ProcrastiNails: Review // Duri Rejuvacote Nail Growth System + Results of 7 Day Usage Test

*Product was provided by NailPolishCanada.com for honest review

I have a pretty lengthy and wordy post to share with you today. Sorry about that – there was just so much that I wanted to say! Duri Rejuvacote claims to heal, strengthen and grow your natural nails when used as a base and top coat for a week. I tested these claims and not only was I surprised but I also found my new go-to patch method for nail breaks! Woo! Let’s check this out!

Rejuvacote Nail Growth by Duri

Price: $12.95 for 14mL

Availability: NailPolishCanada.com (Free Shipping in Canada)

Claims: Rejuvacote the nail doctor will heal and cure your split, cracked and acrylic eaten nails. In a matter of weeks you will enjoy the look and feel of strong, vital, natural nails.

Instructions: Begin with clean dry nails. Apply one coat of Rejuvacote as base coat. Apply nail color if desired. Apply Rejuvacote as top coat, daily. After 7 days, remove with polish remover. As your nails improve, apply every other day as needed.

Ingredients: Ethly acetate, n-butyl acetate, nitrocellulose, toluene, sulfonamide, formaldehyde resin, dibutyl phthalate, isopropyl alcohol, camphor, calcium pantothenate, gelatin, hydrolized keratin protein.

Nail strengthener? 3-free? Chemicals???
I looked into all the chemicals included in this product and to summarize my findings this is a highly flammable product with ingredients that are also used in a number of intense non-nail products. The internet even tells me that nitrocellulose can be used as an explosive! So this is not a natural product. But is anyone really surprised?

The other thing to know is that this is not a 3-free product. (But I’ve heard the second version of it is, so that’s something you could look into if it was important to you.) 3-free refers to products that are free of DBP (Dibutyl Phthalate), Toluene and Formaldehyde.

I won’t get into the opinions on if we should or shouldn’t be using these chemicals in our beauty products, but the chemicals included in here can have positive effects when it comes to strengthening and aiding nail growth. Specifically: DBP is used as something to help prevent chips and cracks by adding plasticity, toluene is a solvent (to help the product form and apply) and formaldehyde resin is a product that helps to strengthens nails. As you’ll see in a minute both the strengthening and plasticity properties were evident for me in this product. Is it worth it? That’s up to you to decide for yourself. 🙂

If you want to know more about the 3-free debate you can check out some of these links:
All Laquered Up (May 2007) – The Big 3 (toxic chemicals that is)
Birchbox (2013) – Is 5-Free the New Standard For Nail Polish?
K. Kerstner, Fresh Print Magazine (May 2014) – What’s the deal with sulfates, parabens and 5-free nail polishes

The Test
I tried to stick to the instructions as closely as possible. For the first half of the time I was wearing nail polish so I sandwiched my polish with Duri Rejuvacote as my base coat and top coat with an additional layer of it applied as top coat every night. (It’s important to note that the slight pink tint to the polish comes through a bit, which I found out because my mani was white at the time and then turned ever so slightly pink.) Once I took that mani off I reapplied a base coat of Duri Rejuvacote and applied a new top coat nightly once again.

And here’s a look at the results of my 7 day test…

Before and after a week of using Duri Rejuvacote

And from another angle…

My nails before using Duri Rejuvacote

My nails after using Duri Rejuvacote

My Thoughts
I’ll be honest, I was a bit scared to start using this product. I did a bit of research into this product before I used it and generally people’s reactions seem to be polarized into two camps. On the one side we have people who see this product as the holy grail and swear on it, and on the other side we have people who have had their nails ruined by it. This was one of the reasons that I tested it out on my Cinderella hand – so that it wouldn’t ruin my swatching hand if anything went wrong. It also left me with my swatching hand as a control sample so I could compare at the end of the 7 days.

Thankfully my nails took to this product really well. I didn’t notice any significant nail growth while using it, but there was a noticeable change in resilience and sturdiness. My nails seem to be able to take more trauma without breaking or chipping, and a mini split that was starting to form on the side of my ring finger stopped in it’s tracks a few millimetres in and refuses to split any further even when I poke at it with another nail. And it dried fairly quickly. So overall I’m pleased!

Some general tips to keep in mind if you decide to use this product:

  • Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. I found that this product was drying to my cuticles, so don’t slack on your nail and cuticle care routine when you use this. On that note…
  • Don’t apply it over your cuticles/skin, for the above reasons and also because it’s best to be safe and limit the application of the listed chemical ingredients on your skin.
  • Don’t apply over white nail polish unless you don’t mind it turning slightly pink.
  • Follow the instructions and don’t use this product longer than instructed. Remember those horror stories I mentioned earlier? One consistent thing I found was that people who had issues seemed to use it for longer than 7 consecutive days. Your nails can only take so much, and like any other product this should only be used as instructed or else your results might vary.

One unexpected benefit to this product was that on around day 6 I got a split on one of the nails on my swatching hand, and because this was the only product I had on hand I used two coats of it to try to seal the split until I could deal with it. It’s been about 4 days now and that last minute fix is still holding strong! So I feel safe in saying this is a great product to keep on hand for nail breaks.

My nails with one coat of Duri Rejuvactore applied

Would I pick it up again?
I think I would. I’m generally pleased with how my nails were at the end of the usage test, and the light pink tint was a nice addition for when I was wearing it over naked nails. And I love how great it worked as a last minute fix for nail breaks. But to be honest I think it’ll take me a while to work my way through this bottle, especially since it’s not a product that’s supposed to be used continuously over a long period of time.

I got this product from NailPolishCanada.com which as a Canadian is one of the best and quickest (in my opinion) ways to get nail polish and products. They also currently have free shipping in Canada (no order minimum!) so if you’re also in North-North America you should check them out.

Those are my thoughts! Have you ever tried this product? Any thoughts or questions to share? Let me know!

Thanks for visiting! xx