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This Is Us Season 3 Review: What's Going on With Randall?


Warning: This Is Us spoilers ahead.

Beth slept on the couch last night at the end of This Is Us‘ mid-season finale and, honestly, I was thrilled. Not because I want her and Randall’s relationship to fail, but because maybe Randall will now finally wake up from whatever’s been making him the worst for quite some time.

Seriously, what is up with Randall this season? If you’re caught up on This Is Us, then you know he’s hellbent on winning the city councilman election in Philadelphia—so much so that he’s now sacrificing the wellbeing of his family. Randall was hit with a harsh dose of reality last night when his campaign manager told him he just doesn’t have the numbers to compete with his running mate, Sol Brown. On top of that, his daughter Tess came out, and Deja, whom they just adopted, now wants to regularly visit her birth mother.

To me, all this pointed to Randall needing to drop out of the race and stay close to home. Beth—who was fired from her job and is going through it—even told Randall she can’t handle this family stress on her own. But his response was essentially, “Nope, I’m still doing this! Don’t care about your feelings, bye!”

Yes, it’s noble Randall wants to run for councilman, but his intentions are starting to feel increasingly selfish—at this point, it seems like he just wants to win the race. And I think he’s been like this for a while. Whenever Randall has some all-consuming idea, Beth is right there by his side with her support. Remember when he up and quit his job? Beth held down the fort so he could find his passion. When he wanted to buy a whole building, Beth was like, “Sure! We can afford that!” She’s always been Randall’s biggest cheerleader. Now it’s time for him to be hers.

PHOTO: NBC

Beth is clearly the one who needs support right now. When she told Randall she was fired, it didn’t sway or affect his councilman ambitions. He didn’t think to himself, “Maybe, I should take a backseat, find a 9 to 5, and let Beth figure things out like she did for me.” It was full steam ahead, no matter how she felt.

In fact, his solution to Beth’s feelings of inadequacy was hiring her for his campaign team. It always comes back to him and his needs, regardless of what he says to the contrary. After Randall told Beth he wasn’t dropping out of the campaign, she snarked, “You sure did learn how to talk like a politician.” She’s right! Anything he said about putting his family first was just lip service. When push came to shove—when Beth actually said, “Hey, I need you”—he failed. No amount of funny dad jokes or shirtless scenes is going to make up for that.

The men of This Is Us are frequently billed as perfect specimens, but it’s important to remember they’re all flawed. I’ll never forgive Jack for thinking he can buy a car without consulting Rebecca first, Kevin’s greatest asset is his abs, and Randall is completely self-centered. (Sorry, but he is!) In my opinion, the only way Randall can redeem himself is by quitting the campaign and committing to staying at home and fueling Beth’s growth. This likely won’t happen, though. He’ll probably just say some charming nonsense to make Beth temporarily forget she’s mad, even though her feelings are valid. Maybe he’ll go on to win the campaign, miraculously, and then find some other pipe dream that puts Beth’s desires on the back-burner. Again. But I really hope I’m wrong.

This Is Us season three will return January 15 at 9 P.M. ET on NBC.



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Dirty John Review: It's the Break I Didn’t Know I Needed From All the Christmas Cheer on TV


I was 30 minutes into the Netflix movie Christmas Inheritance when I reached a breaking point. Before this, mind you, I’d watched no less than four other holiday movies of the same variety with my mother—and enjoyed them all. From Netflix’s The Princess Switch to Lifetime’s The Christmas Contract, these films were just the cheesy, delightful romps I needed to get excited about December. With low stakes and happy endings all around, these movies really are welcome reprieves from the insanity that is 2018.

But by the sixth Santa cookie consumed in Christmas Inheritance, I’d had enough. Yes, these flicks are fun, but there’s only so much fluff you can watch in a three-day span before you start craving something with teeth.

That’s why I was stoked to check out Bravo’s new limited series Dirty John, based on the podcast of the same name, on Sunday night (November 25). The true-crime show was just the palette cleanser I needed before diving back into another Hallmark marathon—and, boy, did it deliver.

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The series, for the uninitiated, centers on a real woman named Debra Newell (played by Connie Britton) who begins dating a handsome-but-suspect man named John Meehan whom she met on the Internet. John (Erica Bana in the show) seems like a dream at first—he’s a hunky anesthesiologist and a great listener—but Debra’s daughters, Veronica (Juno Temple) and Terra (Julia Garner) quickly notice red flags. Despite his high-paying job, John is a schlubby dresser, he’s combative with Debra’s daughters almost immediately, and seems a little too infatuated by the Newell family’s wealth. By the end of the episode, Terra discovers a nursing diploma in John’s closet, which makes her wonder if he’s even an anesthesiologist at all.

PHOTO: Rich Fury

Connie Britton with the real Debra Newell

If you’ve listened to the podcast, then you know the answer—and you know the story only gets more intense from there. Don’t worry, though: Bravo’s adaptation will still hook you. That’s a testament to Britton, who does a scary-good job at playing aloof to John’s eccentricities while also gaining empathy from the audience. Bana, on the other hand, is brash and creepy as John, yet there’s still something about him that’s completely charming. You 100 percent understand why Debra fell for him, even though her own daughters were imploring her to run in the opposite direction. Both actors give nuanced performances that hopefully aren’t overlooked come awards season next year.

“Unnerving” is the perfect word to describe Dirty John. We know that Debra and John’s relationship implodes at some point, but the journey there is uncomfortably sunny and happy. All the good times John and Debra share have this dark, ominous cloud over them—a cloud Debra herself doesn’t even know is there, but the audience does. It’s the polar opposite of the Christmas movies you’ll consume in mass quantities this season, which are all sun with absolutely no thunderstorms in sight. Dirty John, in its own dishy, gritty way, will make you appreciate the whimsicality of those Hallmark movies even more.

The show airs Sunday nights at 10 P.M. ET on Bravo.

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Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Review: What a Modern Witch Thinks About Sabrina Spellman


The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina follows Sabrina Spellman, a teen witch who’s approaching the biggest moment of her magical life thus far: her sixteenth birthday. It falls on Halloween and is also the night of her dark baptism—the moment when she becomes an official member of the Satanic Church of Night. The dark baptism involves giving her soul to Satan by signing her name in the devil’s book.

But Sabrina isn’t just a witch, she’s that witch. Not cool with giving up her voice to a being she hasn’t even met, she demands power and agency. Sabrina will not be swayed into giving up her soul just because it’s expected by her family. So when it comes time to sign her name in the book of Satan, Sabrina leaves. She rejects the idea that she has to be loyal to someone else’s authority. The message? Sabrina’s power isn’t rooted in the Devil—it’s in herself.

This is what I love so much about Sabrina Spellman.

PHOTO: Diyah Pera/Netflix

Sabrina at her dark baptism.

As someone who discovered witchcraft at 12 years old—the year before my Bat Mitzvah, when I would become an “adult” in the eyes of Jewish society—I can relate to Sabrina’s situation. By the time my ceremony happened, right after my 13th birthday, I already knew I rejected everything I was being initiated into. I wasn’t Jewish, and I didn’t believe in one god. I was a witch, a Pagan, and believed in many gods.

At the time, I didn’t have the agency, or understanding, to do what Sabrina did when she ran away from her Dark Baptism, but I’ve carried my practice with witchcraft with me ever since. And like Sabrina, whose father was the High Priest in the Church of Night, my father is a clergyman, a Reform Rabbi. Like Sabrina, I’ve had to create and weave my own web alongside a family who doesn’t understand why I believe in what I do. And like Sabrina, I chose myself. I chose my own magick and happiness above all else.

Sabrina’s a wonderful emblem of the power of a free woman, of the liberation that comes from cutting ties to what no longer serves you. She’s an example of what the witch can look like in the modern age—sassy, perseverant, loyal. She makes mistakes, but she learns from them. She dabbles in the light and the darkness. She utilizes magick to create change for what she deems just. She’s an agent of karma, unyielding to forces that go against what she believes in. She may only be a teenager, but she is like Persephone, the goddess of spring and the underworld. To undermine her just because she is young is a grave mistake, because Sabrina contains dualities that let her transcend the realms of mortals and witches. Instead, she lives along the edge of both.

It’s in this blurred space that Sabrina and her mortal (read: non-witch) friends remind us of something important: Everyone has magick inside them. While witches like me may call it intuition, some, including Sabrina’s friend Ros, call it “the cunning.” For their friend Susie, it’s a “vision.” The point is, inside each and everyone one of us is the potential to see, feel, and recognize a glimmer of divine guidance that doesn’t come from anyone else; it comes from listening to ourselves.

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PHOTO: Courtesy of Netflix

The archetype of the witch, carried through centuries of pop-culture and folklore, is a divisive character. But the example Sabrina puts forward is modern and real. She casts spells and wades in the shadows, but the thing we can all relate to, witch or no, is her message: to know yourself is to know the universe. The strongest magick is that which you claim for yourself; no shame, no judgment. Sabrina reminds us of the beauty of the witch as someone who lives powerfully, consciously, and unapologetically. Hail Sabrina forever.

Gabriela Herstik is a writer, fashion critic, and witch. She writes Nylon’s Ask a Witch column. Follow her on Instagram @gabyherstik.





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LXMI Nut Butter Face Moisturizer Review


Words I live by: you can’t be perfect at everything from day one. That philosophy and my consciousness of the world was instilled early on by my grandmother, who hitchhiked across the globe and met my grandfather in India in the late forties—a crazy thing for a young white woman to do at the time. I was lucky that I grew up feeling like I didn’t need to follow certain life rules or a specific timeline. It’s what made me decide to take a gap semester in Africa when I was 17. My family didn’t have much money, but I convinced them and my college scholarship committee to let me use some of the funds to do volunteer work in Ghana. That trip changed my life.

It’s where I saw firsthand how important the sustainable development of wild plants is in ensuring that our planet is still here a thousand years from now. Right now we’re cutting them down and destroying their biodiversity at a rate faster than we can study them. Uganda is the place I discovered Nilotica, a rich, soothing skin butter native to rural areas there and in South Sudan that’s hand-­harvested from trees that take 20 years to mature. Nilotica butter is so pure you can literally eat it. And if you look at the skin of the local women who collect the nuts, all smooth and spot-free despite working 12-hour days in the sun, you know it’s legit. I was like, Why can’t I buy this instead of the stuff that costs $200 and does nothing for the planet or my face? So I got to work.

After finishing college and building a tech nonprofit that provides work for low-income communities around the world, I launched a sustainable beauty brand called LXMI two years ago. My goals: that it feature natural, plant-based ingredients; multipurpose formulations that tackle a variety of skin issues so we can consume less stuff altogether; and eco-packaging (currently, we at LMXI use glass and recyclable materials but are working toward fully biodegradable packaging for upcoming collections).

Along the way, I’ve learned that the future of beauty isn’t about a one-size-fits-all routine or a “go big or go home” green ethos. It’s about growing and tweaking and trying to make smarter choices moving forward. And not feeling bad about any of it. Because shame doesn’t motivate change; progress does.

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Watch Alessia Cara Review Her First YouTube Covers


Alessia Cara is one of the brightest new stars in music right now, but it took her years of hard work to get there. That hard work, more times than not, took place in the form of making and uploading YouTube cover videos.

Yes, like Justin Bieber before her, Cara was discovered on YouTube after posting several clips that showed off her impressive pipes. YouTube fame quickly turned into a full-fledged pop career: Cara released her first album, Know-It-All, in 2015, and she has a second one on the way. Her song with Zedd, “Stay,” was one of the most popular songs of 2017, reaching number seven on Billboard‘s Hot 100. Oh! And let’s not forget the fact she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2018. All of this stemmed from the groundwork she laid down on YouTube, dating as far back as 2011.

In many ways, these videos are like Cara’s yearbook photos, so she doesn’t revisit them often. That’s where we came in: Cara stopped by Glamour‘s office a few weeks ago, and we had her watch her old YouTube covers and give us some backstories. No surprise: She cringed several times.

“I hate this,” Cara said about her first cover video from 2011, in which she sang “Price Tag” by Jessie J. “I hate it so much! I’m playing the guitar 20 times louder than my voice. I’m just, like, strumming and screaming over the guitar.”

Watch Cara watch more of her own covers in the video, above.

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Tatcha The Kissu Lip Mask Review: How It Saved My Lips


“Dude, your lips are really chapped,” my younger brother said to me a little more than a week ago, his voice a mix of disgust and concern. If he can be counted on for anything, it’s his brutally honest, unfiltered, and sometimes unnecessary commentary.

I was immediately embarrassed. But more than that, I was frustrated because I had just slathered on lip balm and sealed it in with a coat of Vaseline. It didn’t work. Nothing ever worked.

Eight years ago, when I was a burgeoning beauty editor, I tasked myself with the impossible—and now in hindsight, stupid—mission to test all the new lipsticks, stains, and glosses I had received for that month. In one sitting. I swiped one on, and then wiped it off. Swiped another, and wiped it off. There must have been at least 20. And by the end, I had peeled an entire layer of skin off my lips. They were swollen, red, and just really, really angry. I attempted to soothe them with lip balm and then waited with the hope—oh, the naivete!— that they would quickly calm down.

The next day, the swelling had subsided somewhat, but in its place was a hardened, chapped mess that itched and burned at the touch of anything. My toothpaste made them hurt. So did water. I soon discovered smiling was out of the question; anything larger than a slight smirk led to them cracking and then bleeding. Crying for help, I turned to my roommate who swore by A&D, the diaper rash ointment, for healing cuts and softening dry skin. Desperate, I took her tube (I bought her a new one) and carried it with me everywhere, surreptitiously applying (because, diaper rash ointment) a layer before any activity that involved my mouth. My then-boyfriend, now-husband, will forever associate kissing me with A&D, which is both very weird and very unfortunate.

I didn’t realize what I had done was given myself lip dermatitis or a form of eczema called eczematous cheilitis. A&D helped rescue my lips, but they were never quite the same after that—they’ve been chronically chapped since. I quietly dealt with it by having a mini vessel of Vaseline with me at all times, avoiding irritants (I couldn’t eat spicy food, my favorite, for years), and all other lip products.

I slowly began trying new balms and formulas again, cautiously one-by-one. But it wasn’t until after my brother’s comment, when I tried Tatcha’s Kissu Lip Mask—the first product that wasn’t (1) designed for a baby’s butt and (2) formulated with petroleum jelly—that my lips didn’t completely rebel against.

Tatcha’s founder Victoria Tsai had once also given herself dermatitis from overzealously experimenting with beauty products, which ultimately led to the creation of a clean beauty brand that was free of all bad-for-you properties, like parabens, synthetic fragrances, sulfates, and phthalates. But what makes the lip mask so unique is its texture: It goes on like a jelly but it melts into a non-sticky liquid sheet mask.

What convinced me to try it was when Victoria Tsai, Tatcha’s founder, told me that she’d once also given herself dermatitis from experimenting with beauty products, which ultimately led to the creation of her clean beauty brand. The Kissu lip mask was born in much the same way as all of Tatcha’s offerings: It’s free of parabens, synthetic fragrances, sulfates, and phthalates. But what really makes it interesting is its texture: It goes on like a jelly but it melts into a non-sticky liquid sheet mask. (The formula, I’m told, took a team of scientists more than a year to perfect.)

The mask looks like light pink Jell-O, and it’s contained in the cutest little tub that comes with a tiny gold spatula, which makes the whole experience feel like you’re a fancy giant scooping out dessert.

It’s meant to be used as an overnight treatment, so I applied it at night right before bed. And in the morning, when I saw that it didn’t make my lips worse, I patted on some more. And a few more times in the afternoon. Three days later, after regular use, my lips—for the first time in eight years—were chap-, scale-, and itch-free. This must be what a normal human with functioning lips feels like, I marveled. This must be what my husband, who never uses chapstick or balm or any type of lip salve and never has had to suffer the agony of having chapped lips in his life, feels like.

So why does it work so well? “It’s a combination of the active ingredients and the form,” Tsai explains. “The jelly formula absorbs more easily than waxes, delivering active ingredients like Japanese peach seed extract, three Japanese rose extracts, and Japanese Camellia Oil, which nourish, repair, and protect the lips.”

And with that, my eight-year-long lip saga has come to an end. So suck on that, little brother.

Tatcha The Kissu Lip Mask, $30, tatcha.com

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