Yes, the Geek in Heels blog is now 20 years old.

Which, in internet years, makes it approximately 147.

I actually started blogging before Geek in Heels, back in college on Xanga. (Does anyone else remember Xanga? Please say yes so I don’t feel ancient.) Even after the Xanga craze died down, the itch to blog never really went away. So in 2006, I finally said, “To heck with it,” and decided to buy my own domain.

At first, I considered something sensible and boring, like my name. Then one of my best friends at the time described me as a “geek in heels,” and something about the phrase just clicked.

Surely the domain was already taken?

It wasn’t.

And geekinheels.com was born.

One of the first site redesigns I did, when it was hosted on Squarespace

As with most personal blogs, traffic was practically nonexistent those first few years. I was essentially shouting into the void, except the void occasionally left a comment.

Then I got engaged.

I applied to become a blogger for Weddingbee.

At the time of this writing, Weddingbee is a shell of its former self, but back when I was planning my wedding, it was a thriving community of women blogging their way through wedding planning — and it was popular. I even got recognized by strangers in public for being a Weddingbee blogger, which was both thrilling and slightly surreal.

After I finished my wedding recaps and signed off from Weddingbee, I linked to my personal blog here. Quite a few readers followed me over, and suddenly this little corner of the internet wasn’t quite so little anymore.

I kept blogging after I had my kids, and at its peak, Geek in Heels was getting more than 120,000 visitors a month. There were sponsors. There were giveaways. There were people voluntarily coming here to read my thoughts!

My most popular post ever, the Star Wars MBTI Chart, has received millions of visits over the years. It has been featured on various websites and even in a university lecture.

Apparently combining Star Wars with personality types was my greatest contribution to academia.

Another redesign I did over the years, when the girls were just babies

But then life got busy. And complicated. And, if I’m being truthful, a little boring.

I became less inspired and less inclined to share my life with the world. My girls weren’t babies anymore, and as they got older, I became increasingly protective of their privacy. Eventually, I entered a stretch of about seven years when I barely blogged at all.

There was another reason for my absence, too: blogging itself was dying.

The golden age of personal blogs was over. Everything was moving toward shorter, faster content. Social media posts. Stories. Reels. Videos measured in seconds rather than paragraphs.

Who had time to sit down and read a blog anymore — especially one about the life of some stranger on the internet?

Unsurprisingly, my traffic plummeted. But I suspect it would have dwindled even if I had kept posting regularly. Google certainly wasn’t making things easier, with its constantly changing algorithms and an increasing emphasis on keeping people within its own ecosystem and advertising products.

Then AI arrived.

And if personal blogs were already lying on the side of the road, AI may have backed over them just to make sure.

My blog’s last design, which I had to change because it was no longer compatible with the latest version of PHP.
I still love this design, and I honestly can’t decide whether I like it or the current one better.

During my long hiatus, I seriously considered shutting Geek in Heels down. Every time another hosting renewal bill arrived, I would think: This is ridiculous. I barely blog anymore. Why am I still paying for this?

And yet, every single time, I couldn’t bring myself to hit the cancel button. Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I wasn’t quite finished.

I’m still not entirely sure what made me start blogging again last year. There wasn’t some grand epiphany or carefully plotted comeback. I just know that I missed it.

I missed writing.

I missed having my own little place on the internet.

And after all these years, I realized I had invested far too much time, energy, and love into Geek in Heels to simply let it disappear.

So here we are. Twenty years after I nervously published that first post, this blog is somehow still here.

Are personal blogs dead? Probably. But then again, this one has already survived Xanga, the rise and fall of the blogosphere, Facebook, Instagram, Google algorithm changes, seven years of neglect, multiple redesigns, PHP incompatibility, and now AI.

At this point, killing it might be harder than I thought.

So I’ll keep beating this very dead horse for as long as my fingers can type.

And if you’re still here reading along — whether you found me 20 years ago or 20 minutes ago — thank you.

Here’s to another 20.

Or, you know, until the next PHP update.

Then they come.

The tourists. The influencers. The people who clamor for the perfect shot.

There’s a parent who tries to coax their child onto the famous — and dangerous! — Norwegian boulder Kjeragbolten for a photo. Assistants fluff dresses so the wearer appears effortlessly windswept. Selfie sticks and drones abound.

Everyone is there to see something beautiful, yet no one seems to actually look at it except through a tiny screen.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of the trip J and I took to Greece back in 2018. We honeymooned in Greece (Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini), so we decided to return for our 10-year wedding anniversary. Alas, this time we had kids waiting back home (under the care of J’s parents), so we cut the trip down to just Athens and Santorini.

And I was completely overwhelmed by how crowded Santorini had become.

Back in 2008, when J and I got married, social media wasn’t nearly as big, and Greece wasn’t nearly as popular. Santorini was just another picturesque Greek island with pretty white buildings and blue domes. And when we were there, it was actually pretty quiet.

As you can see from the photos above, the streets of Santorini were pretty empty back in 2008. Sure, there are some pedestrians, but it is nothing like the madhouse it is these days.

By the time we returned in 2018, we knew Santorini had become quite the hot spot. We knew it would be crowded.

We were not prepared for how crowded.

It was a madhouse.

The streets of Thira were flooded with tourists and influencers, everyone seemingly trying to capture their own version of the exact same perfect Santorini photo.

Luckily, we had hired a private guide to show us around (and, yes, take pictures for us — I recognize the irony here). We wanted to explore more of the island this time around, so our guide, Theodore, drove us around and took us to all the best spots. He knew all the less crowded back alleys, and in addition to the usual tourist-y places, he showed us less popular but equally beautiful parts of the island.

When it came time for dinner, he took us to a winery/restaurant that was obviously full for the night. He spoke to the maître d’, and suddenly we were being escorted to a reserved table.

He was so worth the money.

But even with Theodore helping us escape the worst of it, there was no getting around the sheer number of tourists.

There were lines to take pictures at certain hot spots.

Yes. Lines. To take pictures.

Here is one particular spot you may recognize:

You can see the shadow of a person’s head in the bottom-left corner. That’s where the line was.

There was an actual line just to get onto these stairs so you could take a picture with the famous blue dome.

And yes, we waited in it too.

When our turn finally came, Theodore took this picture of us:

Here’s another picture we had to wait in line to take:

None of this is to say that we had a bad time in Santorini. Far from it. Our guide was a godsend, and I have cherished memories from that vacation.

And obviously, I’m not exactly innocent here. I wanted the pictures too. I stood in those lines. I posed in front of the blue dome. I came home with photographic evidence that yes, I had been to Santorini.

But could I have done without the hordes of tourists and influencers, all of us pointing cameras at the same handful of views? Absolutely.

There’s something strange about traveling halfway around the world to see something beautiful, only to spend the experience worrying about how that beauty will look on a screen.

Has our need to capture the perfect shot ruined some of the most beautiful destinations in the world?

I think it has at least changed the way we experience them.

And maybe that’s what bothered me most about “The Spectacle.” Watching it, I recognized those tourists.

Because I’ve been one of them.

I’ll end this post with a comment from the YouTube page for “The Spectacle”:

Some years ago I was at a July 4th fireworks event by the ocean in Los Angeles and a kid near me watched the entire event through his phone screen while videoing. Never actually looked up at the sky. It was very sad and an eye opening moment for me.

I didn’t read it for the first time until I was well out of college, mostly because I hadn’t been the biggest fan of the Steinbeck I’d been required to read in school. But I still remember the first time I finished this masterpiece. I just sat there, staring into space, IN SHOCK at what I had just read because it had completely BLOWN MY MIND.

It’s a long read, and it isn’t an easy one. Steinbeck said that he tried to put everything into it, that he gave it everything he had, and it still wasn’t enough.

And yet, somehow, it feels as though the whole world is in that book.

It’s filled with tragedy and truths about the human condition. It’s also filled with wisdom, including one of my favorite lines: “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

It’s a book I try to reread at least once every couple of years. And every time, I learn something new. Every time, I appreciate it a little more.

So you can bet I was intrigued when I learned that Netflix was making a limited series based on my all-time favorite book…

Judging by the trailer, this adaptation seems to be a retelling of the story that focuses heavily on Florence Pugh’s character, Cathy. It makes sense that they would capitalize on Pugh’s star power, especially since she’s also executive producing the series. And Cathy, who is essentially written as the embodiment of evil, is certainly one of the book’s most fascinating characters.

But Cathy isn’t supposed to be the focus of the book.

While East of Eden explores themes of love, depravity, guilt, freedom, and our capacity for self-destruction, so much of the novel is about the relationships between its characters, and most importantly, the choices they make.

That brings us to one of the book’s most important ideas: timshel, a word translated in the novel as “thou mayest.” It represents the possibility of choice — the idea that we are not destined to be good or evil, but have the freedom to choose between them.

And that’s where I find myself a little apprehensive about this adaptation.

I don’t see much of the East of Eden I know and love in this trailer.

Granted, there’s only so much they can show in just over two minutes, so the series may turn out to be a pleasant surprise. I certainly hope it does. But if they’re telling the story largely from Cathy’s point of view, I hope they don’t try too hard to make her to be a sympathetic villian.

Cathy isn’t simply a misunderstood villain. She serves a much larger purpose in the novel, representing something darker about human nature  — and placing her against characters who struggle with their own capacity for good and evil is part of what makes East of Eden so powerful.

So, yes, I’m intrigued. I’m excited. I’m also more than a little nervous.

Because when someone adapts your favorite book of all time, it’s hard not to be.

East of Eden premieres on Netflix on October 1. Will you be watching?

(I also have a secret large drawer full of foundations that I return to whenever I get tired of the ones in my regular rotation.)

I’m not sure why I can never stay happy with one foundation. I swear my skin tone and texture are constantly changing, and what works one day doesn’t necessarily work the next.

I also like to experiment. If a product isn’t exactly to my liking, I’ll try to make it so.

At first, I did this with color mixers like the L.A. Girl PRO.color Foundation Mixing Pigments. Then I realized I could do the same thing by mixing different foundations. For example, if a foundation is too thick and matte for my taste, I can mix it with one that has a thinner, dewier formula. Heck, some people even recommend thinning out foundation with moisturizer to create your own tinted moisturizer.

And recently, I stumbled upon a NEW favorite combination that’s been working so well for me that I had to share.

Tower 28 released its new Swipe Serum Foundation in late August and naturally, I quickly snatched it up. At first, I bought the shade 1N Big Sur, but it turned out to be too pink for me. So I exchanged it for 1.5O Blythe…which turned out to be just a little too green.

(I know, I know. It’s an olive shade. What did I expect?)

However, I really like the formula of the Tower 28 foundation. And it reminded me of another foundation I really liked…

The Saie Glowy Super Skin Tint Foundation has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. If you can’t tell by now, I have a thing for serum foundations.   Some people say the Saie foundation is too glowy or that it never really sets, but I find it perfect for my dry skin, and I can set it just fine with a light dusting of powder.

The only problem is the shade.

Although my shade, 2, is supposed to have a yellow undertone, it turns pink on me. Yeah, my skin chemistry does weird things to foundations. Sometimes it seems to change their colors entirely.

So, on a whim, I tried mixing the Tower 28 and the Saie…

And it was PERFECT.

Because the formulas are so similar, they blended beautifully together. Even better, the green undertone of the Tower 28 and the pink tone I was getting from the Saie balanced each other out, creating a shade that worked perfectly for my skin.

And because the formulas themselves are exactly the kind I love — serum-like, glowy, with light-to-medium coverage — the combination gave me pretty much everything I’d been hunting for in a foundation.

Apparently, the perfect foundation for me isn’t one foundation at all. It’s two.

There’s just one problem.

When I looked up the Saie foundation on Sephora’s website just now, I saw that it was 50% off…and all of the lightest shades were sold out online.

Uh-oh.

Then I checked Saie’s website. Same thing.

WTF.

I scoured Reddit and even checked with ChatGPT, and no one seems to know for sure what’s going on. Is it being reformulated? Repackaged? Or—gasp!—quietly discontinued?

Meanwhile, my current bottle is already half-empty.

I’ve emailed Saie customer service to find out what’s going on, but in the meantime, it looks like I need to source another bottle ASAP.

Because of course I would finally stumble upon my perfect foundation combination right when one half of it might be disappearing.

Yes, I’m a self-proclaimed geek. Yes, I love gadgets. Yes, I love playing with the newest and latest toys.

BUT…

I have to confess that sometimes I get a little scared — and more than a little concerned — about the pace and direction of new technology.

Subscription models replacing simple ownership. Planned obsolescence.

Spyware running rampant in anything connected to the internet.

And seriously, why do we need a “smart” microwave or vacuum?

A few years ago, we bought an HP printer without doing enough research and ended up with one that required a subscription ink plan. It wasn’t expensive — $3.99 a month — but then one month, the printer encountered a network connectivity issue and couldn’t connect to HP’s servers.

Because it couldn’t confirm that we had a valid ink subscription, it refused to print anything.

Even though there was plenty of ink in the cartridges.

After that fiasco, we said, “Eff that,” and bought ourselves an Epson EcoTank printer.

It’s been more than a year and a half since we got this printer, and even with regular use, we haven’t had to replace a single ink tank.

Car manufacturers have been getting into the subscription game, too.

BMW famously made headlines for charging a subscription fee for heated seats, although it eventually killed the program after consumer backlash. But other features have remained tied to subscriptions, and other automakers have followed suit. Ford and GM charge subscriptions for certain advanced driver-assistance technologies. Tesla charges for its self-driving features. Toyota charges for certain connected services, including remote-start functionality on some vehicles.

When we got our new car last year, we were told we could remote-start it through an app…but after one year, we’d have to pay to continue using that feature.

Luckily, we can still remote-start the car with our key fob.

There’s also the fact that surveillance cameras will be required in new cars in the U.S. beginning in 2027. Things like this make me really wary of purchasing new vehicles in the future.

Which brings me to televisions.

“Smart” TVs began emerging in the early 2010s to accommodate streaming services and our increasingly connected world. At the time, they seemed pretty convenient. You could stream your favorite shows, browse the web, access apps, and view photos directly from your TV. Eventually, many TV manufacturers developed their own operating systems and smart-TV ecosystems.

Fast-forward to 2026, and practically every television sold in the U.S. is a smart TV.

And now, a company recently started selling a “dumb” TV, in response to growing demand for one.

Why?

Because some people are starting to realize that maybe we don’t want our televisions collecting data about us.

Smart TVs come with privacy concerns, potential security vulnerabilities, and software that may eventually stop receiving updates even though the television itself still works perfectly well. Suddenly, the idea of a TV that’s just a TV doesn’t sound so antiquated.

Which brings me to something that might be surprising for a geeky, gadget-loving household:

We still have—and regularly use—our old LG TV from 2008.

At the time, it was HUGE: 52 inches. And it cost a pretty penny at around $2,000. (That was a lot of money for a television back then!)

It was one of the biggest purchases we made for our home when we got married. I still remember going to a Korean electronics store in Queens to buy it because the model wasn’t officially available in the States yet.

It was delivered to us in a wooden crate.

Obviously, our TV is a “dumb” TV.

We considered upgrading to an OLED when we moved to New York, but that would have meant buying a smart TV. And the more we thought about it, the more we realized…why?

I wrote about our TV setup back in 2011,

And honestly, it hasn’t changed all that much since then.

We’ve decided to keep using a Mac Mini — we bought a new one a few years ago — which lets us watch downloaded movies, stream through a browser, and even do some simple computer work from the couch. We still have and use our original Apple Wireless Keyboard, although we’ve paired it with a cheap Logitech wireless mouse.

We also have an HD antenna connected to the TV in case we need to watch broadcast television. We usually use it for sporting events, although we’ve been known to stream games through the Mac Mini as well.

There’s also a now-discontinued Chromecast hooked up to the TV. It still works perfectly fine when we don’t feel like using a browser to stream something. J mostly uses it to watch anime on Crunchyroll.

And, of course, you can see the gaming systems hooked up to the TV: the PS5 and our Nintendo Switches.

(The original Nintendo cartridge you see on the right is actually a Valentine’s Day card I got for J a couple of years ago.)

Would an OLED TV have better picture quality?

Absolutely.

But our 18-year-old television still works perfectly fine. We’re still perfectly happy with the picture. Claire has her friends over all the time, and they play video games and watch movies on it without complaint.

And we never have to worry about our TV collecting viewing data, losing access to features because a server went down, or suddenly becoming obsolete because the manufacturer stopped supporting its software.

It just…works.

So there you have it.

Am I a Luddite? Far from it. I still love technology and gadgets. I just don’t believe that everything needs to be connected to the internet—or that every useful feature needs to become another monthly subscription.

I value my privacy. I prefer “dumb” appliances when they’re an option. I use a VPN. And I’m not afraid to seek out — or hang on to — older technology when it still does exactly what I need it to do.

Sometimes, the smartest piece of technology in the house might be the one that isn’t “smart” at all.

Yes, it was time for a colonoscopy.

To be completely honest, I hadn’t been to a primary care doctor for an annual checkup in years. Aside from annual gynecological visits since having my children, I only went to the doctor — usually specialists — when something was wrong. I also had a psychiatrist who prescribed my psychiatric medications.

But earlier this year, my psychiatrist retired, forcing me to find another prescriber for my mental health medication. This new doctor wanted me to have a full blood panel done because I had been on these meds for such a long time and he wanted to make sure that my organs hadn’t been negatively affected.

So I found a primary care doctor through my insurance company and got all the tests done. I explained to her that I hadn’t had a physical examination in years so she put me through a litany of tests.

The good news? I was within normal range for everything aside from triglycerides (which was high but the doctor said this could be because I had a sugary meal before the test) and low vitamin B12. She recommended I take B12 supplements. And, because I was 45, she gave me a referral to a gastroenterologist.

So I had a colonoscopy done. The worst part was the prep/cleanse the day before the procedure. No eating solid foods, a crapton of laxatives, and diarrhea through the night. My sister told me that my BIL lost about 15 lbs from his prep. Ever curious, I weighed myself before and after the prep, and I lost 5. The procedure itself was a breeze. As soon as they wheeled me into the procedure room, they knocked me out and I woke up after it was all done. No pain or anything else negative. The doctor found nothing concerning in my bowels. He gave me pictures from the procedure, and a diagram of where each picture was taken.

The other health-related update I want to write about is regarding the big M-word: menopause. Or, in my case, perimenopause. I think I may have been in perimenopause for the past few years and not noticed it.

Why do I think I may have been in perimenopause? Well, a few years ago, I experienced frozen shoulder — first, on my right shoulder, then about half a year later, on my left shoulder. Back then, I just thought I had pulled my muscles or slept wrong. I only recently learned that this condition is called frozen shoulder and that it can be a symptom of perimenopause.

Then there was my continuous period for over a year. Irregular periods is a sign of perimenopause, no?

So why haven’t I had the other, obvious signs of perimenopause like mood changes and hot flashes? I think it has to do with the medications I’m on. I’ve been on birth control pills since I had Aerin, and birth control pills can hide or mask menopause symptoms — some doctors even prescribe them to alleviate the symptoms of perimenopause/menopause. There are also my psychiatric meds. They work to balance my moods, so any hormonal mood changes would have been controlled by my meds.

One interesting thing that happened to me recently is that my period returned two months ago. I had shared that after my surgery to stop my neverending period, my periods had stopped altogether for over a year. (My doctor attributed this to my birth control pills.) Well, two months ago, they returned — on the day I’m supposed to get them according to my birth control pills — and this time, they stopped after a few days. It came again this month too, again on time and stopping on time. I have no idea why my period started up again. Another perimenopause symptom? I have an OB appointment in a couple of months so I will definitely be talking to him about this.

Along with an opaque rulebook, there are 1,600 cardboard chits, a few dozen charts tabulating damage, morale, and mechanical failure, and a 10-foot long map. Richard Berg, the legendary game designer and author of the game, admits that this is an unreasonable game for unreasonable people. For example, there is a “pasta rule” which requires Italian troops to use more water supplies so they can cook spaghetti.

On Reddit, a pair of friends chronicled their quest to play the game, just two people, once a week for a few hours. They magnetized the maps and game pieces to make setup faster and created their own searchable PDF-version of the rules to speed up rule checking. They also used digital spreadsheets with automated calculations to keep up with the immense amount of book-keeping.

The post is full of gems such as “We still don’t understand what the camels do.” They will continue to document their quest to finish the game at War With a Mate, a website they created for exactly this reason.

While reading about The Campaign for North America, I couldn’t help but be reminded of another over-the-top, complicated board game from pop culture:

That’s right. From one of my all-time favorite television series, from the mind of one of my all-time favorite television boyfriends/husbands: The Cones of Dunshire. Four cones wins, but in order to get a cone you have to build a civilization. The actual boardgame was never replicated in real life, but a charity version was released for GenCon 2014 (the box contained just a commemorative t-shirt and no game materials). 

While I’m sure that The Cones of Dunshire will never live up to The Campaign for North Africa in terms of complexity, it certainly was convoluted enough to build a cult following and make Ben Wyatt a minor celebrity among certain circles. Similarly, there are a few who consider Campaign to be a triumph, rather than a tedious gag. Used copies of the game go for a pretty penny, although that may have to do more with the novelty of owning the “world’s longest board game.”

Via Kottke.

The Amos Professional Active Green Tea Shampoo claims to be an anti-aging shampoo that contains green tea leaf extract and green tea root extract. It is a scalp-first salon-grade shampoo that helps support stronger and fuller-looking hair.

Now, I wasn’t completely happy with the shampoo I was using at the time. I live less than a 5-minute drive from our nearest Costco, but we’re in a predominantly white neighborhood, so our Costco doesn’t carry too many Asian products. I checked online, and sure enough, our local Costco didn’t carry this shampoo. But Costco did carry it online, and it was on sale for ~$30 for a two-pack.

I immediately placed an order, and it arrived in a few days. And you guys. You guys.

First, the texture of the shampoo. It’s has a thick, almost-bouncy gel. It foams up very nicely so you don’t need to use too much product.

Then there’s the fragrance. The scent of this shampoo is simply divine. It makes you feel like you’re in a luxury spa as you’re washing your hair. I used to get custom-made shampoo from Prose ages ago and you could choose your own scent (that was supposed to have this effect), but this has to be my favorite scent of all the shampoos I’ve ever used in my life. It’s clean, fresh, and not too overpowering.

But nevermind the texture and fragrance. How does the shampoo perform? Well, I’m happy to report that the Amos Professional Active Green Tea Shampoo delivers on its claims. My hair feels clean and voluminous after each wash. My scalp feels refreshed, and my roots get less oily. Additionally, I feel like I’m shedding less hair.

If you order from Costco, you get two 16.9 fl.oz. bottles for $43.99. (But they often go on sale, as I’ve checked back frequently.) You can also order one 16.9 fl.oz. bottle from Amazon for $29.99. Obviously, you get a better deal with Costco. And these bottles are huge — I’m still only halfway through my first bottle, and I got them 2 months ago!

So go ahead. If you’re looking for a new shampoo, please give this one a try. Now I’m curious about the other products in the Amos Professional line too.

Where to buy:
Costco — $43.99 for two bottles
Amazon — $29.99 for one bottle

For example, when you select one of my all-time favorite books, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, you are met with a description of the journey, the characters involved, and a map of the journey in the background. According to this, there are six journeys (six characters) occurring concurrently over a distance of about 17,000 miles spanning 6 months.

When you click on “Start the journey,” an animation begins playing, starting at Chapter 1 and the charater(s)’s location(s) at that point. You can speed up or slow down the animation as well as add sound effects. You may also choose to fast-forward or go back. You will also see that the locations on the map is marked by “a real place” or “a best guess.”

When you click on “Explore the map,” you are met with a list of the locations on the journey. This is what you get when you click on Vienna:

As you can see, Vienna is marked as a “Real Place.” Here’s what you get when you click on “the Count’s castle, above the Borgo Pass”:

You can see that the Count’s Castle is marked as a “Best Guess.”

According to the creator of PlotLines, every quotation on the map has been checked against the Project Gutenberg text and every period image is public domain and confirmed to actually be the place.

You can read more about how PlotLines came to be here, where the author also includes a journal of the process. He even made a page on How It’s Made for those who are curious about the technical aspects.

Be sure to check out PlotLines — even if you’re not too interested in maps, it’s a great way to revisit some of your favorite classics in a new format!

Via FlowingData.

Early last month, I came across this Instagram reel by Gothamista and I was immediately intrigued. A milky toner that not only hydrates but brightens and exfoliates? I immediately looked it up online.

The Eadem Cashmere Peel Milky Exfoliant & Hydrating Essence is a “milky skin-transforming exfoliant that combines the power of acids with the comfort of hydration to refine pores, smooth texture, and boost radiance.” It is formulated with gentler exfoliators of lactic acid, azelaic acid, tranexamic, and gluconolactone. Rice water and colloidal oatmeal help soothe and nourish the skin, while panthenol helps the skin retain moisture.

Because it is an exfoliant, Eadem recommends that you start by using it 2-3 times a week. I unfortunately did not take this advice and my skin went through a purging period for a couple of weeks. But now, my skin is softer and smoother than it’s been in ages. I used to get comedones regularly on my forehead but I haven’t since I started using this product. The best part? It’s replaced like 2-3 products/steps in my nighttime routine!

The Eadem Cashmere Peel Milky Exfoliant & Hydrating Essence retails for $42 (or $18 for the mini) and you can get it at Sephora or the Eadem website. I have been using it every night since I bought my bottle and you can bet I will buy another bottle when I run out!