What makes a skincare product label effective? I think we’ve all come to expect that skincare products will try to sway us with pretty pictures and uplifting words like “brightening” and “soothing.” But it was only recently that I thought to question what it actually means for a skincare product to be “clinically proven.” I see this from time to time on certain labels, and I always thought that it referred to actual clinical trials. But it turns out that…

Have you ever heard the expression, “Kick up your heels?” It’s meant to signify something positive, but when you have dry, cracked heels, that’s probably the last thing you’d want to do. You don’t want to kick those dry heels up for everyone to see—you want to hide them and wallow in shame (or at least I do). My feet are always a bit dry, but lately, the dryness has escalated into a huge crack in my right heel. So when Cyber Monday rolled around yesterday, I…

Remember the Stanford marshmallow experiment, tested kids' ability to delay gratification? I might be able to delay eating a marshmallow, but I’m definitely terrible when it comes to delaying the gratification of trying out new skincare products. Why should I patch test when I could be one day closer to glowier, smoother skin? This, of course, has backfired more than a few times. The skin along my jawline started to break out more than usual shortly after I introduced three new products…