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I’ve written a lot over the years about the nail fungus I have. Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned. For a lot more, you can search my blog.

I hope that even if this doesn’t solve your nail problems, it let’s you know what’s going on. That can be a relief in itself.

Over-the-counter topicals at your local pharmacy for about $20 sometimes clear up nail fungus, maybe 30% of the time. The ingredient in those products is usually undecylenic acid. Lamisil (or the generic terbinafine) topical ($30) or oral ($2000) is one drug that has better than average results. Going to a podiatrist and getting drugs, or getting your nail ripped out, or both ($50-$3000) might work. There are a couple types of nail fungus, the main classes being dermatophytes and candida. Drugs for one type usually don’t affect the other so it’s helpful to keep a list of what you’ve tried. Laser treatments seem to be about 25% effective; many report a clearing in the first year and then a return after 2 years or so.

For me, oral Lamisil cured most of my nails with 6 months of treatment in 2006 (13 years ago). My right big toe nail still grows wrong and hurts every few months. To remedy, I shorten the nail (with some pain) with nail clippers and the pain goes away in a few days. I make sure to spray a lot of Lamisil topical on me and the equipment to hopefully keep the possibility of spreading the infection to a minimum. I don’t actually know if there is still an infection under the nail.

There’s lots of home-brew topicals that seem to work moderately well… probably a 30% chance of curing your toes. They might work for you, or not. In my case, all of the following appeared to “help” but none got rid of my infection: undecylenic acid, Selsun Blue shampoo, tea tree oil, vinegar on a cotton ball, vapo-rub (I haven’t tried), grapeseed extract. The Selsun Blue helped a lot because it’s inexpensive enough to rub on my whole foot to knock out athelete’s foot and possibly the nail infection.

Sadly, modern science doesn’t have a guaranteed cure for nail fungus. Anyone who says otherwise is selling you snake oil.

EmoniNail is a new topical nail fungus treatment.  Only, it isn’t. It’s a scam.

Why do I think it’s a scam?

1. Their website is vague about its (common, inexpensive) ingredient list, and  about how it works.
2. The website makes vague but compelling promises that not even the best doctor and medical treatment could keep.
3. It is expensive enough for you to hope that it might work but not break-the-bank expensive.
4. The company has created a bunch of fake review sites saying how great their product is, trying to hide critical reviews like mine.
5. Their web design looks so much like many other scam anti-fungal treatments that it is clearly the same bad people trying to market the same bad product under a fresh name. Similar scam products are Funginix, and Zeta Clear.

Do not buy EmoniNail. For more information about nail fungus products that work and don’t work, read my blog posts about nail fungus.

Here is a short summary of all my blog posts on the subject of nail fungus:  the over-the-counter topicals at your local pharmacy ($20) sometimes clear up nail fungus. It appears that is what’s in Emoninail (undecylenic acid). Lamisil (generic terbinafine) topical ($30) or oral ($2000) is one drug that has better than average results. Going to a podiatrist and getting drugs, or your nail ripped out, or both ($50-$3000) might work. Sadly, modern science doesn’t have a guaranteed cure for nail fungus. Don’t believe anyone that says otherwise.

Claripro is marketed as a product to eliminate nail fungus.  It’s crap.

Let me count the ways…

Their website don’t say what is in the product because there is nothing useful in it.

All of the claims on the site are specious:

• The site says “FDA Registered Company” which means nothing.
• “As advertised on MSN, CNN.com…” Taking an ad out doesn’t legitimize a product.
• They mention their “Homeopathic Oral Nail Fungus Relief Spray”, in case you were wondering, homeopathy isn’t medicine
• Their return policy is absolute crap. You pay return shipping and  “…Refund Processing and Restocking Fee: $6 Per item e.g. 1 bottle return = $6…” They usually sell you 4 bottles at a time, do the math.
• They don’t even say how much their product costs on the website

I think the most revealing point is that Claripro is mentioned on several Zetaclear websites as being a recommended product. The Zetaclear people are bad people.

I could go on for a long time about their site. Read my blog (and the many comments) and don’t give these jerks any money.

I’m trying out a new nail fungus treatment tentatively called Coco Nail. It is from Biotectics. I’ve got nothing to say about it yet. We’ll see how it goes!

I’ve seen comments online and and did a little research on laser nail fungus treatments. I think a reasonable assessment would be:

* expensive ($1-2k+) (though a friend told me their friend had both feet done for $275)
* safe
* 25% success rate, a bit lower success rate than prescription oral drugs. Many report a clearing in the first year and then a return after 2 years or so.
* easy treatment. visit the foot doctor 1-4 times for short treatments over the course of a few months.

Does that sound correct? Please write in the comments below!

Some comments on my blog from folks suggest what I say is about right.

This is a followup to all the fungus talk on my blog.

In case you were thinking of trying Funginix, I would suggest that you not give those scamming scammers any money. Their website looks pretty but if you read it closely at all, you can see that they sound more like snake oil salesmen than sellers of a medical product.

Their website is ridiculous. Let me count the crock of shit ways these scammers are trying to scam you:
“FUNGINIX is the most sophisticated and complete topical treatment created to fight and eliminate the fungal infections” — Umm, no. It’s some guy in a basement. “Sophisticated”? To claim that means you spent millions on developing it. And if you spent millions developing it, you wouldn’t use the word “sophisticated”.

“Only FUNGINIX has been thoroughly tested to guarantee that it kills fungus and will promote the restoration of healthy nails in a fungus-free environment” — What bullshit ad copy. There are a hundred products out there, some put out by big pharmaceutical companies. And Funginix (which is only available on some website) is the ONLY product that works? And I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

The first “testimonial” starts out “This product is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!” First, what consumer ever uses the word “product”? Next, her mug shot is from iStockphoto.com.

I could go on. For a long time.

But let’s cover some facts. Here are the claimed ingredients from their website:

Ingredients
Active Ingredient:
Undecylenic Acid, USP 10%

Other Ingredients:
Water
Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil
Oleth-10 Phosphate
Triethanolamine
Polysorbate 20
Acrylates Copolymer
Glycerin
Propylene Glycol
Uva Ursi (Bearberry) Extract
Beta-Glucan
Propolis Extract
Aloe Barbadensis Juice
Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E)
Camphor
Menthol
Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil
Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil
Jasminum Officinale (Jasmine) Oil
Eugenia Caryophyllus (Clove) Flower Oil
Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter
Rosa Canina (Rose Hip) Flower Oil
Cetyl Hydroxyethylcellulose
Ethylhexylglycerin
Phenoxyethanol

The first ingredient, Undecylenic Acid, USP 10% is a common antifungal. It does not cost $40 per 1/2 ounce! All the other ingredients, meh.

Short form: scam.

I don’t have any easy answers but you might want to check out all the other (real) posts and comments on my site about my battle  with nail fungus.

Here is yet another followup post for my very popular and very useful “Nonyx Nail Gel” post. This topic has so many comments that it’s hard to sort through them, so here is another post.

Before posting a question here, please check my other posts on nail fungus:

1. Search my blog for the word “fungus”. . Make sure you read posts like the following:
2. Nonyx Nail Gel
3. Nonyx Nail Gel: Part 2
4. Nonyx Nail Gel: Part 3
5. Fungal Nail Infection Treatment
6. Zetaclear
7. Fungavir
8. Fungavir Review: Meh
9. Fungisil is a Scam

Thanks for everyone’s continued comments!

I tried Fungavir for my persistent toenail fungus yuckiness. It’s “too good to be true” claims are too good to be true. The website offers vaguely worded claims that it has special ingredients that get under the nail where other products fail. It does not.

It works about as well as any other topical antifungal I’ve used, but it’s more expensive and the advertising is shadier. Don’t buy it.

I’ve written a lot over the years about anti-fungals, take a look. Short form: Most topicals keep the infection at bay but none get under the nail to the root of the problem. Prescription orals sometimes work, sometimes don’t. There’s no reliable cure for nail fungus, this is especially true for topicals. Oral medicines work from the inside-out so you’ve got a better shot at a cure but they aren’t reliable either.

Fungavir’s website is filled with weasel words and hot air. Read some of their ad copy with that in mind:

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There are many discussions about nail fungus going on on my blog. Search my blog for the word “fungus” for more.

Update 2-15-12: Read my full review of Fungavir.

Text in bold italics below are updates.

I had written a scathing post about Fungavir, calling it a scam. I’ve removed this post. I now think I was a little too aggressive in my wording. I spoke with one of the owners of Fungavir a couple days ago and they  have begun rewording their web site and changing some of their practices to be more realistic. made a couple tiny changes to their site but the vast majority of the weasel words and scammer language remain. The ingredients in Fungavir are somewhat effective at fighting toenail and fingernail fungus, but there is absolutely nothing special about it. They charge 10 times the price for ingredients you can already find at your local pharmacy.

I was introduced to Fungavir by a comment spam that appeared on my site, which is not an auspicious start.

The wording on their site had some is full of scammer language:
* testimonials that seem too good to be true
* lies. For example, “Fungavir has double the amount of Undecylenic Acid than any other nail fungus treatment”. It does not. 25% is the legal limit for non-prescription strength and they have 10%.
* vague promises with meaningless copy like “double action” and “killing the fungus while working to heal the affected area” and… well, most of the words on the site.
* product images such that look like product only exists in Photoshop
* Site icons with no substantiation like “Green Certified Site”, “GMP”, “Made in an FDA Registered Facility”, and “Google Checkout” (they don’t use Google Checkout)

The ingredients appear to be just a collection of all the topical anti-fungals mixed into one bottle. Yeah, that might work, but I’m guessing it’ll work as well as well as any other topical, which is to say, “It might work but don’t hold your breath.”

The guy at Fungavir has said he is going to change their website. I’m going to give him the chance. But if he doesn’t since he didn’t come up with more realistic language on his site in a month or so, I’ll be reposting my original article and then some.

For more info on nail fungus, read the several posts and followup comments on my blog about nail fungus.

Here is the Fungavir homepage on 10-9-11:

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There are many discussions about nail fungus going on on my blog. Search my blog for the word “fungus” for more.

Today I got a comment spam from someone claiming that Fungusil works for them. I did some homework and… it screams “scam”.

Fungusil has undecylenic acid which is as good a topical antifungal as is out there (comparable to lamisil, and vinegar). But topicals don’t have a very good success rate against nail fungus. as the Mayo Clinic writes about undecylenic acid:

undecylenic acid belongs to the group of medicines called antifungals. It is used to treat some types of fungus infections. However, compound undecylenic acid generally has been replaced by newer and more effective medicines for the treatment of fungus infections.

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A google search turns promotional websites that almost look like comparison sites… but aren’t. And testimonials on blogs and forums that are obviously lies. For example

Best Toenail Fungus Treatment – Fungusil?
I’ve just researching for an effective and best toenail fungus treatment and more of the results in google are home remedies product.

And the only response

I’ve tried it last month. And believe it or not, it only takes 7-10 days to remove totally my nail fungus

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The Funginix, Fungusil, and Fungisil websites were obviously built by the same designer. Take a look, the Funginix and Fungisil sites use the same bottle! Why would 3 similar products with similar ingredients be marketed so similarly? Because they are the same product from the same scammer trying to create a false sense of comparison.

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I have written several other posts about these products and I’ve gotten loads of comments from people. Search my site for “fungus” for more on the subject.