Face Razors

Reach far back into your memory, way back to when The Real Housewives of New Jersey was in its first season and Caroline Manzo revealed that she shaves her face every day. I immediately felt a kinship with Caroline in this moment, because I became devoted to skincare at a very young age. “That’s so weird!” people would say, but Caroline and I are playing the long game, and these steps we’re taking now will make us the best looking octogenarians you’ve ever seen.

I don’t shave my face every day like Caroline Manzo, but I do shave my face regularly. We all have a little downy coat on our faces - on some faces it’s more noticeable than others - and if you wear makeup, sometimes those little hairs really spoil the look. As with so many things, Japan has solved this problem.

If you go to any Japanese beauty aisle there’s a good chance you’ll see razors like these. They’re for exfoliating and smoothing your skin and allowing your makeup to look flawless. Why put all that effort into your chosen makeup look if your canvas isn’t in the best shape it can be? These razors are gentle and easy to use. I have two areas I like to maintain with one of these tiny handheld problem solvers: My ‘stache, aka the area on the sides of my mouth and upper lip, and my unibrow, aka the area in between my eyebrows. Both of these areas never look hairy, but once you get some foundation on them those blonde and white hairs are suddenly front and center.

I will say, these razors, at least the ones I buy (named Tinkle for reasons unknown to me), are marketed as eyebrow razors. You know how those hairs on the top of your eyebrow aren’t always uniform? The idea is that you just shave off the unruly hairs around your brows for a precise look. But! You can absolutely use these razors anywhere you like. For me, once I started using them to tackle the so-blonde-they’re-white, super-soft hairs that pop up on my ‘stache and unibrow areas, I knew I’d never go back.

I buy my razors on Amazon. You can get two packs of three razors for less than $5. There is some talk among reviewers that they’ve gotten knockoff razors, but I never have. Then again, I’m not sure I could tell either way. The point is, these razors are cheap, they’re effective, and if you want to have something in common with a Real Housewife, all the better.