Take This And Call Me In The Morning

Before I left for New York, my son Heath had a bad cold—the kind that starts with a sore throat, then morphs into a stuffy nose…and lingers for weeks. So, when my plane touched down at LaGuardia and I felt the start of a scratchy throat, I knew what I was in for. Two days later, as I circled Central Park for the Shape Half Marathon, I was drugged up on DayQuil and sucking on Chloraseptic lozenges. The morning after the race, I headed out for meetings armed with a wad of tissues. Yuck. Thus, I was grateful when I met up with my friend Jaime, a beauty publicist, for lunch, and she slid Farmacy’s Honey Savior across the table to me.

A smear a day keeps sore skin away: Farmacy Honey Savior

This product lives up to its name. An all-in-one repair salve (according to the packaging), this treatment balm is like a topical equivalent of a cup of tea, packed with honey, Echinacea, and B vitamins to heal and soothe sore noses and chapped lips. It's thick and ointment-y fresh-squeezed from the tube but surprisingly un-gloppy or sticky on the skin, so you can smear it all over during the day and not look insane. I’ve even gotten Heath to use it sans complaint on his chronically-chapped lips.

Others have praised the balm’s ability to soothe eczema (no one in my family suffers from this, so I can’t personally attest to this benefit), but I can, from experience, say, it's also a godsend for raggedy cuticles, callused feet—and dry shins (why is skin always so ashy there?). It may seem a bit of a splurge at $34 for what sounds like fancy Aquaphor, but I promise on a per-use calculation, you'll be down to pennies in no time. Plus, it smells, feels and blends better than any garden-variety drugstore ointment—and if it's a pleasure to use, well, you're more apt to actually use it. Win win.