From the name of this blog, you might (correctly) surmise that I tend to pepper my dad with more questions about the products I use every day. But today I’m going to flip the switch and talk about a product that came recommended by my mom: Olay Complete Moisturizer Sensitive (SPF 15). She bought a two-pack of this at Costco, and liked it so much that she suggested that I start using it, too. When someone like my mom recommends something to you, you listen, because she has pretty high…

The American in me is primed to feel like anything instantly gets glammed up once you slap a French name on it. “Escargot” sounds way more appealing than “snails,” and “merci” seems more refined than “thanks.” So it should probably come as no surprise that I always think of La Roche-Posay as a premium brand, even though it’s widely available in drugstores, and not terribly expensive.

As a kid, I collected many things: stickers, bouncy balls, pencils, stamps, rocks…I guess I sound like a hoarder, eh? Now that I live in a small apartment in NYC, I can’t do that anymore. But I do still let myself collect one thing: hand lotions, especially ones that are packaged in small, travel-friendly tubes. I justify this habit by telling myself that I’m going to end up using it at some point, so each new item will only temporarily take up a bit of precious real estate in…