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Two things were wrong with my toenail.
I only knew about one.
Christine is 66 and one of 721 people who tested Hofwell, average age 61. Blinded independent assessors compared their photographs and found a visible change in 89% of them by day 3. What that trial found explains why every paint-on treatment on the chemist shelf leaves thick, yellow nails exactly as they were. Her own photographs are further down this page.
721
people finished our most recent trial
89%
had visible change by day 3
180 days
money-back guarantee
Told by Christine, 66, United Kingdom. Hofwell trial participant.
TWENTY YEARS
I have not worn sandals since about 2015.
I did not decide that.
There was no moment where I looked down and made a rule. I stopped one summer at a time, and by the time I noticed, it had already been years.
It started on one big toenail in my late forties.
It sat in the corner of that nail doing very little for a long time. Then it spread across the whole of it. Then it went to the toe beside it.
Both big toes now. One worse than the other.
Thick. Yellow-brown. Crumbly along the edge.
Too thick for ordinary clippers. That stopped working years ago.
If you have got to the clippers stage yourself, you will know the exact sound I mean.
Here is everything I tried, in the order I tried it.
Tea tree oil, because my chiropodist suggested it. Years of it, on and off.
Vicks, because a friend swore by it.
The Scholl paint-on, after I saw an advert.
Then Curanail. The expensive one. Months of it, done properly every single night.
And a chiropodist every five to eight weeks since 2009. Thirty to fifty pounds a visit, to file them down.
None of it changed anything.
Last November my daughter was in my kitchen and she asked me what the chiropodist had actually said it was.
I said thick nails.
She said no, what did he say it was.
And I stood there with the kettle going, and I could not answer her.
Seventeen years of appointments.
I did not know the name of the thing I had been paying somebody to file down.
Because in twenty years, nobody had ever told me.
NOBODY EVER TESTED MINE
Because in twenty years, nobody had ever told me.
No clipping taken. No sample sent anywhere. Nobody had ever looked at what was on my foot and said what it was.
Four products from the chemist. Seventeen years of appointments. One conversation with my GP about the tablets, which she talked me out of.
And not one test.
Everything I bought had assumed it already knew what it was treating.
If nobody ever took a clipping from yours either, then you and I have been buying the same things for the same reason.
When I worked that out I was not upset. I was tired.
If nobody has ever looked at yours properly, it is worth asking. I would say that to anyone.
But it would not have changed what I could see.
Because whatever started mine off twenty years ago is not what I am looking at now.
What I am looking at now is twenty years of nail that has thickened and hardened and built up on itself. Layer on layer. Until it stopped looking like a nail at all.
That hardened layer is what makes it thick. It is what holds the yellow in. It is why the clippers gave up.
And it is sitting there whatever the answer turns out to be.
Which is when I realised there had been two things on my foot the whole time, not one.
And every single thing I ever bought was for the first one.
THE HARDENED LAYER
Every product on that chemist shelf works the same way.
You paint it onto the top of the nail.
But the top of the nail was never the problem.
The problem is the hardened layer underneath it. Twenty years of nail, thickened and built up on itself.
And that one thing is causing all of it.
It is what makes the nail thick. It is what holds the yellow in, because the
colour is trapped inside those layers rather than sitting on the surface. It
is why the surface has gone ridged and rough. It is why it crumbles at the
edge instead of clipping clean.
That is the second thing. The one nobody ever mentioned, because nobody was looking at it.
It is not an infection and it is not a mystery. It is twenty years of nail, hardened onto itself, sitting on top of whatever started it.
And it is the only part of this that anything I ever bought was even trying to reach.
You would not paint over old flaking paint and expect a smooth wall. You would
strip it back first.
That is all any of it ever was.
Twenty years of painting the top of the hardened layer.
Hofwell does not sit on top.
40% urea. I did not know what that meant either.
What I know now is what is actually on that shelf, because I went and looked.
The two products in Boots sold for nails contain 5% and 6% urea.
The strongest
one in the aisle is 25%, and it is a heel balm. It is for hard skin on your
heels, not for a nail.
Hofwell is 40%.
That is not slightly more. The nail products are seven or eight times weaker than this, and the only thing that comes close is for a different part of your foot.
And the number is the whole point, because of what it does.
At 5% it sits on the hardened layer. That is what I had been doing for twenty years without knowing it. Paint on, dry, wipe off on the sheet.
At 40% it goes into it. That is the entire difference between everything on that shelf and this.
Not a better formula. A different destination.
Night after night, the hardened layer starts to give.
Which is why the first thing that changes is the thickest part first. Not the surface.
And I would have said all of that was just a theory I had talked myself into, standing in Boots reading the back of boxes.
Except somebody had already photographed it happening to 721 people.
In a trial of 721 people aged 35 to 79, average age 61, Hofwell was used
nightly for thirty days.
Photographs were taken daily through the first week under fixed conditions,
then compared by blinded independent assessors for thickness, surface
roughness, opacity and discolouration.
They found a visible change in 89% of them by day 3.
Participants' own reports were recorded separately.
I did not believe any of it either. Not until it happened on my own foot.
So I took the photographs myself, because I did not trust what I was seeing.
The company still says seven days rather than three, because every nail
starts somewhere different. Mine started twenty years in.
Ten seconds a night. A dab on each nail before bed.
No basin of water. No emery board. No sitting there for twenty minutes with a bag on my foot.
I never once got to the end of a bottle of anything. Not because it did not
work. Because it was a faff and I stopped.
That is the whole method. Ten seconds, in the dark, before bed.
What it actually did to my nail is further down. I took the photographs
myself, because I did not trust what I was seeing.
TEN DAYS
I took these myself. My own phone. Same foot, same spot by the bathroom window, same time of night.
I have not done anything to them.
Thick, yellow-brown, crumbling along the edge.
The kind you stop clipping straight and start hiding in closed shoes.
Day 1. Twenty years of it.
It showed at the thickest part first. Less hard. Less built up. As though the layers were starting to give.
Small.
But after twenty years of nothing, small and visible beats big and promised.
Day 3. The thickest part, first.
Thickness mostly gone. The yellow faded to nearly white. The surface softer, smoother.
And the bit no photograph shows.
Standing in my own kitchen with bare feet and not once thinking about them.
Day 10.
See what three days does to yours
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So: one foot, one woman.
I asked the same thing. And because I was one of the 721, I could actually
find out.
One of the six things in that jar did what you have just looked at.
The other five are for what happens next.
ONE SOFTENS IT. FIVE DEAL WITH WHAT IS UNDERNEATH.
A softened nail on its own just looks soft. Dull. Dry. Brittle at the edge.
The rest of it is for what a softened nail looks like afterwards, which is not automatically better. They take the ridges down, take the dullness off, and stop it drying out, so what grows through looks like a nail and not like something that has been soaked.
What made that happen is six things in one jar.
Only one of them is doing the part you saw first.
I had a bottle of tea tree oil in my bathroom for about six years.
On its own it did nothing for me, and now I know exactly why.
It was going onto the top of the hardened layer, with everything else.
Urea 40% · The Softener
A full 40%, more than most creams use. Softens thick, hardened keratin within days. This is the one doing the work on the thickness.
Salicylic Acid 0.5% · The Smoother
Takes down rough ridges and flaky, uneven texture.
Tea Tree Oil · The Clearer
Lifts the dull, discoloured look from the surface.
Vitamin E · The Reviver
Keeps the nail looking healthy rather than dull.
Aloe Vera · The Calmer
Calms the skin around the nail, so nightly use stays comfortable.
Shea Butter · The Conditioner
Conditions the nail so it looks less dry and brittle.
That is where the photographs stop, because that is where I stopped taking
them every day.
It is not where it stopped.
One of the six things in that jar did what you have just looked at.
The other five are for what a softened nail looks like afterwards, which is not automatically better.
IT GOES THE SAME WAY FOR ALMOST EVERYONE
Across the 721 people in that trial, the same sequence keeps repeating.
The built-up thickness gives first. Then the yellow fades. The order barely changes.
89% had a visible change by day 3. Not because they felt they did. Because assessors who did not know which photograph came first said so.
Which is exactly what happened on my foot, before I had any idea it was happening on anybody else's.
Margaret H., 72, York
"I had more or less given up on my big toenail. It had been thick and yellow for years and had got to the point where I couldn’t cut it properly with normal clippers. I’d tried the little brush-on treatments, tea tree oil, Vicks and goodness knows what else, but nothing ever seemed to get through that hard nail. With Hofwell I noticed the thickness changing before anything else. It started feeling softer and less solid, then I could actually trim it without the usual battle. I remember showing my husband because I was so surprised by how much had come away. It looks so much flatter and cleaner now. I only wish I’d taken a proper photograph at the beginning because the difference is quite something."
Patricia W., 57, Bristol
“I was very sceptical and nearly didn’t order because I have wasted a ridiculous amount of money on toenail products. My daughter persuaded me to take a photo before I started and another one a few days later. Looking at my feet every day, I hadn’t realised how much they had changed, but next to each other the photos were obvious. The thick yellow part wasn’t standing up nearly as much and the nail looked smoother around the edge. That was the first time in years I felt something was actually happening rather than me just painting another liquid on and hoping. I’ve used the cream every evening since and the worst nail is now so much easier to manage. I am honestly delighted with it.”
Linda B., 61, Norwich
“This may sound silly to some people but I had spent years making sure nobody saw my feet. I kept my socks on at home when family visited, avoided sandals and would never have booked a pedicure because I was embarrassed by the state of my toenails. I didn’t expect them to look perfect overnight, but after using the cream regularly they became much less thick, the horrible yellow colour faded and they stopped looking so rough and neglected. Last weekend I wore open-toed shoes for the first time in ages. My daughter noticed and said, “You’ve finally got your sandals back out.” That meant more to me than she probably realised. I feel normal again.”
There was one more thing in that trial that I did not know about until afterwards.
People stop thinking about their feet.
An appointment booked without dread. Sandals worn to the shops and not just around the garden.
Clipping them straight again like it is nothing.
That takes longer than the nail does.
But it does happen. Mine did.
AND THEN IT KEPT GOING
There was one more thing in that trial that I did not know about until afterwards.
A hundred and eighty of the 721 carried on for twelve weeks.
Same standardised photographs. Same blinded assessors, still not knowing which picture came first.
Their nails looked better at twelve weeks than they had at four.
That is what decided it for me. Not that something showed up in three days.
That it did not stop there.
Which brings me to the things I would have been asking by now, and the first one is the one I would have asked loudest.
THE THINGS I WOULD HAVE ASKED
"I have had this for years. Mine are probably too far gone."
Mine were twenty years old, on both big toes, too thick for ordinary clippers.
That was the exact sentence I used about myself.
The thickness is build-up, and build-up is the part that softens.
Of the 721 people in that trial, 89% had a visible change by day 3. Nobody can promise you a timeline, which is what the 180 days are for.
"How do I know this is not another gimmick?"
You do not. Not yet.
I would not have believed it either, and I had spent twenty years learning not to.
Which is why the only things I would ask you to look at are the photographs and the trial, and why you get 180 days to decide with your own feet rather than my word.
"Is it safe for me to use? And does it work on fingernails?"
It is a cosmetic cream, not a medicine. It can be used on fingernails as well as toenails.
If you have a diagnosed nail or skin condition, diabetes, or poor circulation, speak to your GP, pharmacist or podiatrist first. I would say that to my own sister.
"I have never heard of Hofwell. Who are you?"
A small company that spent two years on one product, tested it on over a thousand people across several trials, and put 721 of them through a thirty-day trial with blinded independent assessors before it went on sale. I was one of them.
They are not a household name.
Neither was anything else that has ever worked for anybody.
"At my age, is it even worth it?"
I am 66. The average person in that trial was 61, and it ran to 79.
So I was not the exception in that room. I was about the middle of it.
I stopped wearing sandals at 55 and I did not expect to start again. That is precisely why I am the one telling you this, and not somebody in their forties.
And if you are still not sure, then there is one more thing, and it is the only argument I have left.
I ADDED IT UP
One evening I sat down and worked out what twenty years of this has cost me.
Not the missed things. Just the money.
The chiropodist, every five to eight weeks since 2009. Thirty-five pounds a visit, eight or nine visits a year.
I counted them. £5,410 since 2009.
Five thousand, four hundred and ten pounds, to have a thing filed down that nobody had ever told me the name of.
Curanail, months of it. Around £30 a bottle.
The Scholl paint-on. About £15.
Tea tree oil, on and off for years. A few pounds at a time, over and over.
Vicks. Two pounds.
And nail varnish. Twenty years of it, bought for exactly one reason.
Not one penny of it ever got past the top of the hardened layer.
A jar of Hofwell is 30 nights.
Which brings me to the thing I got wrong when I ordered, and it cost me
four days.
OFFER
Here is the part nobody selling you anything says out loud.
Hofwell does not grow you a new nail. Nothing does.
A toenail grows about a millimetre and a half a month. A big toenail takes
somewhere between a year and eighteen months to replace itself completely,
from the base to the end of your toe.
So the nail I am looking at tonight is the same nail I will be looking at
in March.
It just looks considerably better while it grows out.
One jar is 30 nights. About a millimetre and a half of new nail.
Three jars is three months. You will have seen everything my photographs
show, several times over, and you will still be nowhere near the end of it.
Five jars is five months, at the lowest price per jar. It is what I would
buy if I were starting again.
Not because five is the biggest number on this page.
Because I bought one, and then I had to order another, and there were four
days in the middle where I had run out.
Today: 30% off one jar. 50% off three. 60% off five.
Free tracked delivery on every option.
See what three days does to yours
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The clippers. That is the thing I was not ready for.
I clipped both big toenails straight last week. No filing. No fighting them. No sound.
It sounds like nothing written down. If you have got to the clippers stage yourself, you already know it is not nothing.
And here is the only deadline in any of this that I think matters.
Three days.
Not a year of painting. Not months of filing. In that trial, 89% of 721 people had a visible change by day 3, and it showed at the thickest part of the nail.
So the question is not really whether this works. You will find that out yourself, quite quickly, and if it does not, the 180 days mean it cost you nothing.
Seven working days for it to arrive, then three nights. That is the whole timeline. I am not going to pretend it is tomorrow.
The question is whether you start the clock this week, or put it off again.
Twenty years did not happen to me in one go. It happened one summer at a time, and every one of them was decided by me doing nothing in particular.
So what would actually have to happen tonight?
1. Choose one, three or five jars.
2. Enter your address. Delivery is free and tracked.
3. It arrives in 7 working days. I know. I waited too.
4. First night, a dab on each nail before bed. Ten seconds.
5. Take a photograph on day one. You will want it.
6. Look again on day three, at the thickest part.
That is the whole thing. There is no step seven.
The only part that is actually a decision is the first one. It is the one
I put off for twenty years.
Close this page and nothing changes.
The closed shoes stay on. And next year you are reading something like this again, a year older, with the same feet, having paid somebody else to file them down another eight times.
I know exactly how that goes. I did it for seventeen years.
Or ten seconds tonight, a photograph, and a look at the same nail on Thursday.
There are two outcomes here and no third one. Either you see it with your own eyes, or the 180 days mean it cost you nothing.
I did not think I would ever be telling anybody about my feet.
I had stopped expecting anything to work.
Which turns out to be a different thing from having stopped wanting it to.
Christine, 66
United Kingdom, Kent
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P.S. P.S. The bit that decided it for me was not the three days. A hundred and eighty of us carried on for twelve weeks with the same photographs and the same assessors, and the nails looked better at twelve weeks than they had at four. It did not stop.
P.P.S. If yours have been there a long time and you are wondering whether you have left it too late, mine were twenty years old and on both big toes.
That trial had 721 people in it and 89% had a visible change by day 3. The average age was 61.
I am not telling you yours will do what mine did.
I am telling you that "too far gone" was the sentence I used about myself, and I was wrong about it.
P.P.P.S. Ask yourself one question tonight.
Has anybody ever actually tested yours? Taken a clipping, sent it off, told you what it was?
If the answer is no, then you are exactly where I was, and you have spent years buying things for a problem nobody ever named.