Welcome to Our Favorite Products, a monthly feature in which ITG’s editors discuss our favorite products. They’re the best things we’ve tried all month long, reviewed, photographed, and anthropomorphized before we have the opportunity to get sick of them and move on to something new. This month, we took natural approaches to manufactured problems and manufactured solutions to natural problems. Following? For example: post-workout soreness is nothing a little plant-based remedy can’t fix, while a handy blush approximates a winter flush without having to go out and freeze. Call it 2021 logic, but it’s working for us. Here’s what we’re bringing into February:
“Gucci Westman doesn’t need to do much to impress me. I’m a natural-born fan with a full stash of her products in my Top Shelf. (Give me a luxury line with a light-touch approach any day of the week; throw in a a Jennifer Aniston mention and I’m sold.) The Baby Cheeks blush is my ideal blushing tool—I prefer a stick I can apply directly to my face or with a brush depending on my mood. She’s just launched a new shade: Bichette, somewhere between a berry and a burnt red. As much as I like my taupe-y, brown leaning blushes that are more beige than pink, this deeper red screams winter flush in a way that’s really suiting the snowy mood these days. After I buff it on, I imagine that I’ve been slightly wind-burned from a blue bird ski day up on the mountain. Very romantic, especially considering I haven’t left the house in three days.” —Emily Ferber
“Yes, yes, I know you know. Beautystat’s Universal C was just given a Top 25 award, so it’s surely on your radar already. I just wanted to take one teeny moment and a few extra characters to wax poetic about this stuff, because no other vitamin C I’ve ever used really holds a candle. If you’ve ever invested over 50 bucks in a serum that turned bad seemingly overnight, I implore you: listen up! I end up chucking most vitamin C serums around the two month mark, because they turn a rancid brown that tells me they’ve lost potency. I started this sample when we were knee-deep in our testing process, and I’ve kept it around because it truly is that good. Even months later, it’s still good. (Please excuse the well-worn bottle—if anything, that’s proof I really use it.) Beautystat’s airtight pump and super stable formula means I can use my serum to the last drop without racing to the finish line—most brands advise using vitamin C serum every day until it runs out, but if I want to take a break or mix in something else, I can with Beautystat’s. Beyond stability, you’ve also got efficacy. I mostly use vitamin C as a daily preventative measure along with sunscreen, but this one gives me very noticeable brightening results too. Look. It’s just really good skincare. Buy it, if you haven’t already.” —Ali Oshinsky
“It’s not that I don’t believe in CBD, I’m just sayin that I’ve yet to fully understand the hype. I eat those little gummies and I feel the same. I’ve patted the lotions on my face and come out looking unchanged. However, I recently bought into the exercise bike lifestyle, and my out-of-shape ass could not—would not—take it. Literally. There are no seat cushions in the world that could make the experience more comfortable, and comfort, I’ll have you know, is partly what I signed up for in an exercise regimen that requires a person to sit down. Since I’m also too stubborn to return the bike, I problem-solved with this CBD cream that has sat untouched in my bathroom for most of the year. Some of the most ardent CBD fans have said rubbing in a little cream on the bottom of their feet transforms uncomfortable heels into wearable footwear, so using that logic I’ve been rubbing this Body Melt Butter where the sun don’t shine. And…it works? I can liken the feeling to a round of IcyHot or Bengay, which makes me feel 20 years older and comfortable at once. The coolness of the cream has a kind of numbing effect, with the added benefit of making sure I don’t overheat as I’m peddling. It also smells like sunscreen and coconuts, making it leaps and bounds better than Bengay right there. I rub it on pre-workout and post-workout—if only it did the workout for me, that would be the dream.” —Ashley Weatherford
“For those who don’t know, Jones Road is the latest makeup venture from Bobbi Brown (the person, not the brand). Bobbi Brown (the brand, not the person) has been owned by Estée Lauder since 1995, but when Brown started it four years prior, it was pretty revolutionary. In Brown’s on words, as per her Top Shelf: “At that point, no one had done a great collection of edited, natural-looking makeup.” With her new line, Brown breathes new life into the exact same idea—let’s talk about these Face Sticks. They’re basically concealer pencils, which has certainly been done. The difference is in the formula, which is sooo creamy I’m not actually sure how it holds its shape. The sharpenable tip allows for precision application on zits, and also means you won’t sully the concealer with your fingers or a grimy doe foot. And the opaque but skin-like finish is very different from other stick concealers I’ve tried, which tend to be more matte. What more can I say? The teeniest amount and 20 seconds makes me look even all over, even when there’s not product all over. She just nails the classics.” —AO
“My decades-long war with sleep took a turn for the worse this month—I got a puppy. And while my little guy is the cutest, most-lovable, snuggliest fur ball on the planet, he is also a very young puppy, which means I can expect one to four sleep-interrupting cries on any given night. And since it’s already a Herculean task for me to fall asleep on a good night, the late-night squeals have shrunk my average sleep time to a sad few hours. To give myself a little relief I’ve returned to an old favorite, The Nue Co’s Magnesium Ease spray, which The Nue Co’s founder once described to me as an aid for a ‘yummy sleep.’ It doesn’t put me to sleep like magic, but it calms my 2AM brain down so I can get to a place where I can get back to sleep faster. Magnesium is a known facilitator of a better night’s rest, and the spray’s lavender scent also does its small part in triggering my brain to wind down (there goes that scent memory at work). But maybe what I love most is that I have to do so little to get to a more restful sleep much faster. Three sprays on my legs and stomach, and then a few sweet hours of slumber before the next puppy cry.” —AW
A Living, Breathing Problem-Solver
“As big of a blow to my ego as this may be, every once in a while I have to admit that I don’t always know best. Particularly when I’m alone in my bathroom, standing mere centimeters from the mirror, within arms reach of literally hundreds of beauty products. Part of this, I think, is because it’s always easier to take someone else’s advice than it is to take your own. It’s also one of the hazards of the job: When you’re trying upwards of three new products per week, breakouts happen. I spend my days thinking about beauty. (They pay me to do that! Isn’t that wild!) And I’ve gotten pretty good! But as many ingredients and their assorted benefits as I can list off the top of my head, I am not—and will never be—an actual skin doctor. I wanted to start 2021 clear of acne. All that seemed to take was a swift kick in the pants from the good doctors over at Spring Street Dermatology (that, and a killer retinoid prescription). I know that good insurance and access to top tier medical professionals isn’t universal, but if you can’t seem to break out of the acne cycle and have the luxury of seeing a professional in your area (or via telemedicine), I highly recommend it.” —EF
Photos via ITG