Reviews
I'm using O2M polish to keep my toenails healthy, but there are tradeoffs
I only wear nail polish on my toes, and only during the summer. I consider OPI nail polishes to be the gold standard and love the range of colors and textures on offer. However, at the end of last summer, I removed my nail polish to discover white opaque patches on the nails of both of my big toes. I searched online to figure out what could be the problem, and I learned that this was just an indication of my nails becoming dehydrated. I was able to treat my bare nails with petroleum jelly and reverse the white spots, but I wondered what to do the following summer, because I consider painted nails to be part of looking well-groomed during sandal season.
I learned about Inglot O2M breathable nail polish over the winter, and I was able to go to a boutique on a trip to Montreal to see the colors in person. I chose 612 as my first color (as you can see, O2M nail polishes are quite a bit more costly than other brands). 612 is a nice solid creamy deep fuchsia, not as bright pink as it might appear on your monitor, but definitely a cheerful summer color. Beautylish offers the full range of colors, and they all are solid colors, no metallic or shimmer or other special effects. If you want those effects, you'll still have to go to OPI or other brands (and, of course, those are not breathable nail polishes). I've decided that I will alternate my OPI nail polishes with O2M so that my nails can breathe more, and I'll see at the end of the summer if that keeps my nails in good shape.
Besides the price and the more limited palette, another limitation of the O2M nail polish is that it does not seem as durable as OPI nail polish. OPI nail polish can look as good as new for almost three weeks, even without a top coat. However, O2M started getting scratched up after about a week with no top coat. So I ordered the Inglot O2M top coat from Beautylish and am currently testing that out. I suspect that the breathability of O2M probably does make it less durable, and so even if the O2M top coat isn't harder (but it includes diamond dust, so it should be), it is at least one more layer that has to come off before the color can get damaged.
Despite these tradeoffs described above, I'm happy that Inglot O2M nail polish exists because it appears that my toenails need to breathe. I'm glad that I can keep them aired out while still being presentable when I wear sandals during the summer.