Bone Up With Biotin

Modern gals need 3 things in endless supply: caffeine, confidence, and collagen – the Three Cs. Accumulating the first is easily fulfilled by our most beloved or loathed baristas, the second, like shopping, is a life-long exercise. The third is where things get tricky. Collagen, the building blocks of shiny locks, resilient nails, and flexible joints, and a snatched chin-to-cheek contour, is what prevents us, after the wear-and-tear of life from disintegrating into bald blobs. It starts tanking in our 20s, making it a precious commodity.

Why not just get more of it? We’ve figured out ways to inject it, approximate it, and trigger it with peels and lasers, but why not increase it and protect it, like our confidence, from within? Generating and protecting collagen requires a multi-prong approach, a blend of nutrients, antioxidants, and herbs to support our body’s many processes, and reign in inflammation from excess stress and sugar. America Medic & Science (AMS), a Seattle-based nutraceutical company, offers a holistic beauty program to keep us glowing and gleaming from within.

Sometimes supplements get a bad rap. The subpar extraction processes and cheap derivatives marketed as most supplements can do more harm than good. As a lifelong supplement taker, I’m picky and can suss out a bad formulation in a nanosecond, as fast as I recognize a fabulous beauty supplement like AMS’ Viva Pill. Its potent blend of vitamins, minerals & amino acids provides the building blocks for Keratin, the key structural material making up hair, nails and the outer layer of the skin. All are further enhanced by the ‘Viva-Complex,’ essential vital nutrients, hydrolyzed marine collagen, saw palmetto, turmeric Extract, hyaluronic acid, ashwagandha and mixed tocotrienols, that strengthen the hair follicle & shaft while fighting off the inflammation that can degrade our skin & hair. An additional shout-out for the Viva Pill packaging – shiny hot pink capsules that match my favorite limp-plumping gloss. My inner beauty warrior is tickled pink with every dose.

No beauty supplement regimen is complete without biotin. It’s an ingredient in Viva Pill, as well as a stand-alone 10,000 mcg dose. Biotin’s importance for hair growth is common knowledge, but it’s so essential because it supports liver function and several metabolic processes for nails and skin too. Sure the gummy versions are nice, but who needs so much inflammation-causing sugar?

But what about collagen? It’s all about the Colla Caps. The blend of hyaluronic acid, antioxidant Vitamin C, and hydrolyzed collagen improves skin elasticity, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles for a youthful look. It’s the holy grail of beauty supplements, and a great alternative if you can’t squeeze a thermos of bone broth in your cross-body bag. I’ve tried it – trust me – Colla Caps, Biotin and Vival Pill are much simpler. You’ll have at least one, maybe two, of the Three Cs at all times.

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Gesha-Marie Bland

STAFF WRITER & SENIOR EDITOR

Not bland at all. Gesha-Marie Bland is an essayist, Vanity Fair-published film and television writer, and unrepentant beauty junkie who jumpstarted her career at NYU’s Master’s Program in Cinema Studies. In homage to her beauty icons Jeanne Moreau, Dolly Parton, and Grace Jones, she is forever in search of the perfect cat-eye liner, a killer pair of heels, and unforgettable statement accessories. Currently NYC-based, this dual American-French citizen still wears all-black and has a soft spot for clean beauty, pharmaceutical-grade actives, and most ingredients sourced from vineyards in the south of France. She loves New Wave cinema, Mary Gaitskill’s fiction, Spain, and matcha double-shots. After selling "The Ripper," her Alexander McQueen-Issie Blow biopic to the Cannes-winning production company Maven Pictures, she remains convinced fashion and couture are the next frontiers for edgy cinematic stories.