Take Better Care of Your Skin

The beauty industry has always preyed upon our insecurities: Try this lotion or potion to look (and thus be!) happier, healthier, prettier, younger. Savvy marketers use that vanity to convince us that we need products uniquely formulated for cold weather, warm weather, crow’s feet, undereye areas, lips, necks, scalps — and yes, even derrières.

As a result, there have never been more skin care products out there. My family’s crowded bathroom counter is evidence of this, and my 15-year-old daughter is its driving force. Like many of her peers, she has developed a seemingly limitless appetite for all manner of beauty products. In fact, thanks to Gens Z and Alpha, global beauty sales are expected to reach $590 billion in 2028 (up from $466 billion in 2023).

But, it turns out, a basic routine still reigns supreme. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what Wirecutter’s beauty team learned about skin care from months of research, testing and interviews with dermatologists. And I’ll share a simple regimen for healthier skin that won’t break your budget.

Easy does it

That focus on simplicity is something we heard repeatedly during our reporting and testing.

“Simple is good,” Dr. Neelam Vashi, a dermatologist in Boston, told us. “You really just want to have products that moisturize, rejuvenate and feel comfortable on your skin. There is no magic cream. The magic is just finding the routine and sticking to it.”

The more extraneous goops you layer on, the more you risk irritating your skin — and the trickier it becomes to discern exactly which ingredient might have triggered a reaction.

In general, products with short ingredient lists are preferable. And scan ingredient lists to check that your products have components targeting specific skin care concerns — sometimes called active ingredients.

On the labels of moisturizers and body lotions, for instance, look for water-trapping additives like glycerin, squalane, hyaluronic acid and ceramides. When shopping for a retinoid serum, look for retinol or retinaldehyde (aka retinal). And if you need an exfoliant to improve texture and tone, look for skin-buffing glycolic and lactic acids, or oil-fighting salicylic acid.

If a product is a bargain, don’t assume it will feel like a compromise: Many of our picks are under $20. Don’t get bamboozled by fancy packaging, either. Some truly amazing products reside in lackluster tubs and tubes (and underperformers can lurk in luxe bottles).

Four steps for skin care

It doesn’t take much to maintain healthy skin. Here’s a routine you can follow that requires only a few products and a few minutes of your day.

• Cleanse. At night, remove grime, sweat, dirt and makeup. Clean skin allows for better absorption of serums and moisturizers. When you wake up, you can wash again to remove residual skin care products. (If you have dry or sensitive skin, try just rinsing rather than full-on cleansing.)

• Treat. In the morning, use an antioxidant like vitamin C serum to offset damage from sunlight and pollution. On alternating nights, use either a hydroxy acid exfoliant, which whisks away dead skin cells, or a retinoid, which helps minimize fine lines and other signs of aging, acne and oiliness.

• Moisturize. Apply cream or lotion to your face and body both morning and night. Massaging the product into slightly damp skin will boost its effectiveness.

• Protect. Every morning — rain or shine, clear or overcast, at the beach or in the basement — wear sunscreen.

Our testing led us to 31 stellar products across skin types and categories — each ready for heavy rotation in an easy routine. You can find them in Wirecutter’s new Skin Care Essentials package.

• Lee Zeldin, the head of the E.P.A., was once a moderate Republican who spoke of the need to fight climate change. Read about his evolution into full MAGA warrior.

• Elon Musk has spent millions to back a State Supreme Court candidate in Wisconsin. That’s made him the face of the contest.

• The Trump administration fired nearly all staff members at the U.S. Institute of Peace, part of its efforts to eliminate the independent agency.

More on the Trump Administration

• President Trump told NBC News that he wouldn’t fire anyone involved in the group chat that inadvertently disclosed plans for airstrikes on Yemen to a journalist.

• Behind the scenes, however, Trump has asked aides whether he should fire Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who mistakenly added the journalist to the chat.

• Some car buyers are rushing purchases after Trump promised 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles and car parts beginning next week.

Other Big Stories

50 STATES, 50 FIXES

Across the country, in red and blue states, everyday people are doing quiet, vital work to confront climate change. A new series from The Times’s Climate desk will tell their stories.

See more here.

THE SUNDAY DEBATE

What makes the leaked Signal chat by high-ranking government officials a scandal?

The security failure. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was reckless to discuss on Signal the timing, weapons and targets of the planned strike against the Houthis. “Thank luck (or the grace of God, if you prefer) no U.S. pilots were killed due to Hegseth’s fecklessness,” The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Trudy Rubin writes.

The contents of the leak. The chat revealed a more important issue at hand: the lack of seriousness the officials displayed when planning a military operation. “They spent more time discussing ‘messaging’ than say, protecting an ally like Saudi Arabia from retaliation,” The Times’s Farah Stockman writes.

FROM OPINION

From its founding, the U.S. has wanted to annex Canada. Previous attempts have been disasters, Stacy Schiff writes.

Here’s a column by Ross Douthat on the defense secretary.

“Yoko,” by David Sheff: “The Lennon/Beatles saga is one of the greatest stories ever told, but Yoko’s part has been hidden in the band’s formidable shadow and further obscured by flagrant misogyny and racism,” writes David Sheff in his compassionate, just-this-side-of-authorized biography of Yoko Ono. Not only does he stare down the myths that landed the woman known as John Lennon’s wife in the cross hairs of conspiracy theorists, he gives Ono her due as an artist, musician, peacemaker and revolutionary in her own right. And Sheff — who’s best known for “Beautiful Boy,” a memoir of his son’s drug addiction — is well qualified to do so, if biased in ways he acknowledges: In September 1980, he spent almost three weeks with Lennon and Ono, interviewing them for an article that appeared in Playboy the week Lennon died. He later became friends with Ono. “I didn’t varnish the truth to depict Yoko as either a saint or a sinner,” Sheff writes. “Instead, I did my best to strip the varnish away.” The result is a time capsule from another era, and a thoughtful look at a determined woman who tried to make it better.

This week’s subject for The Interview is the former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who now hosts “The Megyn Kelly Show” on YouTube and SiriusXM.

One of the things you did, which is a red line for most journalists, is that you showed up at one of Donald Trump’s rallies right before the election, and you formally endorsed him. Once you endorse a politician onstage at a rally, I don’t think you can reasonably be called independent anymore, or do you see it differently?

I think I can. I don’t agree with that because I can still hit Trump, and do. There’s no question that I owned my bias on Trump and crossed a line that I had never crossed before, and never would have crossed when I was still straight news, ever. It’s just this weird new hybrid lane I’m in that even made it a possibility in my mind, that I even allowed myself to consider saying yes to the invitation.

I think a lot of people saw you endorsing Trump as caving — as essentially going to where the power is.

I don’t think it was me caving. It was me rising. It was me answering something I truly felt called to do. I’m thrilled Trump won. I shudder to think of what the country would be right now if Kamala Harris had won, and in the end, I had no qualms about going out there for him whatsoever.

You know the symbolism of it: Someone who so famously had been at odds with him, that he had done so much to, to publicly stand up and embrace him — that was significant to a lot of people.

I hope so. That was my goal in helping him, especially with women. I wanted to look them in the eyes, figuratively, and say: Trust me. You know I’m pro-woman, and you know I’ve expressed doubts about him in the past, about some of the choices he’s made when it came to dealing with women, but there is no other choice for women in this election.

Read more of the interview here.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

Emily Weinstein devotes this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter to a ubiquitous, economical but sometimes underappreciated ingredient: ground meat. Emily’s recommendations include a fragrant coconut chicken and sweet potato dish, one-pot chicken and meatballs, and stir-fried cabbage and pork in fish sauce butter.

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