A very strange thing has been happening to my nails recently. They have started to grow LOADS faster than usual. Not only that, but where they are usually quite weak and prone to splitting, they are now really quite strong!

I couldn’t understand why this was at all… until yesterday. For the past two or three weeks, I have been having a Sainsbury’s ‘Revive!’ tablet every day or so, dissolved in water. Not for any particular reason other than that I was trying to stop myself from craving Diet Coke, and the ‘Revive!’ tablets make the water slightly fizzy and orangey, a bit like having Fanta from the pub soda-gun. I didn’t think that these fizzy tablets could have any real effect on a person; I thought, actually, that they were caffeine or some kind of stimulant that would ‘Revive!’ you after a hangover or a late night.

Until yesterday. Last night I returned home from Hamburg at 1.30am and popped one of these little fizzy tablets into my bottle of water, and whilst waiting for it to dissolve, I read the back of the tube. These tablets have vitamins in them! I’ve included the list with the respective %RDAs; it’s quite a big dose of goodies. Now I know that we all have our opinions on vitamins and supplements, and believe me, I’m probably more cynical than most, but don’t you think that it’s a bit weird that my miraculous nail growth coincides with me taking these tablets?

I really can’t think of what else it could be. I haven’t been being particularly kind to my nails of late; if anything, I’ve been scrubbing them with polish remover far too often! For me, the coincidence is too much to ignore. Sainsbury’s ‘Revive!’ (love the exclamation mark) is now a permanent part of my beauty routine. One tablet, dissolved in water, taken at…some random point in the day. Tastes like weak Fanta, makes your wee ever so slightly fluorescent, and the best thing? Each tablet works out to be just 7p. SEVEN PENCE!

For those of you that swear by Berocca – these tablets are exactly the same thing, milligram-for-milligram. The only difference is the price; Berocca are £4 for 15, ‘Revive!’ are £1.42 for 20.

(NB for the cynical and the eagle-eyed: yes I know I could take a multivitamin, and I also am aware that my precious Revive! tablets are sweetened with Sucralose, but I am enjoying my daily fix of bright orange fizz, so please don’t rain on my parade!)