I had 56 products on my shelf and skin that was getting worse.

After my children were born, my skin rewired itself. Cystic acne — monthly, reliable, prescription-resistant. Wrinkles appearing while the breakouts continued. I was seeing a dermatologist regularly, on prescription medication, following the podcasts, reading the threads, trying the face yoga. I had spent thousands. And each month, like clockwork, a cystic breakout would arrive, leave a scar, and wait for the next one.

Four days before my 40th birthday, with a breakout establishing itself on my chin, I photographed every product on my shelf — all 56 of them — and asked the AI I had been using to run an audit. What it told me was the kind of information that should have been obvious and wasn’t. I was cancelling active ingredients by applying them consecutively. I was destroying my own skin barrier. Products I had spent real money on were working against each other, and against me.

I shelved fifteen products immediately. Gifted or discarded ten more. The rest were sequenced correctly, for the first time. Six weeks later, I was receiving compliments on my skin. I do not have skin that warrants unsolicited compliments.

The B&E Edit is what I built from that audit. We are all buying products because of an influencer, a friend, a derm recommendation — and they may be excellent products. But if they are working against each other, they are working against you. B is for my daughter Blaire. E is for my daughter Eleanor. It also stands for Balance and Equity — the two things a correctly sequenced protocol finally gave my skin.