The Year’s Most Popular ‘What I Can’t Live Without’s
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If you follow our celebrity-shopping series “What I Can’t Live Without,” you know that famous people are just like us. They don’t mess around aboutsunscreen, they write their daily pages (usually in aMoleskine), and they finish the night with a sweet treat. At least that’s what we’ve learned from our conversations with more than 100 famous people throughout 2025. Over the past 12 months, we’ve talked to Emmy winners, renowned designers, Olympic medalists, and James Beard–recognized chefs and even checked back in with a few celebs we’ve interviewed before, includingBobbi Brown,Zac Posen, andAndy Cohen. Of course, all these conversations were special, but a few rose to the top. Here, you’ll find 2025’s most popular “What I Can’t Live Without” columns, according to your page views, and the most popular items from each, according to your purchases.
Brooke Shields’s beauty routineis all about consistency. That means in order to achieve a believable fake tan, she uses this non-smelly fake tanner once a week. “It doesn’t get all over your sheets, and there are so many different versions of it (the mousse and the spray and the cream), so you can really custom-make it,” she told us, and over 300 of you took her word for it. Other routine favorites — notably, the serum behind her long lashes and the tea she’s been buying in bulksince 2018— ended up in your carts too.
It turns outLiza Koshywasn’t the only person who added aNinja Creamito their countertop this year. After she told us she uses it to turn her iced coffee into a breakfast treat enhanced with almond-milk creamer,protein powder, and fruit, nearly 150 of you bought one too. (Will you use it to make tartar-sauce ice cream as well?) You also enjoyed the caffeinated chocolate she eats before a night out with the girls and the multivitamins she’s been taking since moving to New York.
Naomi Wattsreally isjustlike the rest of us: She puts lotion on her feet before bed, tries not to lose her AirPods, and has gone through her fair share of fitness phases over the years. Last time we checked with her, she had gone all in on strength training and bought a rather affordable set of weights to improve her muscle mass, bone density, and mobility. While nearly 50 of you decided to try them out, it was Watts’s lotion that proved to be the most popular item on her list. (And perhaps 85 of you weren’t as successful as Watts is about keeping track of AirPods.) In the words of one reader: “Wow! Normal items, none over 100 bucks. This is why I love this lady!”
Even Oscar nominees wear Uniqlo — at least that’s what we learned when we talked toScarlett Johanssonabout the things she can’t live without. In particular, she’s a fan of the cropped bra tops she wears all year but especially in the summertime. “It’s so nice to not have to wear a bra when it’s hot outside, and they give you full coverage,” she says. That was enough to convince nearly 300 of you to grab one for yourselves. Second and third most popular from her list were the largely practical items she depends on every day: some oat-milk creamer and the antibacterial wipes she uses to clean up her kids.
No, it wasn’tKumail Nanjiani’s honorable tribute to the banana that swayed you most, but rather his praise for his favorite hot sauce, which, he says, “complements the flavor of whatever I’m eating rather than fighting it. It doesn’t draw too much attention to itself.” After he waxed poetic about the chocolate sprinkled with salty, crispy pretzels and the vitamins he uses to improve his balance, a couple hundred of you bought some too.
Every once in a while, we encounter a famous person who is so particular about their stuff that we ask them to go above and beyond the standard slate of eight to ten items. This year, that honor went toJane Pratt, who told us all about the cashmere hoodies she cozies up in and the zinc supplement she relies on for glowy skin. Just note: You can’t take zinc for extended periods of time, so she recommends using it when you’re really in need of a glow. “I’ve also used this trick to try to convince people that we were in love when it was actually just the zinc,” she says.
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Seven years after we chatted withBobbi Brownabout theAway carry-onandgluten-free tortilla chipsshe couldn’t live without, she gave us a whole new list of nonnegotiables in her life. The sweet treats — licorice coins and a chocolate shake with 30 grams of protein — were especially popular, but nothing came close to her favorite loafers. “They look like my Gucci or Prada loafers, but they feel like you’re standing on one of those chef mats in the kitchen,” she says. Apparently, that was enough to convince over 2,000 of you to take a chance on them too.
If we could describe in one word the response we got to the list of thingsSally Jessy Raphaelcan’t live without, it would bemore!We did our best to satisfy you with some investigative journalism abouther sailing sandals, but we hope the 516 of you who bought her glow-in-the-dark Timex got a taste of life à la SJR. She offered a couple of other appealing life hacks many of you adopted in droves: Pack only what you can’t buy (in a Hanke suitcase) and hem everything yourself. “I am slightly under five feet. This means that if I go to buy grown-up clothes in the store, everything is too long,” she says. “So I have pinking shears. Everything I own, I pink with the pinking shears.”
WhenRachel Bilsontold us she still swears by Dr. Pepper lip balm, it unlocked some core memories (and apparently convinced many of you to give it another try). “I have a drawerful of them, and I’m like,Will this last me the rest of my life?I sure hope so,” she says. You all stocked up on some of her other beauty favorites, too: the Dr. Bronner’s coconut oil she uses as a hair mask and the Q-tips she uses to touch up makeup and clean her ears. “You’re not supposed to stick them too far, so I’m very careful,” she told us.
Friendsmay have wrapped a couple of decades ago, butJennifer Aniston’s friends (and nearly 2,000 of you) can’t get enough of the gentle screen wipes she can’t live without. “They keep disappearing from my house because my friends always clean their glasses or clean their phone and it ends up slipping into their pockets,” she told us. Elsewhere in her home, she keeps the makeup brush she stole from her makeup artist and her easy-to-use label-maker at hand, both of which many of you also wanted to try. But really, those of you who read along made her list the most popular this year. As one reader says, “She is just so likable. I may not buy these items, but Iwantto know her recommendations!”
More From The Strategist
- The Strategist Fall 100
- The Best Things Strategist Editors Have Bought This Year (So Far)
- The Strategist Summer 100
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The Strategistis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read abouthere. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
