Never fake, they look...well, fake. My nails are hard and grow very fast so I clip them frequently. If a special affair is coming up it only takes a month for them to be long. Last month they were very long and I caught the thumbnail trying to open up a lawn chair. After almost passing out I realized it had been bent backwards and was standing up at a 90 degree angle to the nailbed! It took a second to see that I had to bend it down to put it in place. Yow!