Rodial Glamtox Sticks Offer Alternative to Botox

Rodial's Glamtox Sticks aim to boost collagen and elastin from within.

Botox is a hot topic these days — recently, Julia Roberts revealed why she doesn’t follow the Hollywood trend and Teri Hatcher posted photos of her furrowed brow on her Facebook page to prove she’s not a user. However, other stars, such as Virginia Madsen, make a strong case for Botox injections. But we’re just not ready to have toxins shot into our face with a needle. So we decided to try Rodial’s new Glamtox Sticks ($60) — nicknamed “Botox in a bottle” — and used by the likes of Victoria Beckham and Sienna Miller.

Each box contains 14 sticks of powder to be mixed with 200 milliliters (a little less than 1 cup) of water — enough for two weeks at one per day, though up to two can be consumed for faster results. The sticks contain collagen-boosting peptides and extracts to plump skin from within, encourage radiance and hopefully reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. According to clinical research by Rodial, wrinkle depth and appearance is reduced by 30 percent in 12 weeks.

We mixed up a glass of the stuff, which looks like Kool-Aid but smells much stronger. (The mix can get a little globby, so we recommend putting the powder in the glass first and using tepid water.) We did instantly feel younger when, in an effort to avoid the thick glob, we drank it as quickly as possible, taking us back to age 19 or 20 when we’d occasionally chug illicit alcohol at a dance club.

After only two weeks, we did notice our skin felt a little more hydrated and appeared more radiant, but we didn’t see much difference in our fine lines. But during the course of imbibing Glamtox, two strangers told us we were beautiful. (One was a man who said he’d been drinking quite a bit — so it’s unclear whether his compliment was based on what he had been drinking or the collagen we’d been swilling.)

Glamtox Sticks are available at select Nordstrom locations, Rodial’s site and Amazon.com. For more on “beauty beverages,” see “Drink to Your Skin’s Health” in the Jan/Feb issue of VIVmag. Would you try a collagen drink before injections?