No. 16: The 2022 Gold Star Trophy Winners

My absolute favorite books, tools, makeup, recipes and so on of the year. These are the heroes of 2022.

The roundup I look forward to every single year is here, friends. To be completely honest, I do this more for myself than for anyone else (picture the song “Remember” from You’ve Got Mail playing here) but I’m so grateful when my trial and error makes life easier for anyone reading this list. If you’re a new reader of the gold standard and find yourself wondering what help it can be for a stranger to tell you what they like, know that I’m a researcher by nature and a perfectionist by choice, so “I tried ___ so you don’t have to!” comes very naturally to me.

I don’t know a way to say this that isn’t braggy and gross, but in my decade of blogging, six years of which have been full-time, I believe I have built a reputation as someone who has recommendations people can trust. How do I know this, you ask? Because even after a year of being off of Instagram, I still get emails asking if someone should hem a pair of pants/if I like a certain perfume/how long the Veja sneakers will be uncomfortable/if I make any changes to a recipe and so on and so forth.

As a former stylist—first for Anthropologie and then on my own—I have spent years keeping an eye on the best new releases of clothing, skincare, makeup and all the things that matter without really mattering. I looked up one day somewhere around four years ago and realized I was straight-up drowning in stuff. Stuff I had bought to wear or use for a specific photo, stuff I had bought because an influencer doing a partnership promised me it’d fix my skin woes, stuff I had no need for and wouldn’t be reaching for more than a couple times…it was ugly.

The three ingredients of being married to a frugal man who keeps a pie chart of our itemized expenses pulled up on his laptop at all times, wanting to grow in contentment and leaving social media created a beautiful cocktail I like to call less. Less, but better. I’m writing this intro after finishing the curated list so less might warrant an eye roll, but many of the things listed are items I’ve owned for years or things I’ve loved and repurchased again and again.

For one more teeny layer of background to help you, The vast majority of things I own and use from household materials and skincare are non-toxic. I’m not going to give a huge description of why I loved certain things and what they do because we’d both be here all day, you know? Oh, and I made myself limit it to seven because seven always feels right (even though to be real, for some categories seven felt like a lot.) Okay. Let’s do this.