There are about 18 million things that make you smell great, but the new lotion from Nécessaire isn’t one of them. In a world where hot chocolate body lotion exists, that can be a very good thing.
Nécessaire is a new brand from Into the Gloss co-founder Nick Axelrod and Estée Lauder alum Randi Christiansen. Their fragrance-free body moisturizer is like a good pair of white sneakers or a perfect white T-shirt: a minimalist, well-made, non-gimmicky basic that feels like relief in sea of too-complicated options.
Out of the tube, the lotion is thick and ivory, almost like Cinnabon icing. But it glides onto the skin, forming a velvety (not oily feeling) veil, without any sort of tugging, friction, or really much work at all. It buffs away and soothes dry, scaly skin so well that I don’t feel guilty for never exfoliating my body. When I use this, I never have to worry that my ankles look dry when I wear cropped jeans. And it smells like nothing at all!
I’ve moisturized my face for decades. As for my body … well, I only started five years ago due to laziness and because most body lotions made me feel as slippery and greased-up as a freshly basted Thanksgiving turkey. This is one of two body lotions that I’ve used to completion. It also looks really nice in my bathroom — the stylized typeface reminds me of French Vogue under Carine Roitfeld. Thank-you for not using san-serif font, Nécessaire, and thank-you for smelling and feeling like nothing, but working really well.
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