Decode your skin.

I cried the day I had my eyelash extensions removed. My real lashes were shorter than I remembered, mascara did basically nothing, and I was this close to booking a $300 full set back on. Then I remembered the thing I’d ordered for exactly this situation.

I spent time seriously looking into laser treatment for acne before deciding against it. The results varied more than I expected, and one part of the mechanism still concerns me.

Benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, sulfur, or ketoconazole? Every type of acne cleanser explained, who each one is for, and the wash that keeps my breakouts in check.

Your skin does its best repair work while you sleep — and a sleeping mask is basically giving it better materials to work with. It’s not the same as a moisturizer, and once you understand the difference, it’s hard to go back. Here are nine good ones to start with.

Hand-washing your face gets the surface clean. A cleansing brush gets into your pores. I’ve tried a lot of them over the years and landed on one I’ve used for six years straight — still works like new, no replacement heads, no subscription. Here’s what to look for and why I keep recommending the same one.

I get a jelly mask facial every month and it’s genuinely one of my favorite parts of my skincare routine — partly because it works, partly because lying there while someone massages your scalp is hard to beat. Here’s what they actually do, and how to get the same results at home if a spa membership isn’t in the budget right now.

As a software engineer, I debug systems for a living. When my skin kept breaking out no matter what I tried, I eventually approached it the same way — define the goal, research the inputs, test one variable at a time, measure results. Turns out that framework works really well for skincare. Here’s the method I use.