Crystal-infused tights. It sounds like a punch line from a Saturday Night Live Goop parody, which is precisely why, when this wellness-mad editor found out about Beauty Tights, the newest product from German legwear company Item M6, I ordered a pair faster than I could finish my reishi-and-maca-spiked smoothie. True, for those of us who keep a hunk of rose quartz at our bedsides just in case, the concept sounds irresistible purely as a placebo. Yet as it turns out, there’s nothing spiritual about it.
Compression legwear, long the province of postsurgical patients and people with poor circulation, has lately crossed into the athleisure realm, with fitness fanatics and frequent fliers touting their benefits for combating fatigue and swelling during sports and long-haul flights. The Beauty Tights take the principle a few steps further. First, there’s the compression itself: Not only are they tighter at the ankles so that blood flows evenly throughout the legs, but this tightness is precisely calibrated to stimulate an acupressure point, the spleen 6 meridian. Also known in Eastern medicine as the “three yin intersection,” this point is traditionally stimulated to relieve stress, insomnia, and anxiety; ease digestive concerns; and boost energy. It’s even said to alleviate symptoms of PMS. (Try asking that of your Wolfords.)
The crystals themselves are ceramic based and so tiny as to be invisible, melted into the stretchy yarn itself. According to the company, they exhibit heat-triggered photoluminescence, which means they turn body warmth into far-infrared radiation. “Yes, the same principle as an infrared sauna,” says Item M6 director Sanaz Alagha. This type of electromagnetic energy, as sauna devotees know, penetrates deep into body tissue to detoxify and heal. While the tights aren’t nearly as strong (or toasty) as a 60-minute sweat session—the company recommends wearing them up to eight hours a day—“they gently increase blood flow and also increase oxygenation and regeneration of the blood,” Alagha says, resulting in “lighter-feeling legs with fewer blemishes and spider veins, and reduced cellulite.”
When the opaque black stockings at last arrived at the office, I hustled to the restroom to put them on under my jeans. Perched flamingo-like, I attempted to slip a foot inside and nearly toppled over, slamming into the stall wall. These tights are tight—like a corset for the lower body. After wriggling mightily to pull them up, I not only felt slimmer but somehow taller and straighter, more secure in my body. The jeans seemed to have slackened substantially.
For two weeks, I contorted into them every morning and washed them every night. I can’t tell whether they made any measurable difference in the circumference of my thighs once removed (they certainly did when on), but—and perhaps this is because the company told me this would happen—I could have sworn my skin felt softer afterward. The tourniquet effect was pleasant—calming, even. As for the results of all that spleen meridian stimulation, it’s hard to say. But I was mostly happy and productive during that fortnight, and after wearing them on a six-hour JFK-to-LAX flight, I noticed a conspicuous absence of jet lag. If that’s not enough for skeptics to justify the $98 price tag, another thing might be: They didn’t snag once.
Beauty Tights, $98
bloomingdales.com
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