Welcome to Our Favorite Products, a monthly feature in which ITG's editors discuss our favorite products. They're the best things we've tried all month long, reviewed, photographed, and anthropomorphized before we have the opportunity to get sick of them and move on to something new. This month, it's mainly about skin: getting it through the interminable winter and ready for the impending springtime. Here's to the cold finally ending and to welcoming the sun potentially makeup-free.
De Mamiel Intense Nurture Antioxidant Elixir
Even if I hated this product, I would have to admit that it smells better than anything. Ever. And the good news is that I don't hate it. Annee de Mamiel's products are as lovely as she is, each of them reminiscent of a different aspect of a full English country garden in springtime (which is actually where she makes her oils). This elixir is what I would describe as a milky serum. It's formulated to protect the skin from polluted air, harsh wind, cold, and the like. Feels like it's kept my face safe through this month of fake spring, and for that I am grateful. And I smell good. —Anna Jube
Source Naturals Colloidal Silver
I've had a silver pillowcase for a minute now—not silver in appearance but silver-laden in fabrication—and I have to say, it's made me feel a little bit better about smushing my face against it all night. It's one less thing to blame breakouts on, that's for sure. I figured I could incorporate colloidal silver in other aspects of my life, too. If you Google it, the product is most often used as an ingestible for little kids to help fight off sickness. I like this story; if you can drink it and it wards off the flu, couldn't applying it to your face ward off acne? This Source Naturals one is great because it's available at Whole Foods for like $20, and it's simple to use. Just apply after you cleanse. So far I really like it—it feels like the right kind of toner for me. I just want a magic ingredient that'll safely, softly fight acne. —Tom Newton
Joanna Vargas Daily Serum
Every time I go to LA, I see a trend. The trend always changes, but each visit has a hero product that everybody can't stop talking about. One time it was Charlotte Tilbury's Filmstar Bronze and Glow. Another time it was Lord Jones everything. This month, I met Joanna Vargas' Daily Serum, formulated to alkalize (whatever that means) and clarify skin each day for a brighter tomorrow. Tom recommended it to me, a bunch of people at dinner recommended it to me, and then the nail in the coffin—Christina Han told me this: "It’s the only thing that I think truly makes my skin look glow-y from the inside out. You know, when you have that sort of facial fresh glow? That’s it. Every time I recommend this to someone, they always fall in love with it." K, cool. I'll take five. I've been using it every day since I got back (so a few weeks, including on a separate trip to San Francisco) and I've gotta say... That stuff works. It takes skin from irritated to happy in just a few applications. And Christina's right about the glow. Just perceptible enough to look like you get facials regularly, without veering into greaseball territory. —Emily Ferber
Everything French Pharmacy
My three-and-a-half day stay in Paris this month allowed me enough time to see the typical curiosités: The Eiffel Tower, Thanx God I’m a VIP, Le Rouge Discotheque, and perhaps the most climactic, a French pharmacy. A fluorescent green cross popped up on every other street corner while I was there—I literally stood beneath one as I read this article on my phone and picked up some A313 and Hexomedine Transcutanee (without a prescription I must add—so convenient!) Using Hexomedine as a disinfecting spot treatment and applying A313 right before bed is my one-two punch. My angry, post-travel zits have cleared, my skin texture is touchably smooth, and my acne scars are fading faster than they ever have before. I hate to be that girl, but these truly live up to the hype. —Utibe Mbagwu
Tylenol
I don't mean to blindside anyone with this plug for a literal drugstore item—an actual drug!—but the truth is that I have strong positive feelings for Tylenol. As a chronic migraine sufferer, I was a longtime advocate of Advil...until it gave me stomach ulcers and a lifetime of discomfort along with an inability to eat a single tomato or drink more than one cup of coffee in a day. Tylenol is the key! For the sake of your liver, it's best not to take it with alcohol, but it is a lifesaver for times when a migraine is making it impossible to get through a workday. Seemed like there were a lot of those days this past month. I always keep a single dose pack in my bag, in my desk, and in my jacket pocket. —AJ
Farmacy Honey Drop Lightweight Moisturizer
I'm always shifting through light moisturizers; it's the failsafe step I do to prove the people who say I break out because I don't moisturize enough wrong. This is perfect for that: not too much moisture, just the right texture. There's no smell, no stick, and I'm tripling up here on the 'natural' bacteria-fighting ingredients with some honey and Echinacea, in addition to the silver (see above). Bonus points for octagonal jar, the wooden lid, and the magnetic scoop. —TN
Koh Gen Do Brightening Moisture Mask
Talk about a brand that knows what it's doing. I've been working my way through a big (bigger than big, huge!) bottle of their Cleansing Spa Water to take off makeup at night and sleep grime in the morning, but the Moisture Mask has me really drinking the Kool-Aid. It's clay, but it's also moisture. Which, wow. That can be hard to find. It never dries, but still sucks up all the extra gunk that's sitting on the surface of my skin. Meanwhile, it infuses all that cleansing spa water I'm already using, just at another point in my routine. Fly a lot? Pick this one up, for sure. —EF
Photographed by Tom Newton.
