Wearable Supplements

If there are two things I know in this life, it’s wellness and stickers. The first one is probably pretty obvious. After all, you’re reading my words on a platform dedicated to health and well-being…if I didn’t know my way around the wellness world, what would I be doing here?

The second…that one’s a bit less straightforward. Or, perhaps, it’s extremely straightforward? After all, in my pre-wellness writing days, I was a kid who dealt exclusively — and aggressively — in my elementary school’s underground sticker trade.

A cross between a sticker and temporary tattoo, barrière’s wearable supplements are a far, far cry from my standard routine of standing at the kitchen counter, sorting through my various bottles of vitamins, minerals and other supplements, divvying them up into geriatric-adjacent day-of-the-week pill organizer. No choking down handfuls of dry capsules. No gulping water first thing in the morning to force them all down. No panicking halfway through the day when I inevitably forget whether I took them that morning and only being reassured when I get home and can check that aforementioned pill case to see that whatever day it is is, in fact, empty.

Instead, I get to pick a beautifully designed sticker, slap it on my skin, and forget about it while reaping all the same benefits.

Because that's really what barrière is all about: taking the difficulty and guesswork out of wellness, all while being easy on the eyes. The wearable supplements are as simple to use as a bandaid but look like a thoughtful accessory. From metallic astrological symbols to beach-themed images to the mandalas, there’s a vitamin combo and body art for every mood, ache, and pain.

While they sit pretty on the skin, these patches transdermally deliver a potent dose of vitamins, nutrients and adaptogens. And it’s not just a party trick: those pill-based supplements I mentioned earlier can lose up to 90% of their efficacy during the journey from your mouth to your digestive system. Transdermal patches have long been favored for serious vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but the traditional ones have been, well, ugly. And inconvenient. And expensive. And finicky.

With the vitamin-deficient and the generally-interested-in-wellness in mind, their formulas blend plant-powered ingredients that fortify, protect, nourish and improve the body and mind. Take the Travel Well patches, for example: zinc, ashwagandha, horse chestnut, elderberry and vitamin D3 combine their soothing, anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting and calming powers for the nervous flyers among us. The Brains & Beauty patches combine iron, B12, biotin and hyaluronic acid for daily support for a strong mind and body, increased energy, balanced moods and concentration, and healthier skin and nails. And Daily Defense is all about immune-boosting ingredients like echinacea, D3 and elderberry.

I was all in, immediately. (Seriously: I sported all three simultaneously — barrière says this is totally fine and encouraged; ingredients are delivered over the course of 8-to-12 hours so no negative side effects like you might get with oral supplements that kick in all at once.) After two weeks of consistent wear (and changing them daily), I’m a patch convert. First and foremost, the ability to not think about taking my vitamins every day was worth all the money in the world to me. I no longer had a Pavlovian response to my “take vitamins” alarm going off every morning. I wasn’t trying to cram four different powders into a single cup of coffee before I’d even brushed my teeth.

As far as physical benefits go, the slow and steady release system was much preferable to the temporary queasiness I usually feel after my handful of morning pills. I felt better, consistently, throughout the day as opposed to my standard energy dips and spikes. And while I wasn’t suddenly running marathons and glowing like a vitamin-infused angel, I also wasn’t sick during my two-week stint on the supplement patch train. No sniffles, no skin flare ups, no insomnia (all of which love making semi-regular unexpected visits to my life.)

My only problem with barrière? How many stickers is too many stickers? To the sticker-schilling kid in me, the limit does not exist.