To Mother (v.)

What does it mean to mother? It can mean the long, late nights with a newborn, or pumping on your break from work, or staying home with a sick kid, or answering every “why” question a toddler can dream up. But mothering doesn’t end there: The auntie who makes date nights possible is mothering; so is the best friend who’s there at a moment’s notice; so are the grandparents doing school pickups. Mothering is about the incredible, literally life-changing work that mothers do, but it’s bigger than that: It is about care.

3 American Icons on Why We Need to Start Celebrating the Concept of Aging

"There were times I felt insecure. Then came the revelation: Who else looks like this? There’s only one of you! You must cling to that and how incredible that is, especially at 70 or 80. There’s only one of you. If I have creases in my face, they exist because I smiled, I frowned, I did everything in between. Wear your life beautifully on your face. Force yourself to love it, because you aren’t getting another chance. The curtain went up when you were born, and it’s not coming down until you’re in the ground. So please, enjoy this performance.”

– Judith Jamison, dancer, choreographer and artistic director emeritus of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater

Beauty and the Bees

I am in my co-worker Sam's backyard in Berkeley, California, admiring her garden roses, when she gently touches my arm and says, "You might want to think about moving. You're directly in the flight path." Flight path? I look up to the sky, puzzled—nothing. Then it hits me: Not 10 inches ahead of me is an unassuming wooden box softly humming with 30,000 bees (give or take). I am planted dead center in a honey bee superhighway; as if on cue, one of them plows into my shoulder, bounces off, and continues on its commute. I move over, fast.

Return to Retinol

Imagine for a moment that a revolutionary skincare ingredient was discovered. It visibly smoothed out wrinkles and obliterated breakouts; it improved skin texture and tightened pores into tiny little nothings. It could lessen the look of brown spots and sometimes even helped reduce precancerous lesions. It quite literally turned back the skin’s clock to a glowier, more luminous past. Imagine, too, that skeptics and researchers the world over had tested this ingredient exhaustively, scrutinizing it for decades to see if it really could be as potent as it appeared—and it was. If such an ingredient existed, who among us would not dash off to the nearest dermatologist, Sephora, or corner drugstore to snatch it up?

Your Baby Registry Must-Haves

“Making a baby registry is so easy!” said no expecting parent ever. We get it: From the minute you find out you’re pregnant, you’re navigating countless life changes. Add a baby registry into the mix, and suddenly you’re evaluating the usefulness of hundreds of unfamiliar products (what is a swaddle sleep sack, anyway??). It can all feel very high stakes.

So let’s start with this: Yes, making a baby registry is a lot—but it’s pretty wonderful once you’ve figured it out. After all, a registry is the best way for your friends and family to come together, help out, and get you exactly what you’re going to need for this brave new world you’re entering into. Consider this your definitive getting-ready-for-baby checklist.

A Toast to Toast

Close your eyes for a moment and think back to your earliest food memories. Was toast in there somewhere? Mine was a breakfast slice of whole-wheat bread that my mother would spread with butter, cinnamon and sugar, then heat under the broiler until the edges browned and the center was bubbling and caramelized; it’s been a good 20 years since she’s made it for me, but even today I can remember the crackling yield of the spiced sugar on my tongue. Such is the Proustian power of toast (no offense to the author’s famous madeleine): Take a bite of crisp, hot bread, and suddenly you’re 5 years old again—and hungry for another bite. As the English novelist Wilkie Collins wrote, “My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.”

Everything You Need to Know About Babies’ and Kids’ Hair

Maybe your baby was born with a gloriously thick mop of hair; maybe they were born with, well, absolutely none at all. But whatever baby hair your little one had (or didn’t have!) when they came into the world, you’ll start to notice hair changing over time as they grow from the delicate little creature you first met to a brave, boisterous toddler and finally an independent big kid.

Hyaluronic Acid and Retinol Are Skin Care’s Latest Power Duo

Over the past few years, hyaluronic acid and retinol have become such skincare staples that coming across a product without one or the other is rare. “In skincare, they’re the holy grail,” says Ranella Hirsch, M.D., a dermatologist in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sure, every few months a new wunderkind skincare ingredient is discovered in some remote locale, and pretty soon it’s everywhere—in your masks, serums, foot creams, insert-step-in-your-beauty-routine-here. But at the end of the day, there are only a handful of ingredients that have stood the test of time and truly become essential. 

I Spend $2,116 on My Beauty Routine, but Only $12 on My Skin

Is there anybody on the Internet more likeable than Quinta Brunson? From her breakout viral hit "The Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date" to her series Quinta vs. Everything, it’s safe to say the world doesn’t just like her—we love her. Luckily for everyone, she’s also currently working on a hotly anticipated pilot for a CBS show, Quinta & Jermaine, with Jermaine Fowler. As for beauty: If you haven’t seen Quinta vs. Everything: "Beauty Routine Struggles" already, stop whatever you’re doing, watch it, and have the best six minutes of your week.

How to Find Your Signature Scent

In the hunt for my current fragrance, there was a dark time when I found myself in front of that vast wall of bottles at Sephora and thought, Well, maybe I'll throw in the towel and go perfumeless. But after countless attempts, I realized that florals just weren't my thing. What felt the most like me were pared-down, less overtly ladylike scents. Once I grasped that, it was worlds easier to get to that moment when I smelled something that made it all click into place; it was like falling in love. So while picking a perfume can be a daunting task, fraught with wrong turns, fragrance jargon, and a dizzying array of white blotters, the end result is worth it. We turned to some of the world's best scent experts (the French, who else?) to answer your questions about the three big categories of fragrance and create a road map to discovering your perfect blend.

I Only Spend $94 on My Hair Every Year, and It's the Best

When it comes to explaining her extra-minimal beauty routine, Fatimah Asghar is utterly no bullshit. “I’m pretty busy—and lazy,” says the 28-year-old. The busy part is undeniable: Her debut book of poems If They Come for Us just came out (Publisher’s Weekly called it “awe-inspiring”), and she’s been traveling nonstop for her book tour. As if that weren’t enough already, her seriously amazing Web series Brown Girls is currently in development with HBO and has been hailed as a successor to Issa Rae’s Insecure. But just because Asghar doesn’t have an elaborate regimen doesn’t mean she isn’t considering her purchases. “I’ve been trying to prioritize local and natural beauty products,” she says. “I want to start spending more of my money on queer and women-of-color-run businesses. Being a woman of color myself, I think it’s really clear how integral that support from other women of color is."

7 Easy Swaps That'll Make Your Beauty Products Less Toxic

The average American woman uses 12 beauty products a day, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Together, those tally up to an average of 168 ingredients, which can make for a weird chemical soup on your skin. On top of that, many of those have never been adequately assessed for safety, says Nneka Leiba, director of the healthy living science program at the EWG. So, if you want to cut back, swap cleaner versions for at least two or three of these categories below—these often have potentially risky chemicals, or affect parts of your face or body that are particularly sensitive. Consider this your natural beauty cheatsheet, with exactly what you do—and don't—want in all your daily essentials.

I Spend $4,800 a Year on Life Coaches, and It’s Honestly Changed My Life

If you’ve had a baby in the past few years—hell, if you’ve seen a baby in the past few years—you likely have at least a passing familiarity with Solly Baby. Since its founding in 2011, the line’s chic, simple organic baby wraps (and more recently, swaddles and adorable newborn layette sets) have rapidly populated baby shower registries all over the country. Founder Elle Rowley started making the wraps herself after the birth of her second child—and now, four children deep, she’s running a little empire.