Beauty? It’s what’s on the inside that counts…
The biggest shift in the way we look after ourselves over the last few years surely has to be the supplement market; 10 years ago it was mostly just the real health conscious people taking regular health/well-being supplements, but now a whopping 1 in 3 of us have taken a supplement regularly at some point in our lives. It is a multi-million-pound business and the beauty industry have taken note, introducing beauty specific supplements. Maybe inner beauty really is the key to being beautiful on the outside!
Personally, I only take a Vitamin D supplement in the winter and zinc if I’m feeling run down, otherwise I try to get all my vitamins and minerals from foods or juices. But I am very interested in beauty supplements that offer ingredients that I don’t get much of from food. Yes, in an ideal world we would be eating our weight in oily fish every year (to gain the all-important Omega 3) but with busy lifestyles and longer working hours it’s not always possible.
So I decided on a cocktail of; Ingenious Beauty Ultimate Collagen+ (£75 40 day supply) for anti-ageing (3 capsules a night on an empty stomach), Optibac Probiotics (£10.49) for digestive health (1 capsule with breakfast) and Murad Pomphenol Sunguard (£47.00, 60 day supply) to defend against UV and free radical damage (1 tablet with breakfast). It seemed like a lot but was actually fine and fit into my day seamlessly.
Ingenious Beauty certainly lived up to its name, consisting of natural marine collagen to repair and smooth the skin, natural astaxanthin to repair UV damage and Hyaluronic acid to hydrate and plump the skin, I saw a visible difference after 30 days. Better still, it works best on an empty stomach so it encouraged me to curb my late night snacking! I will definitely be continuing with these.
Digestive health is already becoming one of the biggest beauty stories of 2016 and I am totally convinced a healthy gut is paramount to health overall. One of the best ways to achieve that is with a good quality probiotic. Optibac probiotics are great because they have a range to suit different needs/situations (i.e travelling abroad, immunity, those on antibiotics etc). You can take Optibac probiotics continuously but I would rather take them intermittently to keep my system working hard for itself. (p.s the Optibac ‘1 week flat’ supplement is incredible too! It’s not a fat dissolver, it reduces bloating and works a treat!).
UV and free radical damage is the biggest skin ager bar none (up to 80% of all skin ageing) so it was a non-brainer to include a UV protector. Dr Murad is known for his incredible skincare range and has long been an advocate of ‘eating yourself beautiful’ so I expected great things from this supplement. You take 1 Pomphenol Sunguard tablet in the morning to protect against the days’ environmental exposure; it contains Pomegranate Extract which has been scientifically proven to boost your skin’s natural protection from the sun (this does not mean you can go without spf if you are in the sun though) and Beetroot Extract to fight free radicals (environmental skin agers). It’s a fantastic supplement and perfect for city dwellers who don’t like to wear an spf year round or for people like me that manage to get sunburnt even with spf 50 on in the shade L
I think you should always aim to get your vitamins, minerals, oils and nourishment from your diet first and foremost but there is definitely a place in the market for beauty supplements- I think they are a brilliant and very welcome addition to any skincare routine, especially when you need that little something extra.