If you’re a person of a certain age — or a woman of any age — Instagram can be a bit like Willy Wonka’s factory, except the gobstoppers are magnesium-infused, the chocolate river is liquid collagen and the Oompa-Loompas are beauty influencers wielding jade rollers instead of lollipops.
There was a time when washing our face before bed (most nights) and remembering to pop a multivitamin meant we were winning at self-care. Now there are multistep routines for body parts we didn’t know needed them. (Lookin’ at you, Kourtney Kardashian’s Lemme Purr vagina lollipops.) How is a normal person meant to know what’s actually life-improving and what’s just marketing genius? Wellness is everywhere — but is it important?
When Gwyneth Paltrow launched Goop as a newsletter in 2008, it felt like the opposite of gatekeeping. Here were the previously secret routines an A-lister followed (dry brushing! Face oiling!), and now we could too. In the intervening years, Goop has gotten Goopier, and other stars have jumped on the bandwagon. And thanks to social media, they’ve got a much bigger audience of people preoccupied with their eye bags and microbiomes.
There’s Kate Hudson’s InBloom, a range of supplements the star describes as “a way to share holistic, eco friendly wellness” with her fans. There’s Vital Proteins chief creative officer Jennifer Aniston stirring collagen powder into her coffee. There’s David Beckham co- founding IM8 supplements, which claim to “boost energy, improve digestion and support overall wellness.”
Beckham’s wife, Victoria — who has her own fashion and beauty brands — regularly talks about the daily regimens that keep her feeling great but also confused: “I take quite a few supplements,” she explained, “so it can be difficult to actually know what’s working!”
On Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney’s character is seen setting her alarm for 4 a.m. so she can complete her increasingly intricate and unhinged beauty routine. It’s an exaggerated portrayal, but not by much. Many of us can relate, stuffing our mornings and evenings with “essentials” we’ve been sold when, actually, maybe an extra 30 minutes in bed might benefit us more.
But when these products have pretty packaging and endorsements from beautiful people — whether A-lister or micro-influencer — it’s compelling. Ultimately, these rituals flatter us into feeling like thrivers who have cash to splash on hacking our way to the best life ever (even if we used Klarna to cover our purchases).
Health journalist Rosamund Dean of newsletter Well Well Well tells Us, “It’s so easy to feel as though we’re falling behind or somehow failing because we’re not taking all the supplements or using red-light therapy or investing in a pair of those funny lymphatic drainage trousers.” She knows firsthand: “I went through a phase of thinking I had to do cold plunges like everyone else on Instagram, otherwise my immune system would collapse. Then I realized I hate being cold! Everyone is different; it’s a case of finding what works for you.”
Dean adds that true wellness is often a lot simpler than celeb startups and beauty companies want us to believe. “There are some things that are pretty much true for everyone,” she says. “Eating more vegetables will improve your gut health more than that expensive probiotic supplement; drinking more water and getting enough sleep will improve your skin more than any fancy face cream; and doing some exercise will boost your energy and brain function more than a powder sprinkled in your coffee.”
And one of the most important keys to wellness? Human connection. “Don’t underestimate the power of having a laugh with a good friend,” she says. “Love, connection and fun are the most powerful antiaging tools out there.”
That’s a wellness trend we can get behind — now we just need a health-tech startup to pay a Kardashian to officially collab with “fun.” It might just change the world.
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