SUPER SUPPLEMENTS
Call them designer non-drugs. Nutricosmetics offer the ultimate wellness from within, pills whose ingredients their proponents claim will reverse—perhaps even prevent—your skin from showing its age, once ingested. They can also help with brain function at the same time, acting as so-called nootropics (drugs, including caffeine, that improve cognition). A raft of new companies has emerged in this niche that combines cutting-edge claims with chic packaging and a premium price tag—the ultimate luxury brand for your pharma cabinet. Of course, there’s fierce debate over their true efficacy, but in a Goop-ified world, many are willing to take claims on instinct and trust. If you’re one of them, here are the five best for first-timers.
The LYMA Supplement
The OG of VIP vitamins was founded by Lucy Goff, a former Selfridges marketer who recognized that we’re likelier to take a supplement that looks good enough to sit out on our dressing table—hence LYMA’s gleaming copper container, hand-hammered to elegant distress, and with a clear aesthetic debt to Tom Dixon. Goff recently rebooted the recipe for her 5-year-old core product, adding Levagen+ to the mix, which is contended to be an all-natural alternative to ibuprofen; this brings the total ingredients to 10, each of which the LYMA company says has been patented, peer-reviewed, and dosed to the level proven to work, including stress-busting ashwagandha and brain-fueling Cognizin. And if you’re too impatient to wait for its impact from the inside out? Try the new LYMA laser, an at-home skin-smoothing wand. $269 for a starter kit that includes a 30-day supplement supply plus a copper storage vessel; lyma.life
Aethern
Ever wanted skin like Cate Blanchett? Is that even a question? The ever-luminous Oscar winner is an acolyte of this liquid supplement from Barcelona-based Biorganic Pharma. The makers claim that 12 weeks of diligent daily use will firm up saggy skin by at least 20 percent, leaving it plump and radiant. The key ingredient in the 25mL Activia-like vials (swirl them in a smoothie to camouflage the taste) is so-called “bioactive” collagen peptides, extracted from bamboo; among its dozen or so other ingredients, look for vitamin E and various fatty acids and hyaluronic acid. It’s been successful enough that in March the firm launched a similar hair-focused formula. $195 for a month’s supply; aethern.com
Optimum
Spanish biotech startup Hifas da Terra focuses on harnessing the hidden power of mushrooms—better known as mycotherapy. After selling its first line via Harrods in London, founder Catalina Fernández de Ana Portela is about to launch the new multinutrient Optimum line in America and elsewhere. “It’s a high-end nutritional supplement that helps to build beauty from the inside, using the synergy of adaptogenic mushrooms,” she says. Put simply, its dozen or so ingredients, most of them extracted from organic mushrooms, combine to offer wellness from the inside out. Take them for at least three months, she claims, and you’ll see boosting (energy, mood), calming (digestion), and strengthening (immune system). $220 for a starter kit that includes a 90-day supply and a storage vessel; youroptimum.com
Lumity Morning and Night
UK-based Dr. Sara Palmer Hussey created the Lumity product line in the wake of the birth of her first child, when her energy, mood, and immune system were all depleted. She quickly attracted fans like Helena Christensen and Kate Moss, via her claims that her supplement’s unique recipe would act on the root causes of skin aging—think inflammation, hormonal decline, and so on—to help head off furrows and wrinkles before they even develop. Her morning-and-night four-pill regimen launched stateside in January, featuring nine new ingredients including folate, taurine, and, again, ashwagandha (all housed, of course, in a minimalist, eco-friendly glass bottle). Plus, a rarity in the nutraceutical world: There’s a men’s version too. $135 for a 30-day supply; lumitylife.com
Samsidae Korean Black Ginseng Extract
This Harrods exclusive, developed by Korean supplement specialist Samsidae, is the ultimate ultra-luxe self-improver, and its recipe is much simpler than the rest of these offerings. Its key—indeed, sole—ingredient is the steamed, dried, and liquidized root of the black ginseng plant. It’s harvested in Korea just once every six years, supposedly to concentrate the potency of its all-natural wonder drug: The compounds in ginseng are said to finesse sexual performance, improve memory, supercharge the immune system, and even moderate blood sugar levels. $2,665 for 100 mg; harrods.com
