Second to maybe Alvin, the IT guy, I hold the “honor” of having the most cluttered desk at NYMag. The rest of the Cut has beautiful desk tableaux with meaningful coffee table books, novels, and pictures of respected photographers. Charlotte even used to have a Mulberry garden gnome at her desk. But my desk resembles an episode of Hoarders: Beauty Clutter Edition. I’m like the Dirty Girl from that episode of Friends, except surrounded by bronzer and lipstick (and not disgusting). This also makes me naturally popular in the office, particularly during the winter season, when I’ve been doling out doses of one particular hand cream like flu shots.
For men and women alike, I’ve been prescribing shots of Aesop’s Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm. It’s a thick, creamy paste that melts into your skin and doesn’t wash off. It isn’t greasy and re-texturizes cracked, chapped skin so that it becomes smooth. The fragrance is like a candle scent that you and your hiking-loving boyfriend would fight over lighting. It smells like a Big Sur forest, with surprisingly complex notes of cedarwood, rosemary, and the slight brightness of a mandarin rind. This is not your one-note drugstore hand cream. It’s not citrusy, zesty, rustic, or pine-y; the scent is all those things at once, creating a full-bodied unisex fragrance. It’s just the thing to make you the most popular person in the office — even if you have the worst-looking desk.
