Preparing for Summer Excess: 5 Recovery Products We Don’t Sell (And Genuinely Rate)

Every June, I make the same promise to myself: this summer will be different. This summer I will drink water between drinks. I will go to bed at a sensible hour. I will not attempt a full-length game of beach volleyball against people fifteen years younger than me, and I will absolutely not follow it with four hours of rosé in direct sunlight while insisting I “don’t really burn.”

I have made this promise roughly twenty summers in a row. My success rate is zero.

So this year I’m trying something new: instead of pretending the excess isn’t coming, I’m preparing for it. Think of it as pre-emptive damage control — a recovery kit assembled before the wedding season, the airport prosecco, and the barbecue that somehow starts at 2pm and ends at 2am.

One thing before we start. We run a health company. We make recovery products. Which means if I filled this list with our own range, you’d be entirely right to roll your eyes and mutter “well, she would say that, wouldn’t she.” So we’ve done something slightly unusual: everything on this list is made by someone else. No VAION products, no exceptions. We might be accused of bias if we included them — so we haven’t. These are simply five things we think genuinely help the body when summer wins. Which it will.

1. Rebound Recovery — for the night that got away from you

The sin: “Just one drink” at a rooftop bar, which is how all great disasters begin.

The fix: Rebound Recovery is a capsule pack you take in two stages — two capsules before you head out, three before bed (assuming you can still count to three). It’s the one on this list I’d grab first, partly because it’s formulated by an actual nutritionist rather than a marketing department, and partly because the 46 vitamins, minerals, amino acids and botanicals inside — quercetin and L-glutathione are the headliners — aren’t only aimed at your liver. This is a full mind-and-body bounce-back in capsule form.

How it helps your body: When you drink, your liver breaks alcohol down into acetaldehyde — a genuinely nasty compound that’s responsible for a good chunk of how terrible you feel the next day, and glutathione is one of the body’s own master antioxidants for clearing it up. But a great night doesn’t just mug your liver. It drains your energy, burns through your antioxidants and flushes out B vitamins and minerals with cheerful efficiency — so the going-out capsules are built to put back what the evening takes out. Then the bedtime three step in for the part I personally need most: winding you down properly so you wake up without the brain fog, or the 4am hangxiety — that special hour when your brain convenes an emergency review of everything you said after 11pm. It won’t make you invincible — nothing will, I’ve checked — but it stacks the deck in your favour before the damage is done, rather than after.

Top tip: Take your two capsules before you leave, then put the other three on your pillow so Future You physically cannot forget them. The pack conveniently rips in two, so the bedtime three stay sealed and hygienic rather than rattling around loose at the bottom of your handbag collecting glitter and regret.

The maths: £19.95 for a 3-pack — three big nights out at about £6.65 each, which the brand cheerfully points out is less than the drink that caused the problem.

2. Phizz — for the dehydration you’ve been ignoring since Tuesday

The sin: Sun, sweat, aeroplane air, and treating an Aperol Spritz as a source of hydration.

The fix: Phizz makes 3-in-1 effervescent tablets that combine electrolytes with 20+ vitamins and minerals. Drop one in water, watch it fizz, feel briefly like a responsible adult. You can find them in Boots, which means you can panic-buy them at the airport. Ask me how I know.

How it helps your body: Plain water is fine, but when you’ve been sweating on a beach (or into an economy seat), you lose sodium, potassium and magnesium along with the fluid — and without electrolytes, water passes through you rather than actually rehydrating you. Electrolyte tablets use the same principle as oral rehydration therapy: sodium and glucose help pull water into your cells where it’s needed. Your headache, your energy levels and your suspiciously dark urine will all thank you.

Top tip: The frequent-flyer trick: buy a bottle of water after security, drop a tablet in about an hour before landing, and walk off the plane feeling notably less like a dried apricot — cabin air is drier than most deserts, and it’s quietly wringing you out the whole flight. On holiday, one in the morning and one after a day in the sun is the sweet spot; on a big night, one before bed is the closest thing to a time machine.

The maths: £7.99 for a tube of 20 — that’s 40p a glass. Even at your most financially reckless (day four of the holiday, buying a €9 inflatable flamingo), you can afford this.

3. BetterYou Magnesium Spray — for the sleep you’re not getting

The sin: Late nights, hotel beds with the structural integrity of a bouncy castle, and a bedroom that stays at 26°C until September.

The fix: BetterYou makes a magnesium spray you apply directly to the skin — spray it on your legs or shoulders before bed. No pills to remember, which matters, because at 1am after a barbecue my ability to follow instructions is limited to “lie down.”

How it helps your body: Magnesium is involved in over 300 processes in the body, including muscle relaxation and the regulation of your nervous system — it helps activate the parasympathetic “rest and digest” mode that summer socialising bulldozes straight through. It also contributes to normal muscle function, which is welcome news for anyone whose calves are still filing complaints about the beach volleyball. Many of us don’t get enough of it from diet alone, and alcohol (see item 1) depletes it further.

Top tip: The sleep-forum faithful swear by spraying it on the soles of your feet — and applying it to damp skin straight after a warm evening shower, which helps absorption and takes the edge off the tingle. (It will tingle the first few times. That’s normal, not an allergy, and it settles with use — start with five sprays and work up to ten.) Keep it on the bedside table, because a magnesium spray in the bathroom cabinet is a magnesium spray you will use twice, ever.

The maths: £14.99 (often on offer) for 600 sprays — at the full ten-spray dose that’s 60 nights of sleep support, or 25p a night. The cheapest sleep upgrade you’ll find that doesn’t involve moving house.

4. CherryActive — for muscles that have remembered you’re not 25

The sin: Sudden, unscheduled athleticism. Volleyball. Enthusiastic wedding-dancefloor choreography. Carrying a paddleboard 800 metres because parking was a nightmare.

The fix: CherryActive by Active Edge is a concentrated Montmorency tart cherry juice — you take a 30ml shot diluted in water, or capsules if you’d rather. It tastes like sophisticated Ribena, which is a compliment.

How it helps your body: Montmorency cherries are rich in anthocyanins — plant compounds with well-studied antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Research on athletes has repeatedly linked tart cherry to reduced muscle soreness and faster strength recovery after hard exercise. As a bonus, tart cherries are one of the few natural food sources of melatonin, the hormone that governs your sleep-wake cycle — so it quietly moonlights as a sleep aid too. Two birds, one deeply purple stone.

Top tip: May I introduce you to the internet’s beloved “sleepy girl mocktail”: tart cherry shot, splash of sparkling water, over ice, about an hour before bed — ideally on the same evening you’ve done your magnesium spray, at which point you are basically a wellness influencer. It scratches the “evening drink” itch without adding to the problem, and the melatonin nudge arrives right on schedule. If you know a big weekend is coming (race, festival, hen do), start a few days before rather than after — the research on soreness is strongest when you load in advance.

The maths: £19.99 for a 473ml bottle — about 15 shots at £1.33 each. Or £19.99 for 60 capsules (a month at two a day) if the school-run juice-shot lifestyle isn’t for you.

5. Symprove — for a gut that’s been through a lot

The sin: The all-inclusive buffet. The street food of uncertain provenance. Fourteen consecutive days of eating like you’re on death row.

The fix: Symprove is a water-based liquid probiotic from the UK — 70ml every morning on an empty stomach, for at least twelve weeks. It’s the least glamorous item on this list and possibly the most important.

How it helps your body: Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria that influence digestion, immunity and even mood — and a fortnight of holiday eating and drinking can knock that ecosystem sideways. Symprove’s party trick is that it’s water-based rather than dairy-based, so it doesn’t trigger digestion, meaning the live bacteria actually arrive in your gut alive and ready to work, rather than being dissolved in stomach acid like lesser probiotics (and like my dignity at last year’s work summer party).

Top tip: Keep it in the fridge door next to the milk so it’s the first thing you see in the morning. The ten-minute wait before food or drink is non-negotiable and, according to every gut-health forum I fell into researching this, the genuinely hard part — the veterans’ workaround is: take your 70ml, go shower, and by the time you’re dressed the kettle is legal again. And crucially: start it before the holiday, not as a guilt purchase after. Twelve weeks means the summer version of you should really have ordered it in spring, but the second-best time is today.

The maths: £49.99 every 4 weeks on subscription (28 doses — about £1.79 a day), or £79.99 for a one-off 4-week pack. The priciest thing on this list, but it’s a daily 12-week commitment rather than a night-out rescue — think gym membership for your gut.

The honest bit

None of these products is a licence to behave appallingly, and none will outrun a truly heroic level of excess — believe me, I have run the experiment so you don’t have to. Sleep, water and the occasional vegetable remain undefeated.

But if this summer is going to happen to you anyway — and if you’re anything like me, it is — you might as well meet it prepared. Your liver, your muscles, your gut and your future Sunday-morning self will all be grateful.

And yes, we still haven’t mentioned a single product of our own. Screenshot this for the next time someone accuses a health brand of only ever talking its own book.

Prices checked July 2026 and may change. Nothing in this post is medical advice — if you have a health condition, are pregnant or take medication, check with a professional before adding supplements. Vaion Health has no commercial relationship with any brand mentioned; we just think they’re good.