For most of my adult/adolescent life my nails have been horrific. I used to bite them religiously and even though I hated how they looked I still did it. Anyways when I got sick my desire to bite my nails left. My nails grew but were very weak and thin. I kept covering them with artificial nails in order to get some length and strength into them or so i thought. While they did grow they were still very brittle. It wasn't until I came across this holy grail of a product that my nails made a recovery. 

So one day while I was browsing the make up stands in Penney's I was drawn to the shiny metal bottle. I opted to try Essence Studio Nails Ultra Strong Nail Hardener thinking "it comes in a shiny silver bottle so it has to work, right?! - I mean it's implying my nails are going to be as hard as metal!" lol.

This nail polish strengthens and builds up soft and brittle nails". It also says it contains formaldehyde and to see the warnings. The warnings are actually very hard to read as you have to peel back the bottle label and then peel back another layer in-between that to get the English warnings. Essence recommend you protect your cuticles with grease or oil, use as a max 3 week cure and after two days of application pause for one day which all sounds rather scary. Basically the formaldehyde is a nail hardening ingredient and the use of formaldehyde in nail hardening products is allowed by European cosmetics law if the concentration is under 5%. You should protect your skin and only use it for 3 weeks, with a one day pause for every two days with it on. But that is more than enough time for this to work in my opinion. I love this product, it has completely transformed my nails - they don't really break anymore, won't bend at all and are just all around amazing. I only use this product after I take off nail polish so I don't use it very regularly but I have really noticed a big difference. Despite the formaldehyde I would still recommend this and repurchase it, as long as it's used sparingly and with precautions I think it's worth it, especially for under €4.00...