What we buy ourselves

Brands we love

Brands in the categories where we spend our own money. Some are here on trial data, some on an ingredient list short enough to read aloud, some for surviving twenty years of competition. And some are here for the lazy daisies among us: one strip, one drop, one stone, done.

Skin

OneSkin Skin

Topical peptide skincare with exactly one headliner: OS-01, the ingredient the literature calls decapeptide-52.

2 products Dermalogica Skin

The professional line estheticians train on. Skip the counter. Skip the ritual. Buy the tube.

3 products

Eyes & smile

LUMIFY Eyes & smile

One eye drop, one job: brimonidine 0.025 percent, the only over-the-counter redness reliever in its class that earned FDA approval.

1 product Zimba Eyes & smile

Hydrogen peroxide whitening strips at a corner-store price. Your teeth don't know this was the cheap one.

1 product

Body

Crystal Body

One potassium alum stone. It replaces your entire deodorant aisle, and it means it.

2 products

Makeup

Estée Lauder Makeup

Double Wear Stay-in-Place: the long-wear foundation every other long-wear foundation gets measured against, whether they like it or not.

1 product Haus Labs Makeup

Foundation formulated like skincare. Fifty-one shades, and yes, that means yours is in there.

1 product

Pantry

Cymbiotika Pantry

Supplement blends built around liposomal delivery, which is a fancy way of saying the packaging is doing real work.

3 products

Home

Dr. Bronner's Home

Castile soap with an ingredient list you can read aloud in one breath, no chemistry degree required.

3 products