My hair didn’t know peace until I was gifted a set of LilySilk pillowcases for Christmas a few years back. Before receiving this thoughtful gift, I slept exclusively on cotton pillowcases, not knowing that smooth-seeming cotton fabric was, at a microscopic level, the equivalent of sandpaper rubbing against my curls and coils all night (or…
Photo: Ellen Lee Also known as the Spring Festival, Lunar New Year celebrates the coming of spring. It’s customary to brighten your home with symbolic flowers, plants, and fruits, such as peonies, pussy willows, kumquats, and oranges, which represent fertility and abundance for the new year. In past years, Lego released limited-edition Lunar New Year–themed…
Whether a brand-resale program is for you depends on your priorities and risk tolerance. If packaging, bend-over-backwards customer service, and free shipping are your highest priorities, you may want to skip resale altogether. These programs offer few of the frills that many modern-day shoppers have come to expect. Shipping can be expensive, and the return…
Sure, Akt’s The Deodorant Balm seems uncontroversial enough. Each cheerily colored tube houses a cream-to-powder blend of moisturizers, odor-combating minerals, and sweat-mopping diatomaceous earth and arrowroot. But of the 14 panelists who tried the product, seven rated it somewhere between excellent and perfect, while the rest ranged from disappointed to horrified. I was firmly in…
Hannah Schwob for NYT Wirecutter Top pick This hybrid’s cozy, yet not squishy, feel won over our testers, and it’s made from high-quality and well-sourced materials. But it needs to be rotated a lot. Who it’s for: The Avocado Green Mattress (Firm) is best for back sleepers and combination sleepers, but it was broadly popular…
Herscovitch and Gottlieb gave me a primer on how best to set up your space so it’s comforting and not calamitous. Let the sunshine in. First, think about the cycle of your day and how the lighting plays into that. Maximize morning light. Get some sun on your face when you first wake up. Start…
Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter To test each microwave, we opened and shut doors, pressed buttons, and warmed, defrosted, cooked, and reheated dozens of foods, including burritos, butter, chicken breasts, coffee, fried rice, frozen broccoli, mac and cheese, pizza, and popcorn. For convection/air-fryer models, we also air-fried, baked, and toasted. Specifically, we evaluate: Size: Microwaves can be…
Photo: Michelle McSwain Based on our research, we determined that a breast pump worth recommending must have the following attributes and features: Efficient operation: The most important function of a breast pump is to pull milk out of the breast efficiently. We identified the models that were most effective at this task within a 15-minute…
Pumping parents often multitask during sessions, and while there are now some great wearable breast pumps available, the right pumping bra can allow you to use most standard electric pumps hands-free. Unlike a nursing bra, which unclips to allow you to bring your baby to the breast without removing your bra, a pumping bra is…
Following a surge in immigration enforcement actions in recent weeks, rumors have swirled, claiming that Amazon-owned Ring, which has sold tens of millions of smart cameras and video doorbells in the US, has been providing federal immigration law enforcement with access to user data. That unsubstantiated claim, frequently reposted on social media along with calls…