Even though I grew up in a household of 75% women (including me), none of us were all that interested in makeup, so to this day, I remain largely clueless about this topic. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve gotten my makeup done, or done it myself—and it’s almost always because I’m going to a wedding. For some reason, barefaced weddings just aren’t a socially acceptable thing yet, so I have to make an effort to go with the flow so that my plain,…

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…

I love to travel—and I always have a hard time squeezing everything into my TSA-approved bag of beauty products. So I’m always curious about solid versions of skincare staples, including Aveeno Moisturizing Bar for Dry Skin, which is marketed as a facial cleansing bar for sensitive skin. It comes packaged in a simple paper box and could easily fit into my backpack when I’m traveling. Since it’s 100% solid and 0% liquid, it won’t take up any room in my precious…