Pop a pill for your skin?

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, March, 2004 by Jody Buffalo

These days, many beauty companies are jumping into the supplement business, offering pills that promise things like "More Youthful Skin!" You can find them in the vitamin aisles as well as next to the skin-care products in your local drugstore. But do you need them? While your first source for better-looking skin should be a healthy, balanced diet, in today's eat-and-run world, many women may not be getting all the nutrients they need, explains Sabine Weber, RD, a nutritionist in Lake Placid, NY. That's when a supplement might do some good.

The theory is that maintaining a sufficient intake of essential vitamins and minerals promotes good internal health, which is then mirrored on the outside in the guise of shiny hair, clear skin and strong nails. Here are two of the supplements on the market now. For lackluster skin: Olay's new Beauty and Wellness line of vitamin and nutrient supplements ($7-$24), which includes everything from a multivitamin to a CoQ10 antioxidant complex. To treat weak nails from the inside out: Appearex tablets ($25). They include biotin, the active ingredient that has been clinically proven to stimulate healthy nail growth and produce firmer, healthier nails in three to six months.