Do you ever see something that immediately jolts you back to an earlier time in your life? For me, Carmex Classic Lip Balm’s distinctive bumblebee-yellow metal tin will always be one of those things. The smell of it as well—a strange marriage of wax and camphor/Vick’s VapoRub—is forever ingrained in my brain. Growing up, my family always kept a few tins of Carmex distributed around the house. Carmex used to print the price on the label, and I remember seeing the price increase from…

If you have acne, you’ve probably heard about the Stridex pads I’m writing about today. These pads are easy to use, pretty cheap, and they claim to be “easy on skin, tough on acne.” This last point is easier said than done. Although acne is a serious problem, acne treatments can sometimes do more harm than good. The FDA has received a number of complaints from consumers who experienced allergic reactions and/or irritation in response to acne products that included benzoyl…

Gatsby is a Japanese-based brand that makes hair gels, shave gels, and other men’s grooming products. When I heard about this brand in the past, I always wondered it if was indeed an ode to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, The Great Gatsby. It turns out that it really is: read the company’s about page to read the full story, but basically, Gatsby’s founder was inspired by the lifestyle of the novel’s title character.