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Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Courtesy of the Subject, Retailers
Here at the Strategist, we love hearing about everyday stuff that actually works. That line of thinking extends to the drugstore beauty products in our medicine cabinets, shower caddies, and makeup bags. In our series “Beauty Aisle,” we’re talking to folks in the beauty industry — aestheticians, hairstylists, makeup artists, dermatologists, and the like — about the go-to affordable products they keep stocked. For this installment, Strategist beauty writer Tembe Denton-Hurst chatted with Jordan Samuel Pacitti, founder of Jordan Samuel Skin, about the drugstore products he loves.
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Dove has some of the best deodorants and in many iterations, whether it’s a spray or a stick. They first launched that scent, which is a cucumber-green-tea scent, in 2004. I had just broken up with my first serious relationship. We had a house together, we were splitting that up, and the scent had just come out. I was in my new apartment, freshly single, and started using that soap. I became obsessed with that smell. That smell always reminded me of new beginnings. It’s always been a really good memory for me. That combined with a really effective antiperspirant and deodorant make it a nonnegotiable for me. You can get it everywhere.
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I’m actually a bar-soap person. In the skin-care industry, I feel like there’s only a few of us. Dove bar soap is the gentlest. I never feel dry and stripped with it. I love that it has come out with so many fragrances. I am partial to this one because, like the deodorant, it represents new beginnings. Dove has a great pomegranate one now and a coconut one. They’re all amazing, and I recommend all of ’em. But this scent will always be the gold standard and the one I look back on fondly.
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I never do New Year’s resolutions, but years ago — it would’ve been 2005 or 2006 — I thought it would be nice to do really bite-size, impactful New Year’s resolutions. I was bad about flossing when I was in my 20s so I was like, You know what? Floss every night. That’s so fricking easy. Through that process, I was like, Oh, wait, this floss is terrible. Oh, this one’s much better. Oh, there’s variations of floss. I just like this one. I think the texture is nice. It gets in there, but it’s super-gentle. If you’re not good with flossing, it starts out being a little bit painful and you can bleed. This was really gentle but really impactful. Now that my teeth and mouth are used to flossing, I could use something else. And I do, if it’s an emergency or if we’re overseas and I can’t get this specific one, but it always feels like, Oh, thank God when I come back to this floss.
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This is a new addiction, probably like a year old. The perfumer who does our perfumes for our skin care and fragrance line recommended this, specifically this scent. The packaging is chic, but the flavor, I can’t even explain it. I am a fan of and honored to say a friend of Lisa Price of Carol’s Daughter. I was addicted to her ocean fragrance, which they no longer make or carry. If you could bottle the ocean fragrance in a toothpaste, it is this Aquatic Mint Marvis toothpaste. It’s also really effective. It bubbles really nicely. The flavor is so unique and yummy. It has this sort of aquatic, ocean-y, cucumber, fresh, minty flavor.
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My husband struggles from time to time with eczema on his legs. This was the one product he said completely changed the game. I started using it now and again and love it. I don’t have eczema, but I have sensitive skin in the winter. I can get really itchy and really dry really quickly. Again, super-easy to find and doesn’t fight with other scents or other fragrances I have on. It works. I obviously can’t speak to the eczema component, my husband can, but in terms of dryness and itchiness without being greasy, I love it.
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Foam and gel and lather shave creams, they’re all fine. That was the majority of shaving cream for the longest time. If it wasn’t that and you could find a really nice lubricating protective shaving cream, you were going department-store high end. Because I shave my head and face, I go through a good amount of it. What I love about Vanicream: I’m super-sensitive, so it’s fragrance free, essential-oil free. It’s non-lathering. It’s super-protective. It has a great slip. I find a little goes a long way. If I do want to be fancy, I pair it with a scented shaving oil, but it works by itself. It’s affordable for what it is, easy to get. For people who are super-sensitive and don’t love the lathering component of shaving products, this is my gold standard for non-lathering shaving products.
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I am a bar-soap person, but this could turn me into a shower-gel person because it actually lathers up. It doesn’t disappear, whether you’re using a loofah or one of the silicone shower mitts, which I love. It rinses clean but is not drying at all. There are so many brands that say, “Oh, we’re not drying,” and I feel it’s still a little drying. They were able to nail the texture, the foaminess of it, the rinsability, and it’s not stripping. It comes in maybe six or seven scents now, but the bergamot is just clean and fresh. I never get sick of it. Some of the other scents are more seasonal for me. West Village Rose is nice in the spring. But the bergamot is all season. I’ve gifted it many times. I love it.
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It works for most people, not for a super-oily skin type. During the day, I pair it with some of my skin-care products. It’s a really easy routine. If you use the proper amount, it’s enough moisture for a drier skin type. You get that SPF 50 protection. I have a light skin tone, but I do have a beard so I need it to blend in and not be a violet color. It’s a chemical sunscreen. I like that in the little cap there’s a little measuring thing, so you can measure the exact amount you’re supposed to apply. It has a really nice glowy finish. I also find my skin does better with chemical filters, but my eyes don’t always do great with it. I don’t get the eye sting or the teary eyes from this. So that’s important.
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People either love it or make fun of it because they’re like, “You’re literally just spraying spring water on your face.” However, they actually do have research. I don’t know if they have clinicals, but they do have research on what it does for people that tend to be really irritated or really sensitive. When I have it in my routine, it’s not helping to even my tone, but I feel like it’s keeping my skin calm.
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I feel like a broken record at this point with the sensitive-skin thing. RoC is the gold standard of drugstore retinol for sensitive skin. They have the means and the money to stabilize it, to have it in really great delivery systems. They play with different strengths, they play with different ingredients. I’m sensitive and I want to use retinol; I just don’t need it to be the first step on my skin where my skin potentially can have more irritation. I like it buffered a little bit in a more moisturizing, nourishing cream. I might layer a hydrating serum underneath. I like that it’s a retinol that’s easy to get. It doesn’t break the bank and it does work for sensitive skin. You still have to baby step into it. But for somebody that’s really sensitive, it is a breath of fresh air.
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This was something that I really did not pay attention to until maybe ten years ago. I used to be a professional ballet dancer and I would always use scented laundry detergents and fabric softeners. I loved it because the clothes you would wear when you were training all day and working would be sweaty. I didn’t want them to smell bad. And I would always have breakouts around my shoulders, top of back, and chest. I never correlated it to anything other than sweating all day. I never really thought about it until I stopped dancing. We randomly switched to an unscented laundry detergent and all of that went away. Within the month of using it I went back. I was like, I want something scented again. The breakouts came right back, and immediately I was like, This is the culprit. Any irritation I was having was from either scented laundry detergents or fabric softeners. I love them and I love scent. It just doesn’t love me.
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