The summer of 2020 is now underway with the 4th of July just around the corner. While 2020 has already proven to be the most difficult year in recent memory, its difficulties have helped many realize the need to take care of themselves both for the short-term and the long-term. In turn, below are 30 recommendations for brands with new products which can help make you more happy, healthy and/or motivated.
Crook & Marker’s new Spiked Teas, Spiked Lemonades and Spiked Coconut varieties can be enjoyed on their own but are also cocktail-ready. But also thanks to Crook & Marker, you can stay simultaneously covered and hydrated. The alcohol brand has introducted a revolutionary new TasteMask, as featuring a straw flap that allows you to mask up and drink up at the same time.
Combining fashion and function, the face masks come in 4 colorful tropical patterns inspired by Crook & Marker’s aforementioned new Spiked Coconut ready-to-drink line. Crook & Marker recently teased the TasteMask concept on their social channels and received hundreds of signups in just the first hour. Due to popular demand, the company is now in production on the masks. More information is online at http://crookandmarker.com/tastemask.
Argaux’s Backyard Burger 6 Pack
Aiming to provide “the best wines for your backyard burgering,” this 6-pack offering from Argaux consists of great “red, whie & rose” wine collections. Your 6-pack will consider of 2 bottles of 2018 Château de Montfrin Cherche Midi Rouge, 2 bottles of 2019 Château des Antonins Bordeaux Blanc, and 2 bottles of 2019 Railsback Freres ‘Les Rascasses’ Rose. Barbecue-related offerings aside, Argaux also has interesting “Quarantine Edition Blind Tasting Kits” available through its website.
Made with fresh mountain daisies (Arnica montana) from the French mountains, Boiron Arnicare Gel is intended to relieve everyday muscle aches and pains without a traditional strong medicine smell. You can use it at the first sign of back, neck, knee, shoulder or leg pain, for swelling from injuries, bruises; or even after a surgery. The gel cools and refreshes upon contact. Its non-greasy, water-based formula is absorbed quickly by the skin, leaving no residue. It also does not contain menthol, camphor, methyl salicylate, capsaicin, fragrances, dyes, or parabens. It does not mask symptoms that may indicate a more serious condition. Meanwhile, Boiron’s pain relief line also includes a cream, ointment, tablet, and arthritis pain formula.
Stanley’s Classic Stay Hot French Press, 48 Ounces
As a person who needs a morning boost and who prefers to always have a temperature-appropriate beverage handy, I go through multiple cups of coffee a day. While I’ve been making most of my coffee lately via Clio, sometimes you want to take that hot coffee with you to go — and a hot “to go” isn’t best served with a coffee mug.
In turn, when you know you are gonna need hot coffee, and lots of it, Stanley’s Classic Vacuum French Press is an ideal item to have at-hand. Holding up to 48 ounces — at least 4 mugs full, even with a big mug — it is designed to keep that caffeinated gold hot and keep you sane throughout the day. Thus, you can pace yourself with your coffee consumption, making it in the morning and keeping it fresh for hours to come.
Those of you with hair know that calls on Zoom and other video-based apps are not “if” but a “when.” Fortunately, MASAMI is a clean, premium, gender-neutral haircare brand with a unique Japanese ocean botanical, thus providing massive hydration. MASAMI’s shampoo is luxurious and high-performing without any bad ingredients: no sulfates, parabens or phthalates. The same folks also make conditioner and shine serum.
As important as your shoes can be towards keeping your feet fit and healthy, what’s inside your shoes is often just as important. Simultaneously loved by Health, Bustle, Outside and Runner’s World, Superfeet Insoles give you premium comfort, pain relief, and all-day support. Its website’s Insole Finder will help you find the best Superfeet Insoles for you in minutes. I personally can attest to these Superfeet wares fitting very well into my newly-acquired BOGS 4-H Boots and ECCO Outdoor XTrinsic sandals alike. All-purpose, year-round, essential gear.
And for those of us without hair, Mountaineer has a “complete care system for your bald head” on the market. This complete system includes a 4-ounce Detox Mask, a 4-ounce Head and Face Scrub, a 4-ounce Head and Face Wash-Shave Soap, a 4-ounce Shine Away, and a 2-ounce Moisturizing Balm. One-stop shopping for this sort of need, to say the least.
Mavi is widely-recognized as a leading, global lifestyle brand, as known for its affordable, soft, and stretchy denim. Some of its best-selling fits are the Zach, Jake, and Jacob silhouettes offerings for men. Mavi’s international distribution platform consists of strong wholesale and online partners including Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Stitch Fix, Zappos.com, Amazon, Simons, David Jones, P&C and Zalando.com alike. The price range is between $98 and $128 for jeans, while its shorts start at $78. The Mavi Jake Blue Black Athletic jeans are available in my size, fully-comfortable and entirely stylish.
SHASHI has been making an ideal performance grip sock for women, and now the same performance grip sock is made for men. Altogether, SHASHI socks are designed to feel look good, from your shoe, to home, to exercises such as yoga and golf. SHASHI grip socks feature COOLMAX moisture-wicking fabric for comfort, left and right foot design for a custom fit, and large grips for stability. They are available in the Basics (low cut), Essentials (no show) and Classic (original patented mesh) varieties.
If you are looking for convenient, effective and healthy nourishment for a healthy brain, improved concentration, attention, positive mood, memory and mental energy, you may want to grab a Voke superfood tab. It is a twice-daily plant-based chewable tablet, as supported by over 25 independent studies that show it can boost your whole-body health and give you more mental productivity.
Voke’s chewable tabs include Natural Red Beetroot, Organic Raw Guarana Seed, Organic Acerola Cherry and Natural Green Tea Leaf Caffeine. Voke Tabs are proudly made in the USA and the company partners with “1% for the Planet” to support environmental solutions. I like this supplement for both its taste and its purpose.
Orpheus Skin is anew, sustainably-formulated skincare brand. Powered by clincally-proven botanical stem cells and naturally-derived ingredients., Orpheus’ offerings are vegan, cruelty-free, and free of gluten, parabens and phthalates alike. The initial products from Orpheus are currently priced between $65 and $175 on Amazon and on the Orpheus Skin website.
Nabee is a designer of fun compression socks, and for those folks who fly over 5 hours and wear compression socks, studies show that they had improved energy, alertness, concentration and sleep. Compression socks can also help alleviate pain, fatigue and swelling, while simultaneously working to prevent spider and varicose veins. For athletes, wearing compression socks during a workout give a higher rate of tissue recovery and less muscle soreness after.
Meanwhile, Nabee socks are super-soft and durable. They are available in a wide variety of solids and cute prints, and they are ultimately designed to last for years.
Billing itself as “the new standard in men’s skincare,” bruvy combines daily essentials with text-based guidance to help guys look and feel their best. As said on its website, www.bruvy.com — currently the best place to order bruvy from — “two simple steps, superior results.” Those 2 simple steps, you ask? The Face Cleanser and The Face Moisturizer, its skincare duo. That duo in simultaneously plant-based, easy to use, and designed to work for all skin types.
evanhealy’s oil + water combination
You can give anyone the gift of self-care with the combination of evanhealy’s Frankincense HydroSoul and its organic Amazigh Argan Oil. For many men, working from home means they can forgo the company dress code and let their facial hair go and/or grow. But new facial hair can present new problem, including how to properly care for the hair and the skin beneath. And, while this oil and water combination was not specifically designed for facial hair care, it has been lauded as one of the best kept men’s beauty secrets by Merz Apothecary in Chicago.
Overall, evanhealy is a Southern California-based natural skincare brand that has been among the most respected for clean, sustainable and certified organic skin treatments for over 20 years. Just as impressive as the products themselves is where the ingredients come from. The brand has long partnered with family farms, women’s co-operatives and tribal villages to ethically source their product ingredients. Its Argan Oil is exclusively sourced from the Al Amal Berber Women’s Cooperative in southern Morocco, which derives the oil through the traditional process of hand-cracking and hand-pressing the argan nut. The 100 percent organic frankincense comes from the hills of Northern Somalia and then shipped to the U.S. where it is hydro-distilled.
Playing sports, working hard on the job or just walking around town can lead to breaking out in a sweat that interferes with your activities. Getting sweat in your eyes or having it roll down your face can throw off your whole game, ruin your makeup and is just generally annoying. NoSweat has created the first disposable performance liners for hats, helmets, hard hats and visors that absorb sweat instantly while preventing odors, stains and even acne. NoSweat thin liners simply peel and stick to the inside of headwear and feature SweatLock technology engineered to instantly absorb sweat.
Each NoSweat liner absorbs around 2 ounces of sweat. The liners are performance, safety and hygiene based allowing users to perform at their best, without distractions that are associated with sweating. NoSweat liners are backed by major athletes (e.g. Golden Tate, Dallas Keuchel) while the company is also an official PGA TOUR partner.
NasalGuard’s Airborne Particle Blocker is an electrostatic topical nasal gel that prevents airborne particles from entering the nose. The product is drug-free and safe for children, the elderly, pregnant or nursing women, and those concerned about potential drug interactions with other medications. During these uncertain times, NasalGuard is a unique product that can help people protect themselves from harmful airborne particles.
NasalGuard protects against virtually all types of airborne contaminants in any location. Users can count on it to work in their homes, airplanes, offices, hospitals and other environments where airborne particles may present a health hazard. A pin-sized drop of the preventative product is applied around the nostrils and above the upper lip and lasts up to 6 hours. Patented NasalGuard gel uses a cationic (positively-charged) polymer that creates a safe electrostatic field around the nasal passages that traps oppositely charged particles and repels similarly-charged particles to reduce inhalation of most harmful airborne particles before they enter your body.
Thanks to Eu Natural, you can have long-lasting energy the all natural way. Aiming to give you both primal joint support and anti-inflammation efforts, the Energy Bundle set from Eu Natural helps you move freely with strength, the all-natural way. As an alternative to glucosamine and chondroitin, the powerful blend of vitamins, minerals and herbal extracts can help support a healthy whole-body inflammation response while boosting your overall health and well-being.
The set’s Elite Caffeine L-Theanine provides focused, long-lasting energy with pure, 99.8 percent grade caffeine and L-Theanine. Its Vitality supports adrenal and cortisol health through a powerful blend of all-natural vitamins, minerals and herbal extracts can help support whole-body energy while boosting your overall health and well-being. For those concerned with ingredients, the set’s contents are blend at a cGMP Certified Laboratory to ensure strict FDA Standards and a contaminant-free product.
Boost Oxygen is 95 percent pure aviator’s breathing oxygen for any active, outdoorsy individual. Using supplemental oxygen has a positive impact on one’s health-related quality of life. Not only does it improve sleep and lift your mood, it also increases mental alertness, stamina and post workout recovery. Boost Oxygen also supports altitude acclimation and migraines. Priced at $7.99 — and available both via Amazon and at BoostOxygen.com — this product will also make a fine additional to both your home first aid kit and your COVID-19-related emergency supply kit.
Unlike oils and tinctures, Caliper CBD offers a great way to consume CBD as it provides consistent and precise dosage with every packet, so there’s no guesswork and people know they will get the same results every time. Each Caliper CBD packet has precisely 20 milligrams of CBD — non-THC, of course, so it won’t get you high — that dissolves cleanly in any food or beverage. It’s also flavorless, calorie-free and sugar-free. Caliper’s on-the-go packaging makes it convenient to incorporate a boost of wellness into any lifestyle’s daily routine, as you can add it in your morning coffee, protein shake, oatmeal, evening nightcap, or homemade DIY CBD treats.
As there’s still a stigma around CBD products, Caliper CBD is at the forefront to change that. The brand recently updated its website to increase the CBD brand’s transparency. This will help educate consumers and point out some of the ways that companies with hemp-based products are having to fend for themselves due to the lack of oversight and effective regulations from the FDA and U.S. Congress. With over 18 million Americans consuming CBD products daily, this is inarguably much needed action.
Gola Classics is a British heritage footwear brand with a treasured place in British sporting history. Best known for vintage-inspired styles and plimsoll sneakers, some of Gola’s most popular styles for men are the Harrier, Comet, and Inca. Gola’s sneakers come in an affordable price range, from $50 to $110 for most styles, and are sold in Nordstrom, Amazon, Zappos, and various boutique stores alike. The Gola Harrier has become my go-to walking shoe given that it is comfortable, form-fitting, supportive and fashionable all at once.
Whether you are confined to your backyard, patios or balconies — because social distancing — going off the grid to isolate, or are braving the outside world, BlendJet makes it really easy for just about anyone to cool down with some fun, fruity, blended or mixed adult beverages. While BlendJet is known for healthy smoothies, it does double duty as a pocketable blender capable of making a dozen tasty cocktails on a single charge.
While there is a long list of reasons to love a BlendJet, being able to make your favorite adult beverages literally anywhere is certainly at the top. As an added bonus, the BlendJet website features plenty of great recipes at no cost.
The popular eyewear company JINS recently launched JINS SCREEN Pro lenses as made for gamers and computer-based workers who are in front of digital screens for long periods of time. The lenses fight block 40 percent of blue light from digital screens, reduce eye strain, even after long gaming marathons and relieves eye fatigue, while you play. JINS SCREEN Pro lenses — as prescription or non-prescription — can be added to any time, which means you get more possibilities of finding a frame that suits your personal style, while also protecting your eyes while gaming. JINS has over 600 optical styles to choose from.
Those not spending too much time in front of screens still ought to love JINS’ offerings, as the brand has something for everyone in needs of great sunglasses. I personally recommend the Clayton, a polarized model which currently comes in 4 colors. The Clayton features a UV cut, thin lenses and anti-glare technology.
Founded in Spain in 2013 by Carlos Ferrando, Closca embraces product innovation and ideas that promote a more sustainable, contemporary and beautifully practical world. This award-winning, global brand is sold in renowned museums such as New York’s MoMA and London’s Victoria & Albert. Winning the Red Dot Design Award in 2015 and 2017 for its collapsable riding helmet and again in 2018 for its hands-free water bottle, Closca hopes to inspire a global movement with its products. Its strategy is based on three major environmental challenges to help inspire change; encouraging micro-mobility to reduce carbon footprint, reduce single-use plastics with reusable lasting bottles, and reducing effects of air pollution with their filter face masks.
Designed to prevent smog, pollution, microorganisms and pollen, the Closca Mask has found in the sudden pandemic an even more urgent utility and a much wider and more diverse scope. This mask is designed to last, it is washable, foldable, comfortable, and valid for different adult sizes as it fits with velcro. The 6 disposable filters making it highly-functional and practical as they are comfortable to wear. Meanwhile, 10 percent of sales related to Closca’s latest bottle collection will be donated to a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving natural icons.
Fixnzip is ideal for fixing the zippers on outdoor recreation and travel-oriented items, including luggage, tents, duffle bags, pants,sleeping bags, and jeep windows. In turn, it should not be surprising that Fixnzip is currently carried in the tactical kit of every U.S. Navy Seal. It simply slides over any broken zipper and instantly replaces it as a new zipper, also making it perfect for any wardrobe malfunction. FixnZip is available for purchase at www.fixnzip.com and its price points start at $10.99.
Nature’s Nosh is an innovative leader in its field via its healthy, functional CBD snacks. Recently the brand announced the launch of its single-serve CBD fruit and nut snack packs. These delicious CBD bites are available in Oatmeal Raisin, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Mint Chocolate, Chili Lime and Blueberry, with 25mg premium, hemp-derived CBD per bite. These single-serve packs are now the second product line for Nature’s Nosh, accompanied by the multi-serve (5mg per bite) packs that launched in June 2019.
Nature’s Nosh fruit & nut bites are crafted with premium isolate hemp extract with 0 percent THC and no more than 8 all natural ingredients. They are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free and GMO-free. All products are US-Hemp Authority certified and 3rd party tested for potency and purity. Consumers can buy Nature’s Nosh in two sizes, multi-serving bags with 40mg CBD per bag (5mg per bite) for $11.50 or single-serve bags with 25mg CBD per bag for $5.00.
Swiftwick is comprised of a passionate group of athletes serving athletes. The brand started when a mountain bike racer saw the need for high-performance socks with superior moisture-wicking and incredible fit. Today, it is an international brand developing performance socks for running, cycling, hiking and other adventures. It shares your passion for an active lifestyle and is committed to making the best socks you will ever wear.
Swiftwick’s Flite XT socks are the most technologically-advanced sock for ankle stability during quick movements. The Flite XT’s GripDry fiber creates tiny micro treads that grip your shoes to keep you stable, making it great for running, fitness and golf activities alike. Meanwhile, the brand’s Pursuit 12 ski socks are designed with merino wool for durability and moisture wicking temperature control. They are cushioned to support muscles and designed to absorb impact and have natural odor control.
OXIGEN was created to give you more from your water. With real science behind the oxygen-boosted, functional water brand, OXIGEN helps you to not only get back on your feet, but reach a higher level. Thus, you can recover and rise from what life takes out of you. OXIGEN is available in standard water (which deliver 100x the oxygen for faster recovery) and OXIGEN Shots (which deliver 500x the oxygen for instant focus) alike.
For over 75 years, JAF TEA has crafted the world’s finest teas building a reputation for superb quality and exceptional taste. JAF TEA prides themselves on supreme craftsmanship and experience to deliver the perfect cup of tea worldwide. JAF TEA guarantees only the best from the harvest of dozens of tea plantations, nurtured in lush valleys and emerald mountains of Ceylon and the specialist gardens of China.
JAF TEA delivers premium Ceylon tea to over 30 countries worldwide and is recognized for unwavering standards of quality regarding the world’s finest black tea. JAF Tea Ceylon teas gaining their richly-distinct flavor from the land and orthodox hand-plucked tea process ensuring the ultimate preservation of freshness and flavor of each bud’s essential oils. Available on Amazon, the JAF Tea line range includes a number of Classic Black Teas like the strong English Breakfast, fruit and spice-infused Flavoured Black Teas, and refreshing Classic Green Teas both pure and flavored.
With Vitamin D and C proven to help boost the immune system, it is a good idea to start a supplement regimen in preparation for travel. However, just like many other things in life, vitamin needs are not a one-size-fits-all. That’s why an endocrinologist and an internist teamed up to create Vous Vitamin, a medically-sound personalized multivitamin — one pill taken twice daily. Vous Vitamin are high-quality, natural vitamins and supplements that are meat and dairy-free, gluten-free, Non-GMO and GMP-certified.
To create your customized vitamins, you fill out a web-based survey related to your needs and preferences and it’s promptly created for delivery within 1 week of ordering. Very impressive!
For those readers with children, inevitably some of that reading is being done in the sun. Square Panda is a company that empowers children to learn how to read. Square Panda helps children between the ages of 2 and 8 learn to read through fun games grounded in research. It uses a multisensory approach, combining sight, touch and sound in each play experience.
SquareLand — one of the 11 games compatible with the Square Panda Playset — includes adaptive curriculum and gameplay where literacy concepts to learn are tailored towards an individual child. You can repare your child to read with skills such as identifying letters, phonemic awareness, learning letter sounds, rhyming, left to right directionality and vocabulary building.
In addition to the games, there is a customizable Parent Portal database that tracks each child’s milestones and learning progress. Educational games are available free to download on the App Store and Google Play. A new version of the main reading app, SquareTales was launched in mid-June. Meanwhile, its Square Panda Multisensory Phonics Playset 2.0 includes 46 tactile smart letters that a child places on a sturdy work station (12×9) to play interactive games.
