Product Review: Kocostar Nail Therapy

Any girl who wears nail polish for a lengthy time—without letting her nails breathe between manis—will know the annoyance that is weakened, splitting, peeling nails. I try my best to prevent it with a regular regimen of hand lotion and cuticle oil, but even that might not be enough. That's where a product like Kocostar Nail Therapy ($4 from their website or at BeautyMark) comes in.

This 30-60 minute treatment takes the Asian sheet mask concept and applies it to parched nails in the form of individual finger mitts. A mixture of botanicals, vitamins, ceramide, milk protein, shea butter, and aloe vera (among other ingredients) promises to moisturize and strengthen nails.

With my hands in need of extra TLC post-Boston, I slipped on the Nail Therapy finger mitts and put on Netflix for a quiet Friday night in last week. The mitts are sized from large to small for thumb to pinky, respectively, so don't mix them up and try to jam your thumb into the pinky-sized one like I did! A couple episodes of Fresh Prince later, I removed the mitts and massaged in any extra serum. My nails were noticeably healthier-looking and the dry-ish white striations were gone.

Kocostar Nail Therapy is no substitute for hand lotion and cuticle oil. (In fact, I recommend applying both right after the treatment to seal in the benefits.) It won't reverse splitting and peeling that's already happening. But it is a nice supplementary treatment at a very wallet-friendly price, and I think it'd definitely yield benefits over time.