The Super Oil That Will Save Your Skin on an Airplane
It’s time to stop abusing your skin when you travel. (Photo: Thinkstock)
My skin suffers more than anything else when I travel. Sure, I get sleepy and cranky and hungry, but it is my skin that always bears the brunt of the abuse when I’m on a long plane ride.
Airplane cabins do a number on our skin. The pressurized and recycled air dehydrates it, while the exposure to new and strange bacteria can cause breakouts. Make no mistake — every surface you touch on a plane is disgusting.
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Dry skin inevitably shows off wrinkles and fine lines, which makes me look about 10 years older when I step off the plane. I land with skin that is both flaky and blotchy, a combination that shouldn’t even be possible. But I recently discovered a remedy that I am finding life-changing. I’d even go so far as to call it a little miracle in a bottle — MLR Gold Serum from Michael Lorin Reed, MD.
MLR Gold Serum is currently available on Amazon. (Photo: Michael Lorin Reed)
Just a microdab of this oil goes an incredibly long way. I tend to rub it between my fingers to warm it up and then massage it in circles on my skin before my plane takes off. It balances the skin’s oil levels out in advance, helping it to retain moisture throughout the flight while also nourishing it with all-natural, anti-inflammatory botanical ingredients to keep breakouts at a minimum.
Added bonus — it smells incredible! The guy sitting next to me on a recent flight home to San Francisco from Miami even commented on it. He also leaned in to smell my face, which was a little disconcerting.
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The secret ingredient here is something called Moringa oil, one of those trendy new “superfoods” for your skin. Extracted from the seeds of the Moringa oleifera tree, this oil has been used in skin treatments across Africa and South America for centuries. The oil contains 46 types of antioxidants and 36 anti-inflammatory compounds.
It then penetrates deep beneath the top layer of skin, which allows it to deliver its nutrients — vitamin A, minerals, fatty acids, and oleic (omega-9) and behenic acids — without making skin feel greasy and gross. The oil also has collagen-building and antiaging properties that help the skin nourish and repair itself.
Michael Lorin Reed, MD, who developed the product along with his daughter, beauty entrepreneur Jackie Reed, gave us the very sciencey version of why it works.
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“Retinol (vitamin A alcohol) is converted to retinoic acid (vitamin A acid) in the skin, which reverses sun damage by stimulating the formation of healthy new collagen and blood vessels. It also has the ability to eliminate precancerous cells,” Dr. Reed said.
I’ve been using the oil for the past month, and during that time I have taken 14 plane rides taking up more than 56 hours. Sometimes I feel like I’m living at 30,000 feet.
And yet my skin is smoother, more balanced, and less prone to breakouts than ever before — a miracle indeed.
At age 35 I know I should be more invested in antiaging treatments than I am, and this is my first real foray into anything with “aging” on the bottle. For me, this oil is about making my skin shine, both in the air and on the ground.
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