The Routine Notes

Most drawers hold far more tools than anyone uses. A deliberately short kit gets used more, gets cleaned more, and costs less.

LED wands, micro-current handsets and pulse massagers all sit in the same drawer and work in different ways. Knowing which mechanism you are buying makes the price make sense.

Large brush sets look like overkill and are often bought as a first set. Understanding which brushes in a set do the real work makes them a much better purchase.

Single-blade facial razors have moved from professional rooms to bathroom drawers. They are genuinely useful and genuinely misunderstood, so it is worth being precise about what they do.

Rollers all do broadly the same job — move fluid, feel good, give you a reason to spend five minutes on your face. What differs is how they hold cold, how heavy they feel,…

A blender that is rinsed properly keeps its bounce for months. One that is not becomes a hard, discoloured lump within weeks — and the difference is almost entirely about how quickly it dries.