Sure, plenty of exciting products parade across our desks every day—we're not bragging, stay with us—but there’s something to be said for those certain standbys that go missing immediately upon making their way into the office. We're talking about every tube of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream—just as quickly as a few arrive, they’re ever so slyly swept into one of our handbags/desk drawers/apartments.

For those of you who've never encountered the white and red tube in the hands of your grandmother, mother, best friend, or favorite makeup artist (we’re looking at you , Pat McGrath), let’s get one thing clear: Eight Hour Cream is not actually a cream… It’s a balm, now available unscented or in the classic citronella version, and it can be used for just about everything. Don’t believe us?

Ms. Arden (her name was actually Florence Nightingale Graham) was known, on occasion, to dab some of the ointment on her horses' bruises, and legend has it, the “eight hour” title comes from one happy customer’s experience healing her son’s scraped knee with a smear of the stuff in that exact window of time. Healing properties or not, the apricot-tinted, glossy balm has a definite beautifying effect, whether applied to your cuticles or your eyebrows—use it anywhere you would use Touche Éclat—and maintains the title as the World’s Sexiest Lip Gloss, but, again, don’t take our word for it:

Bibi Cornejo Borthwick lives by her grandmother’s rule that “if there’s ever anything wrong on your body, just put that on,” which includes, for Tabitha Simmons, sunburns and subsequent peels; for Swedish beauty Helena Carlberg, dry skin; for ITG's Alessandra, dry hands; and, for ITG’s Elizabeth, overnight lip moisture replenishment. Yes, it has a nostalgic hold on our hearts—the petrolatum, beta-hydroxy, and vitamin E cocktail was whipped up in the 1930s, and for so many of us, including Annabelle Dexter-Jones, was among our first beauty-product memories—but it feels more relevant than ever applied as a devil-may-care eye shadow with a “dewy sheen.” (Jessica Stam agrees.) In sum, we count ourselves among the masses who, like Vogue' s Kelly Connor, find Eight Hour Cream “seriously addicting.” Use it liberally, anywhere you please. And if you've discovered other uses than those mentioned here, do tell. Please.

Photos by Elizabeth Brockway.