In-Flight Beauty Essentials

We want to answer your most pressing questions—or, you know, just the things that you’re curious about. Please keep them coming to: feedback [at] goop [dot] com, or tweet us @goop. Below, a q for our new beauty director, Jean Godfrey-June.

Dear Jean,
Why do I look so awful when I get off the plane? —Ann L.

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If you wonder what’s happening with your skin at 35,000 feet, tear open the roll that comes with dinner (or the bread holding the awful sandwich they made you pay for): In seconds it’s stale, in minutes, utterly, inedibly, dried to a crisp.

The other, less visible factor is the sun: There’s a lot less atmosphere between it and you at cruising altitude. So a 3.4-ounce-or-less sunblock (John Masters SPF 30, $32, goop.com) is critical, as is a 3.4-ounce-or-less moisturizer (Weleda Skin Food comes in a tube, is ultra-thick and packed with amazing-smelling essential oils, $19, weledausa.com) or face oil like Tata Harper’s Beautifying Face Oil ($48, tataharper.com).

Unless I’m traveling with operatives that might motivate me to suffer through wearing makeup on a plane, I don’t put it on until the captain announces we’re about to land. Throughout the flight, I apply and re-apply both moisturizer and sunblock, along with thick, healing lip balm like Rodin, or one with SPF like Beyond Coastal ($2.99 beyondcoastal.com), whenever I think of it. And, like everyone says, I drink a ton of water.

The water causes me to get about every five seconds for the ladies; when I return to my seat, I spritz my hands with Dr. Bronner’s new organic lavender hand sanitizer ($4.99, drbronner.com), which kills everything potentially terrifying while not contributing to antibiotic resistance. It smells truly fantastic.

While the goal is protection from the many assaults of air travel, a well-stocked airplane bag is also a delightful indulgence; massaging yourself with creams and balms makes you feel coddle and cared for and—upon arrival—dewily, glowingly fresh.

– Jean