biotin: the good, the bad, the ugly

As a typical woman, I love a nice set of nails. No... I love a gorgeous set of nails. To my misfortune, I was not blessed with naturally long, strong, and beautiful nails. Thanks, mom! And unluckily, I don't have very long nail beds either so my nails have to be pretty long for them to actually look long. And to top it all of, my nails are paper thin. I'm talking break-every-other-day, peel-like-a-bad-sunburn, and almost transparent thin. I was crushed knowing that I could never have beautiful long nails without having high maintenance acrylics. I then discovered the supplement Biotin. It is described as a supplement supposed to help the skin, nails, and hair.
I started off by taking 1,000 mcg a day. Absolutely no improvement. NONE. I then bumped it up to 3,000 mcg, and my nails were a little stronger. I took these low dosages for about 3 months, before bumping it up to 5,000 (pictured). Within a month of taking the 5k, my nails were STRONG. They wouldn't bend, they grew pretty damn fast, and they stopped breaking.

My nails back in April.

My nails a couple weeks ago.

I thought I had found my solution. I finally had the nails I wanted, I felt ultra feminine, and I could play with all the polish my heart desired!
But.
One day, I found a review of Biotin on Makeup Alley. After scrolling down some reviews, I saw it: ACNE. I had always had pretty clear skin, with a small occasional breakout while PMSing. But ever since a couple months back, it has gotten BAD. I'm talking new pimples every other day which were big, painful, and took forever to heal. I have a strict skincare routine which I never disobey, so I was dumbfounded. That day I read the review, I had an epiphany. My acne didn't start to worsen until after a few weeks into taking Biotin in high dosages. I did more research on it, went on several forums where Biotin was reviewed, and almost every reviewer said it caused bad acne. Some said the acne would go away if you drank a lot of water (which I do, I drink 100oz a day and my I would still break out) and take it with other vitamins (which I also do). I thought it was supposed to be a SKIN supplement. My hair also got ridiculously thick. I had always had baby fine hair which I loved, and suddenly my hair was thick, hard to manage, and always looked bad. I couldn't win. So I stopped taking Biotin completely a couple weeks back. My hair is starting to get thinner, and my skin has gotten a little better, so I guess time is key here. I ended up just cutting my nails pretty short. Yes, I had to sacrifice my long, strong nails, but I gladly cut them off knowing my skin may clear up. And hey, now I can do more activities and not have to worry about clawing my eyes out in the middle of the night. :)