Rituals & Potions
On beauty routines, and when they fail
When Picture-Day Combs Don't Actually Comb
How differences fundamentally shape even our smallest rituals
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic My Lifelong Frizz-Ease Addiction
How I became convinced my hair wasn’t curly, it was defective
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic Skin-Firming as Self-Flagellation
Using a remedial lotion—that may not even work—only worsened my body image.
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic How Concealer Covers Up Women's Labor
Many women’s magazines promise to show readers how to fake eight hours of sleep with the help of the neutral paste, and an arsenal of highlighters, lash curlers, and other tools.
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic The Hundred-Year-Old Fix for Razor Bumps
There are a slew of products aimed at black men with this problem, but I found relief in early-20th-century razor technology. Now, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur has built a company around the old-fashioned solution.
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic Should I Keep Spraying This Water on My Face?
What if it’s French?
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Katie Martin / The Atlantic My Pointless Battle Against Puffy Eyes
I've tried creams, wands, and almost got surgery. Now, a new treatment is on the horizon.
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic The Scorched-Earth Acne Solution
Isotretinoin, better known as Accutane, is the acne drug of last resort. It let me shed my skin—literally—for the price of some gnarly side effects.
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic Protein Powder and the Promise of Transformation
18-30 grams of protein and a lot of internalized ideas about masculinity per serving
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic When 'Good Hair' Hurts
For years, I relaxed my black hair using painful chemicals as a way to find acceptance in my mostly white environment.
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic The Casualties of Women's War on Body Hair
Hair removal, at its core, is a form of gendered social control.
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imagehub / Shutterstock How St. Ives's Apricot Scrub Plays on People's Shame
I don’t want no scrubs.
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Don Brinn / AP The Unfortunate Reality of Dry Shampoo
It’s convenient, but bad for the scalp. So bad it might lead to hair loss.
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Phalinn Ooi / Flickr The Pseudoscience of Beauty Products
Why the dubious claims of so many skin-care companies go unquestioned and untested
