While applying makeup masks to my friends’ faces for Halloween, I realized just how dry everyone’s skin felt. I started preaching the gospel of moisturizing, and everyone confessed to not doing it as often as I would like them to (twice a day), particularly at night—which is when I cover my face in a quarter-inch layer of oil, face cream, and eye cream. “My face is too greasy,” one friend protested. * *Puts head in hands * *

Friends, readers, reader-friends: I believe honesty is the best policy. Look, I’m not a dermatologist, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that most of my friends’ skin is “greasy” because it’s overproducing oil in reaction to being dehydrated. And that's advice I wish someone had given me sooner. So does Nick Axelrod. Want to know the best anti-aging trick a beauty editor can offer? MOISTURIZE, then watch the hands of time reverse. I’m not kidding—my skin looks younger, plumper, and healthier now than it did four years ago. Join us.

And here’s what I’ll be buying my pals for Whatever They Celebrate in December: Philosophy’s Full of Promise Treatment Duo day and night cream. This dual-sided tube has a little sun and moon symbol on its respective sides so you guys really can’t screw it up. And they’re both gel-based moisturizers, which mean they won't leave a trace of grease on your epidermis (right, Amy Odell?). The creamy white day version absorbs into your skin super fast, making it feel silky, more elastic, but still clean. Then, at night, the clear, serum-like gel sits a little heavier on the skin, and makes it feel like velvet, not wet or slick. It’s the same feeling I get when I use Eve Lom Age Defying Smoothing Treatment Capsules, and those are double the price (but are also amazing). If you feel you need to hydrate even more, I’m happy to continue recommending. But this is your fool-proof start.

—Mackenzie Wagoner

Photos by Mathea Millman.