With our frequent hand washing due to the ongoing pandemic and our work in the garden prepping for spring, our hands have been dry, chapped, and blistered. That’s where we hoped Anthony would deliver. We were encouraged that they claimed that their lightweight hand cream “helps heal and soothe dry, chapped, cracked hands, diminishing tough calluses and healing unsightly cuticles.”

Like Goldilocks, we’ve tried gel, pomade, hairspray, leave-in conditioner (okay and mousse). And as we’ve come to find out, it totally depends on what type of hair you have, not just in terms of thickness or hair type a la Andre Walker’s Hair Typing System (side note, ALL hair is good hair!) but also in terms of whether it’s dry or oily.

Tiziana Terenzi’s Orion comes in a bottle that’s tailor made for its own display on the cosmetics floor of a department store: it’s a calming ivory cylinder with a generous gold cap inscribed with the constellation of Orion. Launched in 2015 and created by perfumer Paolo Terenzi, this is supposedly a unisex fragrance but it smells like a cedar tree (we’re all about de-gendering products but that’s like trying to sell a vanilla cupcake-scented fragrance to men - not sure how many it would appeal to but you should absolutely wear it if that’s your jam because there’s nothing cooler than people being unapologetically themselves).

But seeing as it won Best Mask in Men’s Health 2019 Grooming Awards and The Manual Guide’s 2019 Grooming Award, we figured we were obligated to try it. Boasting vitamin B3, collagen, green tea, ginger, and licorice extract, the mask aims to firm and even skin tone.

We mist it onto our face and neck when we feel like nodding off, but you can also use it to infuse your skin with more hydration before or after applying your moisturizer. Of course the scent helps too, a mix of peppermint-infused cucumber water.

If you read any fashion publication, chances are you’ve seen a tube of Marvis toothpaste. It has a beautiful label and comes in distinct flavors and is a product of Florence. We had to see what all the fuss was about. Marvis offers 9 different flavors which is a unique departure from either just mint or cinnamon on offer.

When it comes to skincare and grooming, few products elicit a stronger reaction than face wash. Maybe it’s because it’s the one thing that everyone uses regardless of how experienced they are with skincare, or that everyone has had a traumatic experience with a face wash that caused extreme dryness or resulted in an unwanted breakout. Anthony is one of those perennial favorite men’s brands featured everywhere from GQ to Forbes. Curious, we took their Glycolic Facial Cleanser out for a spin.

This is basically a giant chapstick that you can apply to different parts of your body, nose and lips included, making it (rather conveniently) portable aromatherapy. Badger even has a whole aromatherapy travel kit. This guy packs menthol crystals (mint essence created by a freezing process), eucalyptus, peppermint, lavender, and mandarin, so you can bet it smells amazing.

The cold of winter makes us look forward to showers not only for warming up, but as an excuse to try new body washes. We got our hands on body wash from Huron, one of those recent DTC men’s personal care brands like Disco and Hims. A former athlete, Matt Mullenax founded the brand in 2018 in his late 20s when he started to use more premium products, but couldn’t justify spending $70+ on personal care products.

Face masks are great for a whole slew of skin issues, but did you know there are also masks for your hair? OGX Extra Strength Hydrate & Repair + Argan Oil of Morocco Hair Mask is definitely the dark horse, probably because of the brand’s prevalence in stores from Walmart, Target, and Amazon to Sally’s and Ulta: you tend to lump it into the same group as Pantene or Suave. But its ubiquity is precisely one of the reasons why it’s so great, along with its super accessible price point.

Kiehl’s, no stranger to many men, produces its Powerful-Strength Dark Circle Reducing Vitamin C Eye Serum. This guy boasts three key ingredients: Vitamin C, known to help boost radiance, improve texture, and visibly reduce the appearance of lines and wrinkles; tri-peptides to counteract the visible effects of dark circles and puffiness; and Hyaluronic Acid to reduce facial lines and refine texture.

Third, it has SPF 30 sunscreen, which is the bare minimum anyone should be using. Cutting three steps down to one, it helps speed up our routine and gets us out the door faster (or used to when we had somewhere to go). While it does feel like a normal sunscreen, it didn’t leave us feeling greasy or clogged, nor was there any shine left on our face.

But the world of skincare continues to offer us new takes on the products in our medicine cabinets, which is why when we ran out of the exfoliator we’ve been using forever, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to try something new. Though the brand has around for a decade now, we had never heard of Acure nor its Brightening Facial Scrub until it was recommended to us because let’s be real, it’s far easier to throw your go-to scrub into your cart while you’re already at Target on a Sunday.

As the day wore on and the top notes evaporated, its base note of sandalwood became present. Yet unlike sandalwood’s overuse in a lot of fragrances which can overpower the whole thing making it smell almost oud-y, this was kept in check by the cedar: we felt it was a 60/40 split. Though technically it’s a winter scent (Commodity says it’s part of the Black Collection whose scents are “dark, moody and intense”), it’s kind of like saying you can’t wear white after Labor Day: wear whatever you want, whenever you want.

After cooing at the box for a good five minutes, we took it out, washed our face, and put it to work. The cream went on effortlessly: we were in awe of its super luxe consistency as the scentless peel seemed to slip and glide over itself as we smoothed it on our face. It got bonus points for also absorbing quickly without leaving our skin feeling heavy or greasy.

While it certainly held its own after a day complete with a work out, we weren’t left with the vibrant scent that Old Spice produces even after a long day and no one wants to tread lightly for fear of their deodorant wearing off, let alone go about their day being self-conscious. Not to sound like a commercial, but you want to feel confident that your deodorant is going to stand up and be long lasting and Native left us nervous.

The brand produces a decent product at an affordable price point and is easily accessible at your local CVS, Walgreen, Target, and Walmart, so we were intrigued to try their Avocado Hydrating Daily Face Moisturizer. Made with 100% natural avocado oil, soybean oil, and plant-based glycerin, it also contains niacinamide (Vitamin B3) and Vitamin E, which it claims helps to defend against dull skin.

Whether you’re looking for a new cologne or trying to match your scent to the season, we stumbled across Memoire Archives’ Cabin Retreat. The brand seeks to “capture the essence of time” and have you “embark into [the] sensory explorations of places and emotions” and we’ve gotta say it achieved it since our office playing “Holocene” for the hundredth time.

Our favorite thing about it is not only the amount of scents they carry, but the variation in scents – Early Grey + coconut Milk, Fig + Yuzu, Bergamot + Lime. It’s kind of a big deal. We tried the Lavender + Sage and really liked that it lasted all day. We often wondered what that pleasant smell was when a breeze came our way, only to delight in the fact that it was us, gently effusing lavender. What we didn’t like was that you had to hold the product to your skin for a few seconds to soften up the deodorant before applying it, which means it took a couple of swipes for us to feel okay that we were covered for the day.

Burt’s Bees. It’s a beloved, wholesome American brand, like something you’d find at a small shop during your weekend stay at an AirBnB in New England. We love their lip balms which heal our severly chapped lips overnight (we’re talking hurts to smile). And if you only know them for this, then you should know that they have expanded into every product under the sun.