So, winter really messed up your nails. Tenoverten makes the case for a base coat

Peeling off your gel manicures. Leaving your nail polish on your toes all winter long until they yellow. Nervously picking at your dry, winter cuticles. The chic founders of TenOverTen have seen it all. And they’re not going to just paint a second coat over the problem and look away.

The chic-and-natural New York City nail salon (with three locations and a line of 5-free polishes also stocked in Sephora) has created two new products to help undo and treat the nail damage its staff sees on a daily basis—The Foundation (base coat) and The Shield (top coat), each $18.

TenOverTen’s The Shield achieves longer-lasting manicure magic via a non-toxic ingredient list, while the benefits of The Foundation base coat are almost a new-and-improved nail category (plus, it’s formaldehyde-free—a rare find in base coats).

“Color adhesion is the common denominator of all base coats,” explains Jaclyn Ferber, one of the co-founders of TenOverTen’s polish and nail-care products. But The Foundation goes one better. “It’s also a treatment product created to repair damaged nails—and a means to strengthen them,” she explains.

To heal and fortify nails, The Foundation uses the “super-herb” horsetail. “It’s mineral rich and helps to harden weak and brittle nails, plus vitamin E works to help retain natural moisture content,” Ferber says.

Ingredients like these are especially key if you’re coming off a gel manicure that massacred your nails. According to sister and TenOverTen co-founder Nadine Ferber, “We’re seeing more and more New York women coming into the salons with damaged nails from incorrect application or removal of gel manicures. Women are horrified by the state of their nails after wearing gels and eager to nurse them back to health.”

So while rocking a new spring color might be what you’re ultimately after, “it’s important to add a reparative step in your nail routine,” says Ferber. We’d raise a (healthier) hand in support of that. —Melisse Gelula

For more information, visit www.tenoverten.com