I Tried It, I Loved It, and Now I Own It: CR Shopping Editor's Favorite Products

I have a very special relationship with this rug: As part of the evaluation process for washable rugs, I spent months on end with this striking, emerald-colored snake rug by Jonathan Adler in my itty-bitty Brooklyn kitchen. Not only can this rug take spills and stains like a champ, with everything I threw at it coming out in the wash, but it’s a great pop of color in my otherwise white-and-gray minuscule cooking space. It’s the perfect size for my apartment’s mini washer and dryer, too.

This lives in my kitchen now, and it makes me happy every time I look at it or stand on it because of the extra-thick cushion underneath.

I’m neither coordinated nor patient enough to style my hair with a big round brush while blow-drying it. That’s why this Amika thermal styling brush is the perfect solution for me: I can either let my hair air dry, or quickly blast it with a blow dryer without paying any attention to styling, then use the Amika to replicate that salon blowout look. The fine bristles keep my hair in place while gently curling it and giving it shine.

When I use this tool with the Aussie mousse below, I often get compliments from friends and even total strangers. Worth noting: I have mostly straight, fine hair, and the bristles didn’t bother me. That wasn’t the case for some of my colleagues with different hair lengths and textures, so if your hair is extra long, wavy, or curly, you may want to read what my colleagues had to say about the tool.

I ended up liking this brush so much during evaluations that I jumped on the chance to grab it for $30 off during a Cyber Monday sale.

I’ve kept this detangling brush in my shower ever since I put it to the test last year. Again, I have fine, straight hair, but a lot of it, and the Tangle Teezer’s small bristles are perfect for distributing conditioner in my wet hair while detangling it.

I also use it at the end of my shower before I put my hair into a towel wrap. Unlike a few other brushes I tried, no bristles have broken off, and it’s survived multiple drops onto the hard tile floor of my shower. This brush was also the overall pick for straight hair in our evaluations.

The Aussie Miracle Curls Mousse is light, not sticky, and it smells fantastically fresh yet not overpowering. Even though it’s technically for “curly” hair and I’m lucky if I can pull off a slight wave, this mousse smooths my strands and gives my hair a really nice shine, especially when I use it before styling my hair with the Amike tool above. I’m not the only one who liked it—this mousse was the runner-up in our evaluations, and fellow evaluator Jodhaira Rodriguez, who has very long, very curly hair, also started using it after testing.

I don’t like sweet or overly fruity scents, which is one big reason why I loved the Cathedral Grove fragrance of this body wash by Bathing Culture, which was named our top pick for refillable washes: It’s refreshing and slightly herbaceous without being medicinal and harsh, unlike some others I tried alongside my colleagues. That scent lingers slightly on the skin as well, which is perfect for me because I don’t like heavy perfumes or overly smelly lotions. I’m also a sucker for the cute bottle, and I love that it’s glass, so I can refill it instead of adding more plastic to landfills.

There’s something so luxurious about this Caudalie makeup remover that makes it worth the price. I found the scent fresh and fruity but not cloying, the texture was substantial enough that it didn’t immediately slide off the cotton pad. My skin felt super soft after I used it. My fellow evaluators felt similarly—this remover was dubbed a winner, if you don’t mind scented products. To that end, I also loved using the budget-friendly CeraVe Hydrating Micellar Water (below), which is a straight-up makeup remover that gets the job done.

Though I first used Simple Green during a grout-cleaning evaluation, I’ve since bought it a few times as my go-to multipurpose cleaner, and my colleagues have found it to be a supereffective multitasking concentrated formula in other tests. While I was using it on my bathroom tile, I liked the light, clean, and slightly herbaceous scent, but found it worked better for me as an everyday cleaning spray, especially in my kitchen.

I now have a 64-oz bottle of this stuff under my kitchen sink, and I refill a spray bottle as needed. I love it because you can adjust the strength of the cleaner to fit your needs, just by adding water, or you can keep it concentrated for tougher kitchen jobs. The smell is never overpowering nor chemical, which I like for daily life.

I live in a Brooklyn rental, in a building that’s about 120 years old—I’m far from my apartment’s first occupant. So when I say this Tilex Mold & Mildew remover, which we deemed "bleachy but effective," really does a number on grout (and my white shower tiles), you can believe it. I reach for this cleaner at least once a month during deep cleaning sessions, with the windows wide open to dispel the bleach smell.