen.
I think it will be good for me to continue using Trind on the nails that have bad peels, but I'll need to use a regular top coat on the nails that grow out on their own, so that my nails at least match each other.
I really hope Trind might be able to adjust their product to reduce breakage, as this is one of the only products I've tried that really seemed to help out my peeling nails. (I'd love to try out this product again if they are able to do that!)
Thanks for inviting me to try out this challenge!!
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> My point is that no nail treatment is a miracle worker. If it were, we'd all own it, and we'd all have awesome nails. 
