If the stack of supplements at the back of your kitchen cupboard could talk, it would probably ask why you keep buying them company. Kelly Gilbert looked at hers, decided enough was enough, and built a business out of the alternative.
A former beauty and health editor at British Vogue, Kelly founded The What Supp Co. in response to what she calls “pill fatigue”: that creeping sense that showing up for your wellness shouldn’t feel like a prescription. Her answer is transdermal vitamin patches, six of them, each named for a mood rather than a deficiency – and built on the same pharmaceutical-grade four-layer film used in prescription HRT patches. Made in the UK, waterproof, slow-releasing over 12 hours, and already stocked at Boots and Healf with three industry awards in year one.
“So many of us want to show up for our wellness but increasingly find the medicalisation of it unappealing,” Kelly tells The Modems. “I took one last look at the supplement graveyard in my cupboard and decided there had to be a better way.”
This is a woman who meditates through her AirPods, rubs magnesium butter into the soles of her feet before bed, has a twice-yearly B12 shot, runs her entire operation from a dashboard her AI co-worker built her, and thinks longevity maxing is “a bit sad”. Have the pasta, she says. (We’re inclined to agree.)
Scroll on as Kelly shares the gadgets, rituals and evidence-backed essentials behind her approach…
Biohacking Beauty With Kelly Gilbert:
I founded The What Supp Co…
In response to the rise in pill fatigue. So many of us want to show up for our wellness but increasingly find the medicalisation of it unappealing. I took one last look at the supplement graveyard in my cupboard and decided there had to be a better way.
We launched with transdermal vitamin patches for their convenience and portability. There’s no gut drama and no timing them around meals. There are six, each named for a mood rather than a deficiency: Dip Out for relaxation, Protect Your Energy, and Recovery Mode for detox, to name a few. You pick the one that matches your day, or stack them.
Quality and provenance were non-negotiable. The patch market is flooded with colourful plasters made in China for pennies, and I couldn’t find a single formulation scientist who would advocate for that composition. Ours is an occlusive, four-layer film patch, the same pharmaceutical-grade film used in prescription patches such as HRT. It’s waterproof, releases slowly over 12 hours, and is made here in the UK, in plastic-free, recyclable card packaging.
We’re fussy about what goes inside too. Skin is a brilliant barrier, and molecules much bigger than 500 daltons struggle to get through, so we build our formulas around ingredients small enough to make the journey. In our first year we won three awards, from Tatler, Get the Gloss and Harper’s Bazaar, which has been so exciting.
My journey into biohacking…
When I first started as beauty editor at Vogue, I interviewed a curious group of Californians who called themselves the CRONies (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition). Some of them aimed to eat under 1,000 calories a day, making every mouthful count nutritionally, in the belief it would extend their lives. It’s the original biohack: the idea that you can slow ageing simply by eating less. I’ve never followed it, but it piqued my interest in all things wellness, and I always preferred investigating that to the beauty side of my role.
The one device I can’t live without is…
My AirPods. If I don’t know where they are, I start to feel stressed. I listen to podcasts as I walk: The Rest Is Entertainment for the pop culture dive, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend for the lols, and How I Built This for industry intel.
The apps I actually find useful…
I use my AirPods to meditate too, with guided meditations from Matt Cooke and Joe Dispenza. (Pro tip: invest in a padded blackout eyemask). I recently went on Matt’s Beyond podcast and talked about my psychic abilities and the crazy Vogue years, if you’d like to listen. I also listen to sound frequencies on the Slowdive app. Each tone has a job. 528Hz is a powerful one for heart-opening and transformation. Try it!
My morning ritual looks like…
I reach for a foaming cleanser and lots of cool water to wake myself up. Medik8 Surface Radiance Cleanse is my current go-to. It’s a gel that turns to foam, with lactic, mandelic and salicylic acids, so it gently exfoliates while it cleans. I really massage in my morning skincare to get the circulation going. Vitamin C is essential, and Dr Dennis Gross Vitamin C Lactic is excellent. It’s 15% vitamin C, and the lactic is a smart pairing: it brightens and helps keep the formula at a low pH so the vitamin C can penetrate. Then I ask Claude for an update on the day and check the ops room he built me, a dashboard of every retailer, supplier and deadline in the business. That way I can work out my to-do list while I’m marshalling my school-age children.
My PM wind-down ritual…
The evening wind-down comes late but it is very much offline. I’m rarely asleep before midnight. Recently I discovered Dreem Distillery’s Melting Magnesium Butter, which has 9,000mg of magnesium in the jar. I rub it into the soles of my feet before bed and find it extraordinarily effective. I’ll often wear one of my Dip Out patches too. Valerian root supports GABA activity, working alongside L-theanine, ashwagandha and magnesium, all released slowly over 12 hours, with a hit of chamomile aromatherapy to signal to my nervous system that the day is over. Scent is a strong lever for me, which is why aromatherapy matters in our patches. Smell is the one sense wired straight into the brain’s emotional centres, the amygdala and hippocampus. When I’m particularly stressed, or running a bath, I’ll always light a stick of Temple of Incense; Bulgarian Rose & Oudh is my go-to.
What’s actually moved the needle for me…
Fascia release massage. The therapist sinks in slowly and holds the pressure, sometimes for a minute or more, until the tissue gives. It’s a deep, burning ache, and strangely you’ll sometimes feel the release somewhere else entirely. I leave with my shoulders lower and my jaw unclenched. I see Esther Cato in Queen’s Park, who is sunshine personified.
And intramuscular B12 shots. Absorbing B12 from food gets harder as we age, my bloods always show me running low, and a shot bypasses the gut completely. I have one twice a year to help with fatigue, brain fog and low mood.
My supplement non-negotiables are…
I won’t skip the ones that feel fun to use. I stack my patches for the mood I’m in that day, typically Protect Your Energy and the Looks Good On You beauty patch. I always make a smoothie and tip in micronised creatine and an INDI wholefood sachet, which packs in 15 plants. A sublingual vitamin D spray is non-negotiable, and I liberally spritz it, especially through the winter. I’m currently loving NuStrips, zingy paper strips that dissolve on your tongue, mostly for the cool packaging and convenience. I take the Beauty ones for the mega hit of biotin, with folate and vitamin E. Perimenopause hair and nails are no joke. One tip: biotin can skew some blood tests, so if you’re mega-dosing like me, mention it to your GP before any bloods.
On cold plunges and infrared saunas…
I’ve only tried an infrared sauna once, at Soho Farmhouse. It was a pleasant, enveloping warmth rather than the blast of a normal sauna, yet I came out feeling surprisingly well and couldn’t pin down why. I’m now on the hunt for one in London. As for cold plunges, a cold shower is as far as I’ll go.
The beauty-tech trend I think is completely overhyped…
Longevity maxing makes me feel a bit sad. It’s embraced by people who seem to have forgotten what a joy it is to be alive. Have the pasta. And use tracking as a guide if you like the guardrails, not as a rulebook.
If I could invent a beauty or wellness tech product tomorrow…
I’d invent an easier way to take your vitamins. Oh, I did that! 😉 Next, I’d like a gadget that retrieves the last of your skincare from its packaging, or packaging that lets you use every last drop. It’s amazing what you find when you snip the end off a tube or prise open a pump bottle.
The science-backed skincare I swear by…
Azelaic acid. It’s weirdly unsung, and yet it’s what every skincare insider is using. It calms redness, fades marks and helps with breakouts. The strongest versions are prescription-only in the UK, so get a prescription and get on it. Tretinoin too, if you can face the build-up to tolerance. KLIRA by Dr Emma Craythorne is the best route if you can’t deal with unadorned formulas from the derm.
And, sorry to say, because I used to think spending more than £20 on body cream was ridiculous: Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Anti-Aging Body Cream is stunning. I was gifted it, tried it, was wowed, and now I’m in the dilemma of whether to spend £100 on a new tube of body cream. It’s wild how much it improved my skin texture. The beauty editor in me wanted to know why it was so distinctively good. I think it’s the generous oil load, combined with glycerin, panthenol, Sturm’s signature purslane and some other instant-effect extras. It’s basically the midlife woman’s dream cream.
On tech overstimulation…
I feel hyper-stimulated by screens. In the 18 months since founding The What Supp Co., I’ve probably clocked more screen time than in the previous five years combined, and it has eroded my ability to be present and to seek out slower pleasures. But I’ve come to think the damage is less about the hours and more about the context switching: inbox, WhatsApp, Shopify, Claude, Instagram, back to the inbox. Every jump costs something.
My eyes feel it. The College of Optometrists says there’s no evidence screens damage your eyes, but come on, really? The strain is real: we blink far less when we stare at a screen. So I’m trying to stick to the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
I’m intrigued by the hardware emerging that is designed to rein us in: Brick, the little puck you tap your phone against to lock your apps, Unpluq’s tag, Opal’s Hard Mode, even the Light Phone III. But there’s zero chance I’d use any of that right now. As a founder I need to be reachable when the warehouse has a fulfilment glitch at 7am, when a Boots stock query lands, or when I want to dig into Shopify analytics, or check my socials at 10pm when a YouTuber has just naked checked my brand.
What’s easing the pressure is AI. My AI co-worker parses my inboxes, reads my WhatsApp threads and talks me through what needs me today, so everything arrives in one conversation instead of six apps. The overload peaked about nine months ago, and it’s lifting thanks to tech innovation. I’m excited to see where it goes: tech that sorts my day instead of fragmenting it.
One wellness practice that’s radically changed my energy levels…
Journalling has been a revelation. It has slightly naff connotations, thanks to saccharine Instagrammers jumping on board, but it is powerful. People think it’s all navel-gazing and bog-standard diary entries. But answering a few thoughtfully posed questions, with no expectation of what’s about to flow from your hand, changes your state of mind and relieves stress better than anything else I’ve tried. If anyone wants a hint for Christmas, the Hermès silk-bound notebooks are perfection.
If I could give my 18-year-old self one piece of advice it would be that…
Female friendship will nurture and sustain you throughout your life. I’m excited for you. Be open-hearted and embrace opportunity. And have more fun than you think you deserve.
Modems Byte-Sized Questions:
⏰ First thing you do when you wake up?
Panic-check my phone. It’s the truth of being a founder.
📱 Go-to wellness app?
Audible. Listening to authors read their own books is so involving.
🙅♀️ Most overrated ingredient?
Hyaluronic acid. It’s cheap, so it gets put in everything, and it’s not that awesome.
💎 Most underrated ingredient?
Squalane, a brilliant skin emollient. Biossance really brought it to prominence for me, and I buy their products all the time.
😬 Biggest skincare regret?
Going for a spray tan. It never wears off well and I unfailingly look orange.
✅ Beauty hack that actually works?
Ice rollers. Buy one on Amazon and keep it in the freezer for emergency face rejuvenation.
🔥 Your current beauty obsession?
RUM Wrap Party mascara. I didn’t think I liked tubing mascara, but now I’ve tried this, there’s no going back.
🚿 Hot or cold shower?
Cold. It’s amazing how it changes your energy.
🧖♀️ Sauna or cold plunge?
Steam room, all the way.
☕ Coffee, matcha or mushroom latte?
Coffee. Sorry, we all know matcha is only popular because it photographs well.
✨ Most-used emoji?
✨
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