4 min read
I thought my parched, dry skin was just the collateral I paid for the wisdom that comes with age, right until the time I wintered in a warmer, wetter climate. Suddenly, my complexion, which was raisiny in New York, became grape-like in Mumbai. It was the humidity, I realized. My hair was frizzy, but my skin was buoyant.
After this epiphany a few years ago, I’ve become devoted to my humidifier(s) and to slathering on layer after layer of lightweight essences, toners, and serums for hydration and sealing them in with an occlusive ointment or oil. None of it worked.
In early fall, I started taking Verdoie Le Complément Alimentaire, a once-daily mushroom-based supplement. I don’t take a lot of supplements, but this one was designed to help with specific skin concerns I had (redness, reactivity, and impaired barrier function). It was a short-term commitment (more on that later), so I jumped in. After a few days, I noticed that the patch of psoriasis on my knee had calmed, so I kept taking it. Thirty days later, when my supply ran out, my skin began looking crepey and less plump. So, as we transitioned into high winter, I went back on it. So far, I still have my summer skin—with no signs of shriveling. While these changes might not be obvious to anyone else, I can definitely see the difference. This is the first winter I haven’t powered up my humidifier at all.
Verdoie Le Complément Alimentaire
What Is Verdoie Le Complément Alimentaire?
Verdoie, a French wellness brand, was started by Sonia Gaillis-Delepine, whose family has a long history in mushrooms. While fungi of all sorts have been a mainstay in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, Gaillis-Delepine wanted to showcase them through a French pharmacy and nutraceutical lens. “When we think of skincare today, topicals only go so far, and 50 percent of the equation is going to be the internal aspect of it,” she says. Verdoie currently offers the capsule created by a certified herbalist, in partnership with SYNADIET, France’s trade association for supplements. And there’s a moisturizer, the ‘shroom-enhanced La Crème Hydratante, which works in tandem to help sensitive skin develop resilience.
Verdoie’s core construct is that sensitive skin is more of a fluctuating condition rather than a skin type. “Anyone can become reactive, whether it’s through stress, travel, or hormonal or seasonal shifts,” Gaillis-Delepine says. The supplement is meant to be taken for a finite period of time, when your skin is really going through it. “You’re not going to have that tap always on, but take it when you really need it in a structured approach to wellness,” she says.
The general nutritional benefits of mushrooms include being a great source of dietary, prebiotic fiber as well as a source of some B-vitamins and vitamin D. “The mushrooms used in Verdoie’s products, like tremella and reishi internally and shiitake, tremalla and chaga, topically, provide more than just dietary fiber and vitamins,” says Blaire Edwards-Maschotta, a New York-based herbalist and founder of Mindful Medicinals, a product development and formulation consultancy. This combination of mushrooms that she formulated the supplement with, “provides polysaccharides, beta-glucans and antioxidants that help support our overall bodies and skin, internally and externally, by supporting skin barrier repair, hydration, cellular calm and appropriate physical and emotional responses to stress.” These nutrients can help modulate inflammation, promote moisture retention, strengthen and support the gut microbiome, and protect against oxidative stress. There’s more: triterpenoids found in reishi have an antihistamine response.
Supplementing concentrated extracts of medicinal mushrooms can provide higher, more clinically aligned and bioavailable doses of several of these compounds than what would be possible by trying to eat them, says Edwards-Maschotta.
The Results
While the supplement can transform skin in as little as two weeks (my skin is proof), the brand recommends taking it for one to three months at a time, though up to 120 days is fine, too. Timing it to the changing of seasons is a good hack for many, but Gaillis-Delepine wants users to determine when their need is the greatest.
The results speak for themselves: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study conducted in France under dermatological supervision in third-party labs, the results show a 41 percent increase in hydration after 60 days, a 26 percent improvement in elasticity, and an 18 percent reduction in fine lines and wrinkles. In consumer perception tests, 80 to 85 percent reported smoother, softer, less flaky skin.
Gaillis-Delepine wanted the supplement to address three aspects of skin burnout: reduced moisture, a lack of lipid integrity, and restoring cellular calm. Tremella helps bring the hydration. “They contain a high amount of hyaluronic acid, so that may help bind to water and pull it into the skin,” says Morgan Rabach, a board-certified dermatologist based in New York who’s unaffiliated with Verdoie. “When skin is supported with hyaluronic acid, it looks and feels plumper and more hydrated.”
The concentrated beta-glucan complex from the two mushrooms modulates skin stress. “Beta-glucans as an oral supplement may be prebiotic, and help support gut health and blood sugar regulation,” says Rabach. She also likes the plant-derived ceramides, which reduce moisture loss, help relieve dryness and sensitivity, promote more resilient skin, and improve long-term hydration. The antioxidant support gets her approval from vitamin E and astaxanthin, which help prevent cell damage.
What’s unique about Verdoie’s mushrooms is that they use fully fruiting body mushrooms instead of mycelium, the mushroom root network cultivated on cereal grains. “Fruiting bodies contain richer, more complex betaglucans and secondary metabolites versus mycelium-grown-on-grain, which dilutes actives and is often used as a cheaper and quicker alternative,” says Edwards-Maschotta.
Now that I’ve found a way to hack winter skin, the only problem will be weaning myself off of this stuff once my 120 days are up.
