Diamond Lil (Sally Hansen Nail Care in General)

Member Name: lamorna

Product:	Sally Hansen Nail Care in General
Date:	22/05/03 (1744 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Effective, Plenty of Applications, It works

Disadvantages: Expensive, Expensive, Expensive

Almost overnight, from the day I left London to live on the West Dorset coast, my fingernails stopped flaking and splitting and grew to a manageable attractive length. I put this down to the iodine in the atmosphere and perhaps even the water. Not such a daft idea as there is an element of iodine in many nail strengthening products. My nails have remained strong ever since, apart from the occasional break, even though I did very little maintenance. Just a good hand and nail cream and always varnished nails as my hands feel naked and sort of ‘frayed’ and vulnerable without some colour at the fingertips.

They remained strong ‘no problem’ nails until six months ago and then disaster struck. My nails seemed soft and bendy; pappy; flaking and splitting; most unattractive and for me slightly depressing. There again, the last few months had been stressful. Stress is something I aim to avoid, but a close family bereavement and all that follows can have unexpected side effects. Flaky nails could be viewed as the least of anyone’s worries, but I do believe that the condition of the fingernails can be a good indication of anybody’s overall health and well being. I felt ‘down’ and my sorry looking fingernails reflected my general state.

I considered having a special salon type treatment of acrylic nail extensions, but do you know? I don’t like them! All the female soap actresses seem to have French manicured, white tipped nail extensions and I think they look like spatulas stuck onto the end of their fingers, especially the square shaped ones. When I see nail extensions on mature hands that are painted a deep, plumy black shade I just see Lily Savage or an ageing Danny La Rue! As I get older I wear less make-up, or perhaps more subtle, than the false eyelashes (top and bottom) the Goth startlingly white face, black rimmed eyes and black lipstick of my youth. After all, who wants to look like a drag queen-
they would probably look better than I could in all that slap! No I needed to improve my fingernails in a more natural way so abandoned the salon idea altogether.

The Sally Hansen ‘Diamond Strength’ Premium Nail Hardener caught my eye in my local Boots the Chemist. We’re well into matt, brushed aluminium in our house, ever since we bought our new flat screen television, also known as ‘the awesome beast’. Morty really thinks that when we eventually buy our new Mini there is only one choice of colour, matt brushed aluminium. Hence, the opaque silver bottle with gold screw top matched our hoped for lifestyle image. Sadly, along with my disintegrating fingernails, my eyes are playing me up and I forgot to take my reading glasses shopping with me. I misread the price on the shelf as £5.99. I doubt I would have bought ‘Diamond Strength’ if I had been able to see the price properly. ‘Sally Hansen ‘Diamond Strength’ costs £10.99!

So have my distressed fingernails improved during the last four weeks. since I began applying ‘Diamond Strength’ twice weekly? Definitely a resounding ‘Yes’ The claim is that the particles of diamonds in the clear liquid product will harden fingernails and prevent splitting, flaking and breaking. This is believable as diamonds are the hardest substance in the world and at £10.99 a bottle I would expect a carat or two.

Twice a week for one month I have cleaned and dried my nails thoroughly and applied two coats of the clear, nail polish type liquid. It dries very quickly so once dry I apply my preferred nail colour. The nail colour looks very smooth because ‘Diamond Strength’ acts as an excellent base coat. I have no flaking or splitting and even though my nails are longer I can’t bend them over as I was able to when they were soft and pappy. Even without a nail colour on the top, my nails have a healthy hard sheen to the
m and feel protected and not at all vulnerable.

However, my four week experiment and the results are flawed and can’t be taken as evidence that Sally Hansen’s ‘Diamond Strength’ is wholly responsible for my longer and stronger nails. Whenever I spend what I consider to be a proportionally large amount of money on a beauty care product I automatically indulge more time and attention on maintenance. This is in part to justify that the product was worth the money and that I haven’t been conned and myself wanting to see some positive results. So I’ve been massaging a cuticle remover and conditioner regularly onto my nails as well as religiously taking a daily high dosage Evening Primrose Oil capsule for skin, nails and hair. These two maintenance procedures alone would have improved the condition of my fingernails.

Consequently, I would say that Sally Hansen’s ‘Diamond Strength’ does do what it says on the box, but perhaps more as a part of a disciplined nail care regime by combining its excellent qualities with other factors such as cuticle massage, daily vitamin supplements and Marigolds at all times, plus some tender loving care from the owner of the fingernails.

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