8 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: NYC’s Fanciest Dermatologist Likes This Drugstore Pimple Gel

“It’s time to take gender out of clothes,” says writer Diksha Basu. After her husband started wearing a pair of her beloved baggy Free People pants, Basu set out to find more comfortable bottoms they could share (and both look terrific in). Six pairs later, they landed on these 100 percent cotton low-rise utility pants by Madewell, their favorite of the bunch. “The pockets are the right size, not too deep, and not so big that things fall out when we’re sitting. The pants are relaxed enough for travel while looking put-together enough for work. I might need to get these in all the available colors,” she says.

Senior kitchen and dining writer Emma Wartzman spoke to fashion designer and cookbook author Peter Som about the 11 kitchen essentials he can’t cook without for this week’s “Celebrity Shopping.” Among them is the furikake — a Japanese seasoning made with seaweed, sesame seeds, salt, sugar, and sometimes dried egg yolk — that he keeps by his stove at all times. “Furikake technically means ‘sprinkle’ in Japanese, and traditionally it’s used to sprinkle over rice,” he says. “But I essentially put it on everything. It looks really pretty, too, so even when you’re making a random fridge-clean-out meal on a Tuesday, you just sprinkle some furikake on, and you’re like, Oh, this looks nice.”

October Prime Day is a few days away, on the 6th and 7th. Deals writer Sam Daly, who has covered the event since 2018, has been deep in “megadeals mode.” She rounded up over 100 of the best sales most likely to take place across beauty, fashion, home, and more. Like this already-on-sale (and Strategist-approved) snail-mucin serum. According to Daly, it’s set to be up to half off, too.

Writer Brenley Goertzen is no stranger to the work bag — she has tested well over 50. In her last year and a half of reporting, MZ Wallace’s pouches, carry-ons, and backpacks were repeatedly praised by sources (including columnist Kim France). So she tested six of the brand’s best-selling styles. “This is my perfect city-schlepping tote,” she says of the six-pocket Metro Tote, one of her favorites. “The main compartment is very generous and easily holds my MacBook Air and charger, a book, earbuds, and more. I never felt like it looked sloppy.” Three detachable pouches make organizing all-day extras like gym gear and makeup easier, too.

While we’ve covered ways to brew coffee that don’t involve plastic, we didn’t include plastic-free electric coffee makers — which, up until earlier this week, hardly existed. Wartzmann has spent the past several weeks testing Caraway’s new ten-cup machine, made entirely, from carafe to water reservoir, of stainless steel and glass. “It has all of the attributes I love about electric coffee makers: an intuitive setup, a one-button interface, and the ability to brew a lot of coffee,” she says. Not to mention it produces clean, full-bodied, and great-tasting coffee every time, even rivaling our best overall pick (and Wartzman’s machine of choice for years).

For the latest “Beauty Isle,” writer Arielle Avila spoke to dermatologist and Macrene Actives founder Dr. Macrene Alexiades about her drugstore go-tos, like this over-the-counter gel she recommends for after-sun blackheads and whiteheads. “Tanning thickens the skin, and then all that sunscreen also clogs the pores. This is really good for that particular problem. It’s a great trick. Just a pea-size amount at bedtime, and it will not peel the skin,” Alexiades says.

We’ve been fans of Away’s spinning-wheel rolling luggage since 2016 (it is behind our best overall pick). The brand just relaunched its entire range of check-in and carry-on bags, and “while its new Series 3 suitcases and soft bags look verysimilar to the originals, I’m surprised by how many small and useful upgrades they’ve received,” says writer Katherine Gillespie, who spent a weekend upstate testing two pieces from the line. From even smoother wheels that can now break to a concealable D-ring on the handle for attachments of your choice to a divider system for more intuitive packing, “the new features on these suitcases are functional rather than simply cosmetic,” she says (and worth the splurge).

At the height of the A-list Gen-Z celebrity-perfume boom, writer Kitty Guo wasn’t all that impressed with the largely gourmand-leaning scents by Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande lining the shelves. Until she came across Troye Sivan’s Tsu Lange Yor: “They were by far the best, most interesting, and most sophisticated of the celebrity perfumes I sniffed.” This set, featuring Tomato, Fig and Orange Grove, was released earlier this year and recommended to Guo by a friend. “All three are quite photorealistic — meaning they’re not so much an artful blend of many notes and ingredients, but instead smack you in the face with exactly what they are,” she says. While they’re designed to be layered with other scents for more complexity, she’s content wearing them on their own too.