July 2, 2021

Dermalogica's "smart" skin serum, supercharged bottled water and the must-have sunscreens for summer.

You've never met a smarter serum

In case you haven’t noticed, your skin’s needs can change from day to day or week to week. One day it may be dry or sensitive, and then it’s in great shape the next. If you’re a true beauty junkie, you probably have different products to address these ebbs and flows as they arise—but what if one serum could do it all and adjust to give your skin exactly what it needs every day?

This might sound too good to be true, but this is exactly what Dermalogica’s Smart Response Serum does. Sure, it’s designed to target wrinkles, dehydration, dark spots and redness with four unique actives—but only if it detects a signal that your skin needs it.

These aforementioned actives are hydrolyzed beta glucan (for hydration), hydrolyzed wheat flower (for skin tone), gallic acid derived from the Japanese cornelia cherry (for redness) and mannose (for wrinkles and firming). Even if this doesn’t mean anything to you, trust me, this is good stuff—and Dermalogica is all about effective, professional-grade products.

I’ve been using one pump every morning for almost a week and my skin looks amazingly happy and healthy. (As with most skincare products, it takes four weeks to see significant improvement so I’ll be sticking with it.) You can use it in the morning and/or evening—but Dermalogica says not to layer it with other serums, and to only use it in the A.M. if you use retinol at night. (Don’t worry, the product does not cause sun sensitivity.)

Want to have a little fun? Click here to try the Smart Response Serum skin analysis tool. All you have to do is snap a selfie and you’ll see exactly what’s going on with your skin. (Here are my results!)

How hard-working is your bottled water?

For something as simple as two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, bottled water can be rather polarizing. There are those people (like myself) who avoid plastic bottles unless absolutely necessary, and those who avoid or only drink certain brands. (Fiji is my favorite, Evian is a hard no.)

There’s no shortage of waters infused with everything from electrolytes to antioxidants, and, of course, vitamins—but they are few and far between in the “premium” (i.e. fancy) water space. Recognizing this opportunity, VOSS Water has introduced VOSS+, and I’ll definitely be trying them the next time I’m out-and-about and feeling parched.

I’m especially interested in the VOSS+ Vitamin D since my oncologist has me taking 4000 IU (100 mcg) every day. One bottle of this enhanced water offers 10 mcg—which is 50% of a “normal” person’s recommended daily intake—and although I won’t be drinking 10 bottles a day in lieu of taking supplements, it couldn’t hurt to add this calorie-free, citrus-flavored water into the mix. The range also includes VOSS+ Collagen (with 10 grams in each bottle) with a berry “essence” and VOSS+ Aquamin with electrolytes and 74 trace minerals.

We all know the importance of drinking enough water and staying hydrated, so why not get even more out of it?

An update on my summer sunscreen search

A few weeks ago, I was SO excited about the prospect that Eau Thermale Avene’s new Solaire UV Mineral Multi-Defense Tinted Sunscreen SPF 50+ would be an updated version of my now-discontinued favorite sunscreen of all time. I told my friends about it—and of course promised I’d give you the scoop as soon as it arrived. But, alas, my sun-protection dreams were dashed. I’ve never had this issue before, but the formula was actually too dark everyday use instead of foundation (although I tossed it in my tennis bag because it will be fine for touch-ups between sets).

But when one door closes, another one opens—and just a few days later I received Elta MD’s new UV Glow Broad-Spectrum SPF 36. Available in tinted and sheer, I obviously tried the tinted version first and did a happy dance as soon as I smoothed it on my skin. With just a hint of coverage to even everything out and a radiant finish that takes me from the supermarket to a doctor’s appointment (and all points in between) without the need for makeup, my Avene mourning was officially over.

In fact, Elta’s formula is way better than Avene’s. Combining sun protection and skincare benefits, this newbie to the dermatologist- and celebrity-beloved collection also features mega-antioxidants to fight non-UV environmental damage, niacinamide to help improve discoloration throughout the day and hydrating hyaluronic acid. BOOM!

Everything happens for a reason, and I’m happy to share the happy ending to my summer sunscreen search! P.S. The non-tinted version is also in my regular rotation for days when I actually do wear makeup.