Beauty Life

Our skin is supposed to be tough—that’s its job. But it’s not superhuman. Skin is our body’s first line of defense against sun, smog, and on and on the list of environmental factors goes. Add stress, smoking (vaping, too), inadequate sleep, or an imperfect diet: All of this can take a toll on skin’s ability to protect the body.

Short-term irritations, like peeling and dryness, as well as long-term effects, like wrinkles and sun spots, crop up as signs of environmental damage from free radicals. The first, most vital step, says physician-scientist Emilia Javorsky, MD, MPH, is to minimize damage: Eat a balanced diet, get a full night’s sleep, don’t smoke, wear sunscreen, and stick to the shade when possible. The second step: Minimize damage in a different way.

1. Sundaily
   The Base Layer
   goop, $39

Some level of injury to the skin is unavoidable—and proof that you’re living life. There will be long days on the beach, sleepless red-eye flights, and things outside of your control, like the air quality of a city. That’s why we call in backup: “In order to maintain truly healthy skin, we need more than just a topical approach,” says Javorsky. During her seven years as a dermatology researcher, what surprised Javorsky was that most people don’t take advantage of good, science-backed strategies for skin health. “Most notably,” she says, “ingestibles.”

That’s why she made one people would want to take. The Base Layer—the first ingestible skin support supplement from Sundaily, where Javorsky is a cofounder and the chief scientific officer—is a daily gummy. It’s made with vitamin D3 and polypodium, an antioxidant-containing Ecuadorian fern extract with decades of research behind it.

Not for nothing: It also tastes good. The Base Layer is flavored with organic orange oil, which puts it on the right side of sweet. And it feels good to know that, underneath the sunscreen and the creams and oils and moisturizers, underneath the skin itself, there’s something else playing defense.