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Apr 24, 2023

Hey, Beautiful: 'Bottom drawer' skin care products we can't live without

Jun. 4—Skin care isn't only pretty bottles and aesthetically pleasing labels.

Jun. 4—Skin care isn't only pretty bottles and aesthetically pleasing labels.

While I love displaying my Charlotte Tilbury creams, Fenty Skin cleansers and Ouai body scrubs, other products I keep tucked away.

And we all have products like these. We hide them in drawers, shove them in the medicine cabinet, throw them into cosmetic bags — anything we can to get them out of sight because they just don't mesh with the "vibes," so to speak.

The former Into the Gloss blog (which spawned cult-beauty brand Glossier) rose to popularity thanks to its "Top Shelf" feature, which detailed people's top products. A few years ago, they unveiled a spin on it called the "Bottom Drawer," aka the products in our routines that we love to use, but would rather hide away from view.

Today's column is inspired by these hidden heroes in our routines; some are not aesthetically pleasing, but work great and some come in perfectly fine packaging but have an embarrassing job to do. Still we love them anyway, at least from afar.

Noble Formula 2% Pyrithione Zinc Argan Oil bar

Truly the ugliest on the list that I cannot live without. While bacteria causes many breakouts, some are caused by an overgrowth of a fungus we all have on our skin known as malassezia. About two years ago, I noticed tiny, flesh-colored bumps all along my forehead and cheeks that would not go away no matter what I did. I stumbled upon Noble Formula 2% Pyrithione Zinc Argan Oil bar on the SkincareAddiction Subreddit, which has anti-fungal properties and is made with olive and argan oils and oatmeal.

After one use, I saw immediate improvement in the texture on my forehead, and the bumps went away completely after a week of use. I'll use this after my typical cleansing steps about once a week for maintenance. I've also heard regular Head and Shoulders works similarly thanks to its inclusion of zinc, however with the added fragrance, dye and surfactants to make it a shampoo, I would proceed with caution before applying it to your face. This bar is much less offensive, sensitivity speaking. Except I do keep it hidden away in a little travel container in my vanity drawer because its lumpy texture and beige color are just not my aesthetic.

At-home pedicure tools

As I've said before, I don't normally get salon pedicures. My schedule is busy and I sometimes need to be able to do something like this on a whim rather than sticking with a standing appointment. That's why my 11 p.m. at-home pedicures work so well for me. While my feet look cute, the products do not. Once a month, I use a generic brand nail polish remover to take off my toenail polish. Then, after I shower, I trim my toenails and clean up my cuticles with a little kit I bought on Amazon. (This kit at least looks like a little compact when it's closed.) I'll also use a foot file on my heels and then apply a foot cream. Even though I tried to get away with sweet-smelling body lotions, they never quite cut it. That's because our feet don't have the same makeup as the rest of our body, so a dedicated foot cream like O'Keefe's Healthy Feet Foot Cream is necessary to help rough, dry feet. It comes in the ugliest packaging, but it works so good that I can't quit it. Foot files are unsightly, too, but they help to buff out that roughness and allow the cream to penetrate deeper. (I have heard that I'm actually negating my hard work because using a foot file causes skin to eventually thicken thanks to trauma but one thing at a time. Before the end of summer, I want to get a medical-grade pedicure at a podiatrist's office, so please send any leads on that my way!)

Naturium The Perfector Salicylic Acid Body Wash

I want to clear up any confusion by saying that this product looks gorgeous. It might just be the prettiest acne product I've ever used. That doesn't change the fact that body acne like "chestne" and "bacne," or chest and back acne, can be embarrassing and something most of us deal with but rarely speak about. Thankfully, this body wash has salicylic acid, a beta hydroxy acid (BHA) that gently exfoliates and penetrates to dissolve oil in pores and keep skin clear. Additionally, it's an encapsulated salicylic acid (aka time-released) to help curb body breakouts and smooth skin without drying it out like other body washes with exfoliants. It's also made with glycerin and linoleic-rich oils for extra hydration to leave skin feeling soft. There's still a trick to it, though. The skin on our backs and chests is thicker than that on our faces. In order for the active ingredient in the body wash to penetrate, you have to let it sit for at least 5 to 10 minutes before rinsing. Also, wash and condition your hair BEFORE you wash your body, and then clip it up. This will help you keep hair products from clogging your pores as you rinse them out.

Exfoliating gloves

The real MVP of my routine is less than $5. I've said it before, but I love those little exfoliating gloves because they're cheap, environmentally friendly and available at any drugstore. Once you've been in the shower for a few minutes and your skin is soft, wet the gloves, coat them with any body wash and use up-and-down motions all over your body to get rid of any dead skin. Don't go too hard to cause irritation, but gentle and consistent exfoliation will help reveal smoother, softer skin as well as speed up cell turnover, which in turn helps the look and feel of it. All of this aside, these gloves don't look particularly cute hanging from the hooks in your shower, so tuck them away when company comes over.

Beauty 360 Gentle Eye Makeup Remover

I wear lots of eye makeup, and I have never found a product that works as good as the Beauty 360 Gentle Eye Makeup Remover (CVS's version of Neutrogena Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover). It removes heavy eye shadow, eyelash glue and even GLITTER. My eyes are pretty sensitive, and I have never had an adverse reaction from this. The original version is fine, but the generic version is more affordable, and you can usually find bottles with a "50% more free" label on them. The latter is great for your wallet but not for your latest highly-curated skin care post.

Gia Mazur merwine is a staff writer for the Lifestyles Department of The Times-Tribune. Contact her at [email protected], 570-348-9127 or @gmazurTT on Twitter.

Contact the writer: [email protected]; 570-348-9127; @gmazurTT on Twitter