Daily peppermint oil may offer a simple way to reduce mildly elevated blood pressure, according to new research.
Researchers at the University of Lancashire found that taking 100 microliters of peppermint oil twice a day for 20 days reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by an average of 8.5mmHg.
The findings, published in PLOS One, suggest peppermint oil could provide a simple, inexpensive, and well-tolerated option for people with slightly elevated blood pressure.
A Potential Low-Cost Approach to Blood Pressure
Lead author Dr. Jonnie Sinclair, Reader in Sport and Health Sciences, said: “High blood pressure is one of the biggest causes of heart disease and death worldwide, and it costs a huge amount of money to treat. Although medicines are commonly used to treat it, it’s not always clear how well they work in the long-term, and they can cause unwanted side effects.”
Peppermint naturally contains compounds including menthol and flavonoids. To investigate its possible effects, researchers enrolled 40 adults between the ages of 18 and 65 and randomly assigned them to two groups.
Participants with prehypertension or stage 1 hypertension in one group received a small daily amount of peppermint oil. The comparison group received a peppermint-flavored placebo without the active oil. Blood pressure improved in the peppermint oil group, while the placebo group showed no meaningful change.
Researchers Tracked More Than Blood Pressure
Although systolic blood pressure was the main focus, the researchers also examined several other measures. These included body measurements, blood test results, diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number in a blood pressure reading), heart rate, mental well-being and sleep quality.
Dr. Sinclair added: “Our findings were very positive and they have significant clinical implications, especially given arterial hypertension is the most common preventable risk factor for cardiometabolic disease and the greatest single risk factor for global mortality.
“Peppermint oil is low in calories and price so it’s proved to be a very simple and cost-effective solution to potentially treat millions of people around the world.”
The basic principle of weight loss is straightforward: if you consume fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight. In practice though, this isn’t usually so easy or simple.
Alongside counting calories or eating smaller portions, many people add exercise into the equation when trying to lose weight to help tip the balance. Yet research shows that exercise may only have modest effects on weight loss.
But before you ditch your workouts, it’s important to note that exercise still plays a really important role when it comes to health – perhaps especially in keeping the pounds off after reaching your goal weight.
There are several processes that help explain why exercise doesn’t always result in huge amounts of weight loss.
Exercise can stimulate appetite, leading to increased food intake. People may also subconsciously move less throughout the rest of the day after doing a workout, which means exercise may have less impact on their overall calorie deficit.
The body also becomes more efficient over time – burning fewer calories while doing the same activity. This process, sometimes called “metabolic adaptation”, reflects the body’s tendency to defend against weight loss.
From an evolutionary perspective, conserving energy during periods of intense physical activity probably protected our ancestors from starvation. But in today’s world, metabolic adaptation is one of many factors that can make weight loss difficult.
The importance of exercise
Although exercise may not be the main driver of weight loss, it seems it might play a role in maintaining weight loss.
In a study of over 1,100 people, physical activity was shown to have little effect on the amount of weight a person initially lost. However, doing higher levels of activity after losing weight was strongly linked to maintaining the weight loss.
It’s worth noting that exercise was also associated with measurable health improvements – including better cholesterol, lower inflammation, better blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity, all of which are associated with lower risk of health problems, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
These many health benefits show just how important it is to exercise both while losing weight and maintaining weight loss.
Evidence also suggests that combining exercise with weight loss drugs (such as Saxenda), may help people maintain their weight loss better than using the drug alone.
Why exercise works
It may seem confusing that exercise isn’t especially effective for losing weight but can help prevent regain. The reasons behind this paradox aren’t fully understood, but several mechanisms may offer an explanation.
The first has to do with our resting energy expenditure (the amount of calories our body burns when doing nothing).
When we lose weight, our resting energy expenditure decreases by more than you would expect for the amount of weight lost. This is thought to contribute to weight regain. But exercise raises total daily energy expenditure, which can help to partially offset this.
A second factor relates to muscle mass.
Weight loss usually results in the loss of both fat and muscle. Losing muscle lowers resting energy expenditure, which can contribute to weight regain.
But exercise, especially resistance training (such as Pilates or lifting weights), can help preserve or even rebuild muscle mass. This can boost our metabolism, which may aid in long-term weight maintenance.
Physical activity also helps our body to maintain its ability to burn fat. After losing weight, the body often becomes less efficient at using fat for energy.
But intense exercise can improve fat burning and metabolic flexibility – the ability to switch between burning carbohydrates and fat depending on what’s available. This helps the body continue burning fat even when calorie intake is low or weight is lost.
Exercise has many indirect effects on us that can aid in weight maintenance. For instance, exercise can improve sleep, mood and reduce stress levels. These all reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which could lower the amount of fat the body stores.
Regular activity can also help regulate appetite and blood glucose, which may help reduce cravings and limit overeating.
It’s important to acknowledge that everyone is different. This means we all respond differently to exercise in terms of how many calories we burn or whether a workout makes us feel hungrier later in the day.
Different types of workouts also confer their own benefits when it comes to health and weight maintenance.
Aerobic exercise (such as brisk walking, cycling or running) burns calories and, at higher intensities, may also enhance the body’s ability to burn fat for fuel.
Resistance training, on the other hand, helps build and preserve muscle mass. This supports a higher resting energy expenditure, aiding long-term weight maintenance.
Exercise may not be the most powerful tool for losing weight, but it could help sustain hard-earned weight loss. Perhaps most importantly, it offers many physical and mental health benefits that go far beyond the numbers on the scale.
Astronomers have found that some of the largest galaxies in the early universe contained many more small stars than scientists previously realized. That hidden population means these ancient galaxies may have been significantly more massive than earlier estimates indicated.
The discovery, made by an international team that included Penn State researchers, adds to a growing challenge for theories about how the first galaxies formed and evolved. The findings were published in Nature Astronomy.
JWST Uncovers Faint Stars in Ancient Galaxies
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers examined nine massive, mature galaxies that stopped producing new stars billions of years ago. They combined JWST observations of the distant universe with earlier ground-based data from the Very Large Telescope.
For the first time, the team was able to reliably estimate the relative numbers of small, faint stars and much larger, brighter stars in galaxies at such great distances.
“These galaxies are different,” said Joel Leja, the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Mid-Career Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State and coauthor of the paper. “They’re different in the way that is really challenging to understand, because they are more massive than we expected — like a lot more massive, they have three or four times more mass than we expected.”
Astronomers made the measurements by separating each galaxy’s light into a spectrum. Small variations in color within that spectrum can reveal which kinds of stars are present.
The difficulty is that large, luminous stars dominate the light, while smaller stars are far dimmer and much harder to identify. Penn State researchers contributed expertise and guidance for modeling the light detected from the galaxy systems.
Bright Stars Can Hide Vast Stellar Populations
“If a galaxy were a city, the brightest stars would be the skyscrapers that immediately catch your eye from afar,” said lead author Chloe Cheng, a recent doctoral graduate of Leiden University. “Our models demonstrate that a far more numerous population of low-mass stars is concealed by those rare, bright stars, like houses hidden between skyscrapers. As a result, this galaxy turns out to be much more massive than previous estimates suggested.”
Traditionally, astronomers estimating the mass hidden in small, faint stars have assumed that stars formed in roughly similar proportions throughout the universe. The new findings challenge that long-standing assumption.
The researchers found that the most massive galaxies in the early universe appear to contain a much greater share of low-mass stars than smaller galaxies such as the Milky Way.
One galaxy stood out in particular, according to coauthor Martje Slob, a doctoral candidate at Leiden University. It likely formed less than one and a half billion years after the Big Bang and could be as much as four times more massive than previous calculations suggested.
“Until recently, measurements like these were simply impossible,” Slob said. “We needed not only a telescope capable of magnifying very distant galaxies, but also spectra of exceptional quality and new analysis techniques to reliably detect the subtle signatures of faint, low-mass stars hidden within these cosmic titans.”
An Even Bigger Early Universe Puzzle
The findings could have major consequences for scientists trying to understand how galaxies developed in the young universe.
Since JWST began observing the cosmos, astronomers have repeatedly identified unexpectedly massive and mature galaxies that existed relatively soon after the Big Bang. Those discoveries have already put pressure on existing models of galaxy formation.
“This discovery has crucial implications for our understanding of the early universe,” said Leja, who is also affiliated with The Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. “Since the launch of JWST, astronomers have found surprisingly massive and mature galaxies that already existed shortly after the Big Bang. These very early galaxies are thought to evolve into the type of galaxies studied in this work; adding up to four times more stars to these massive, early-forming galaxies sharpens these tensions further.”
If galaxies like these contained substantially more stars than researchers previously estimated, theories of galaxy formation must account for how such enormous numbers of small stars could have appeared so early in cosmic history.
Hidden Stars Could Also Mean More Early Planets
The implications may extend beyond galaxy formation.
“This result shows that much more mass than previously thought is hidden in low-mass stars,” said Mariska Kriek, who led the research and serves as professor of extragalactic astronomy at Leiden Observatory. “That has consequences for many areas of astronomy. For example, as many planets orbit low-mass stars, this could even indicate that more planets formed in the early universe than we had previously assumed.”
Over the next several years, the researchers plan to use the same technique to study galaxies from even earlier periods. Their goal is to push observations closer to the time when the universe’s first generations of stars and galaxies began to emerge.
We’re at a dimly lit restaurant, the kind 30-somethings swap for the clubs of their 20. Across from me and my husband, Greg, sit potential new friends we met in the hallway at our son’s daycare.
After enough stop-and-chats at pickup, we figured it was time – dinner on a balmy Saturday night in the thick of a hot Chicago summer.
We’re halfway through appetisers when the other wife asks, “So, how did you two meet?”
It’s a classic first-date-with-potential-friends question. Poor thing, she has no idea what she’s stepped into.
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For most people, the “how we met” story is a gift, one of a couple’s greatest hits, perfect fodder for an evening with new friends. But Greg and I have a different kind of story. That’s why he nudges me under the table, our code to tell the simple version. To be fair, he thinks he looks worse in the story than I do. I disagree. But I’ll let you be the judge.
“Oh, we met through a mutual friend,” I say.
It’s true. Technically.
Adam was our mutual friend. It’s just not the whole truth.
The wife isn’t buying it. She tilts her head, eyes narrowing as she glances at her husband.
“Really?” she says. “You look like you have a story.”
Those looks are anxiety and hesitation. She’s not wrong. We do have a story.
Greg shoots me a tight, uneasy smile.
Here’s the thing: I don’t think either of us comes off looking bad. It’s just that telling it feels a lot like getting naked in front of someone you just met. And while I’m weirdly used to that feeling – metaphorically, I mean – Greg is not.
I’ve lost a lot of people for someone my age. After a while, vulnerability becomes muscle memory. I’m basically an emotional nudist at this point.
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More than anything, I feel like we owe the story to Adam – like his legacy demands it. Otherwise, the parts of him that remain – his stories and the love he left behind – they evaporate. And he’s already so gone. The least we can do is keep his thread alive in how we met. Greg knows that, which is why he lets me begin.
“I knew it,” the wife says, excited now. “Come on, tell us the real story. We can handle it.”
“
Adam was our mutual friend. It’s just not the whole truth.
Here’s another thing: the more someone insists they can handle something, the less they actually can. That’s not confidence. It’s anxiety pretending to be confidence. I know this because my anxiety does this all the time.
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“Can you?” Greg asks, half-joking. Even her insistence tells me she probably can’t. But I’m already halfway in, so I begin.
“I used to date Greg’s best friend, Adam.”
Her smile falters.
“Oh my God, what a scandal,” she says, trying to play it light.
And this is the part where she’s absolutely going to feel like an asshole.
“Well… not exactly. Adam died. He had an undetected heart condition,” I say. “We started dating after he passed.”
The wife looks like she might throw up.
The husband mutters, “Oh my God.”
I don’t blame them. It’s a lot. Most people aren’t prepared for this plot twist with their burrata.
“It’s OK,” I say, gently.
Greg adds, “It’d be a normal story if we were in a nursing home.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Very on-brand for your 70s. Less so at 26.”
Courtesy of Nicole Garelick
The author, Greg (left) and Adam out to dinner in 2015.
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The full backstory is that I first met Greg on Halloween 2013, though I wasn’t looking for him. I was on a street corner in Chicago dressed as Aziz Ansari, already tipsy, already confused. I’d been Instagram-stalking Greg’s best friend, Adam, who had piqued my interest. We had mutual friends from college, and he was always photographed with a cup of coffee and a far-off look, like he knew something the rest of us didn’t.
Greg showed up in a lot of Adam’s posts, so when I ran into him that night, the first thing I said was, “Hey, where’s Adam?” Greg, having never met me, let alone me dressed as Aziz Ansari, responded with something like, “Who and what are you?” I introduced myself. He drunkenly wandered away.
I didn’t end up finding Adam that night, but we connected not long after. We started texting, then emailing, and eventually we started dating about three months later. We were together for three and a half years.
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Greg was a fixture in our world – wild, entrepreneurial, energy abounding. Adam loved him, so I did too. Over the years, we double-dated plenty, and I watched Greg move in and out of relationships.
A few months before Adam died, Greg moved abroad to start a travel company. He had flown back for a friend’s wedding, which we were all attending together. That same week, Adam had a health scare, something like a seizure, but the doctors couldn’t explain it. That’s the thing about being young and seemingly healthy. No one checks your heart.
The afternoon before the ceremony, Greg and I had some alone time while Adam was visiting a friend. I told him how worried I was about Adam. He reassured me that Adam was probably fine, because most 27-year-olds are.
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I have only two photos from that weekend. One is a picture Adam took of me on the phone. The other is one he took of Greg and me holding hands. Adam had made us pose together. It made him laugh to think of us as a couple.
Courtesy of Nicole Garelick
The author and Greg at a friend’s wedding in 2015.
Two months later, Adam died.
Greg flew in for the funeral, along with every other person who had ever known or even brushed past Adam. Greg stood by my side the entire time. I think this is probably the part where Greg thinks he looks bad, like it was his plan all along, or he was trying to be, as Bette Midler sang, The Wind Beneath My Wings. But it wasn’t like that. Nothing felt premeditated; it was natural.
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He was there when my knees gave way at the burial, putting a hand on my shoulder. At the shiva, as well-meaning mourners swarmed, Greg graciously offered me a Xanax (which I desperately needed). Later, once the dust had somewhat settled, he suggested I might need to get away.
I was in grad school at the time, training to become a therapist, arguably the worst possible setting for a loss. Greg invited me to visit him and another friend in Buenos Aires over spring break. With nothing tethering me to the present, I said yes. That trip became the only thing I looked forward to. In the months before I left, I grieved, unravelling a life I’d built with Adam and still reeling from losing my mom a few years earlier. I was drowning.
Greg called me every day. He made sure I was eating, drinking water and going to class. His voice kept me afloat. But if you’d asked me then, I’d have said, “He’s like a brother to me.” (Side note: If you ever describe someone as “like a brother,” there’s a good chance you’re going to sleep with them. That’s the plot of every romantic movie, but I was too far gone to recognise it.)
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When spring break finally came, I found out our other friend couldn’t make it right away. It would just be Greg and me for a few days. That’s when I got nervous. But I got on the plane anyway.
I landed in Buenos Aires around 10pm, barely breathing. When I got to Greg’s apartment, I found him waiting on the corner of his quiet street in the darkness of the Argentine fall. After a quick shower, he took me to a loud bar. We were both awkward, so to quell the awkwardness, we each ordered two drinks. We talked about Adam. About travelling. About everything. My grief loosened its grip just a little.
Later, back at his apartment, we both cried. At some point, I started eating rice cakes, and then I remember getting my computer to put on some music.
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Neither of us remembers who made the first move, but I’m pretty sure it was Greg. And that’s how we started dating.
The couple across from us sits in stunned silence. Greg clears his throat and asks, “So… how did you two meet?” They answer, in unison, “Hinge.”
I smile faintly. There’s something I feel in that moment that isn’t exactly jealousy, but it’s close – an awareness of the simplicity of their story. A clean beginning, uncomplicated by loss. A simple story for a party that doesn’t cause any eyebrows to raise or mouths to go agape or leave you feeling like you’re in the emotional nude.
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Greg and I don’t have that story. We crashed into each other in the wreckage of something devastating and built something out of the rubble. Our path wasn’t perfect. People were hurt. There were complicated feelings about us being together, and it was absolutely not love at first sight. It took grief, time, Buenos Aires, and a man who called me every day just to make sure I was still getting out of bed every morning.
In the 10 years since, I’ve come to understand that the messiness is what makes our relationship work. There’s a rare honesty between us – an authenticity that comes from having met each other at our most undone.
When you fall in love in the rubble, you don’t get to perform the beginning; you just have to be yourself. There was never any doubt that Greg could support me at my worst; after all, we started there. And the willingness to tell the real version of how we fell for each other is its own kind of love story for Adam, and I want us to tell it because we’ll always be indebted to our dear mutual friend.
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Nicole Garelick is a San Francisco-based writer and creator of The Performance Plan, a Substack newsletter about the comedy of getting life wrong. Her writing has appeared in Hey Alma, Spread the Jelly, and Katie Couric Media. She lives with her husband and two young kids, who give her a lot of material. She is represented by Jennifer Simpson at CAA.
If someone called you “awful” today, you’d probably be offended. But travel back a few hundred years and that same word would have been high praise.
Awful has one of the more dramatic reversals in the English language. It began as something genuinely admiring and ended up as something quite negative in everyday use.
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“The word ‘awful’ traces back to the Old English root ege, meaning dread, reverence or profound respect,” Sophie Vignoles, a linguist and head of learning content at the language learning app Babbel, told HuffPost. “That origin shows in its early use. It originally meant something that filled you with awe, describing anything that inspired wonder or terror, often tied to the power of God or nature, and it was a compliment. A mountain range or a storm could be called awful, and that was high praise.”
The word awful goes back to Old English, with experts pointing to a ninth-century citation attributed to Alfred the Great. The Oxford English Dictionary has many examples of “awful” in texts from the subsequent centuries – generally meaning things like “inspiring respect, mixed with wonder or reverential fear.”
Basically, awful was the sort of word people reached for when ordinary language failed to describe things so powerful, majestic and grand that they inspired deep reverence – like the divine.
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So, how did it evolve to mean something simply negative?
“The shift happened gradually through the 19th century,” Vignoles said. “Awe itself is a mixed emotion. It carries wonder but also fear and sometimes a sense of insignificance, and over time, English speakers leaned into the fearful side rather than the reverent one. Awful stopped meaning inspiring and started meaning overwhelming in a bad way.”
bgblue via Getty Images
“Awful” was a much more complex word than its modern “very bad” definition would suggest.
For a long time, awful captured the complexity of awe and its connection to the sacred and sublime. But language tends to simplify over time, and people gradually started emphasising the dread over the wonder. Eventually “awful” became a weaker, more casual word.
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The slide was gradual enough that it drew complaints along the way. Welsh writer Hester Lynch Piozzi asserted in 1794 that the word should “be used with caution and a due sense of its importance”.
“I have heard even well-bred ladies now and then attribute that term too lightly in their common conversation, connecting it with substances beneath its dignity,” she wrote.
Over the next century, the word came into its more modern meaning of unpleasant, not desirable or just very bad.
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This kind of drift where a word sheds one meaning and picks up another is known as semantic shift, and it’s one of the most reliable patterns in the history of any language. Just as “nice” shifted from something negative to something positive, awful also completely reversed course – but in the opposite direction of positive to negative.
Thus, a word that once described the sublime now describes the merely terrible. Awful’s close cousin “awesome” makes the reversal even more striking.
Interestingly, the word awful actually predates awesome by centuries, though the two had similar meanings for a stretch. As both words weakened in meaning over time, awesome shifted to a more positive connotation of “good” or “cool” while awful came to mean “very bad.”
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“Awesome comes from the exact same root but took the opposite path, which shows how unpredictable this kind of drift can be,” Vignoles noted.
The awful/awesome split isn’t even unique within English. “Terrific” and “terrible” come from the same Latin root and once shared the same basic meaning: inspiring terror or dread. Today, terrible has kept that negative sense while terrific has traveled so far in the opposite direction that it’s essentially a synonym for wonderful. Thus we have another pair of sibling words that started in the same place and ended up miles apart.
“It shows that meaning is never fixed. It is negotiated by whoever is using the word at the time,” Vignoles said, pointing to Babbel’s research on the way American English has evolved in honor of the United States’ 250th anniversary this year.
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“Awful is a useful reminder that English often trades one meaning for another,” she added. “This kind of reversal is not unique to English either. In Russian, the word grozny once carried a sense of majesty and awe-inspiring power. Ivan Grozny, usually translated into English as Ivan the Terrible, was not originally meant as a purely negative title. Over time, the word narrowed toward its harsher, more fearsome sense, much like awful did in English.”
So, the next time something is so bad it’s almost impressive, you should feel comfortable calling it awful, in keeping with the word’s original meaning. But if you find something so good it inspires awe, you should probably opt for a different word so as not to offend.
Let’s say you go to your doctor with a documented, ongoing case of psoriasis. You might complain of itchy and flaky skin.
To your surprise, though, your GP tells you these symptoms are “normal”. You might feel dismissed or as if your problems can’t be addressed; maybe you’ll be less likely to seek treatment.
It said that, while doctors might hope to reassure patients by calling well-understood symptoms “normal,” data shows it could actually make people with health issues think nothing can be done about their problems.
That might mean they don’t look for or ask about solutions like medications, even when they may be both available and useful.
Professor On Amir, the study’s senior author, told Pulse Today: “Doctors shouldn’t stop reassuring patients. But they should make their meaning unmistakable”.
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So, HuffPost UK spoke to Dr Dominic Greenyer, a GP and director at The Health Suite, about what “normal” means to a doctor.
Wait – doesn’t ‘normal’ mean everything’s fine?
I’ll be honest: I always thought being told an issue is “normal” by a doctor meant everything was OK, and nothing more could be done.
But sometimes, Dr Greenyer said, that’s a miscommunication.
“When a doctor describes a symptom as ‘normal’, they will often mean that it’s common, expected in a particular situation, or consistent with a certain stage of life. It does not necessarily mean the symptom is insignificant, imaginary or something the patient simply has to tolerate,” he said.
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For instance, hot flushes are “normal” during menopause and perimenopause, and pain is “normal” after surgery. However, the GP said that doesn’t mean they need to be tolerated or that they can’t be addressed with appropriate medication.
“’Common’ and ‘untreatable’ are two very different things,” he added.
And, the doctor said, doctors might say lab results or exams that fall within an expected range are normal.
“In that context, it may reassure us that we have not found evidence of a particular disease, but it does not automatically explain why someone feels unwell or mean that no further help is available,” he claimed.
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“This study highlights how easily well-intentioned reassurance can be misunderstood. A doctor may be trying to say, ‘This is recognised, and you are not alone’, while the patient hears, ‘There is nothing wrong, and nothing can be done’. Clinicians need to make that distinction explicit.”
Reassurance alone might not be enough
In the Nature study, the authors tested two ways to close that communication gap: asking doctors to explain what “normal” means in a medical sense when using the word, and offering some next steps to patients after normalising their symptoms.
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Both appeared to lead to better results.
Dr Greenyer said: “Ideally, reassurance should be followed by a clear plan. That might involve discussing treatment options, explaining how long the symptom is expected to last, arranging follow-up or telling the patient what changes should prompt them to seek help again.”
And if that doesn’t happen, it might be worth your while taking the lead.
“Patients should not be afraid to ask, ‘When you say normal, do you mean it is harmless, or simply that it is common?’. They can also ask whether treatment is available and what they should do if the symptom persists, worsens, or begins affecting everyday life,” the GP concluded.
“Being told something is normal should never be interpreted as an instruction to ignore a significant change in your health. If symptoms are severe, persistent, worsening or accompanied by warning signs such as unexplained weight loss, unusual bleeding, a new lump, chest pain or breathing difficulties, further medical advice may still be needed.”
As we age, our skin chemistry changes, sometimes resulting in an uptick of organic compounds that may give off a greasy or musty scent. Luckily, there’s a bevy of products reviewers love for helping combat so-called “old person smell,” making them feel more like themselves. Today, we spotted a newer (to us!) option, in the form of antifungal, tea tree oil soap.This pair of delightful green bars is celebrated for tackling age-related B.O. as well as helping fight foot and toenail fungus and soothing rashes and itchy skin. Even better? It’s currently on sale for almost 30% off — the lowest price it’s been ever.
Users say these bars lather well and smell amazing — but more importantly, leave their skin feeling totally fresh.
As a cosmetic chemist previously told HuffPost, tea tree oil “is known to have antimicrobial and antifungal effects,” making it great for soothing inflammation and nixing smells and beating fungus and skin irritation. Made with tea tree oil, as well as moisturizing coconut oil, reparative vitamin E and 1% tolnaftate (a vetted antifungal ingredient) these bars are designed to keep your skin squeaky clean and fresh. The brand says it’s gentle enough to be used daily on the body and face, recommending twice daily use if you’re actively fighting fungus, rashes or smells.
“My body has reached the age where there are creases and crevices that collect stuff that gives off that distinctive ‘old lady smell’. This soap is a godsend — fresh-smelling and assisting in eliminating the source of the odor,” one shopper said, adding, “I am delighted with the amount of lather.”
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“It cleans the skin thoroughly, leaves it feeling fresh, and helps keep it clean and protected,” another said. “A great choice for those looking for a more thorough cleanse. I recommend it!”
Others love the soap for fighting fungus and bacteria — post-workout or around their feet and toenails.
“I sometimes hate the feeling of how icky it gets working in a gym, so when I get home this combined with exfoliation finally gets me able to feel clean again,” one shopper said, adding that the antifungal properties give them peace of mind around shared gym equipment. Others say they keep a bar in their travel or work bag, because it feels so great after a long day of sweating or moving.
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Some say the soap has been helpful in beating foot fungus, fast. “I bought this soap for my husband to get rid of his athlete’s foot. He has been using it for few days now and we already started seeing the results,” one said. “Nice smelling antifungal soap helps dry out the fungus between the toes nicely,” another said. “Pleasant to use for everyday.”
Others say it’s great for treating under-boob rashes and itchiness, and just feeling good.
Shopper Mary writes that after long active days, especially with wet activities like the pool, the “super gentle” bars are incredibly soothing to hot spots or folds around the body. “I get a little itchy under my breast line so I use a little bit of this soap and it takes care of it immediately,” they said. One reviewer says the soap “works like a charm” on their daughters constant neck rashes. “…This soap is very gentle on her skin and with the tea tree oil it calms her skin pushing away the redness,” they said. “…It’s an easy and effective step in helping prevent or calm down your skin.” One writes the soap is so soothing, it “relaxed” their skin and even helped them finally get better sleep.
Others celebrate how nice the soap feels, describing that it doesn’t leave any residue; some even say they’re noticing clearer skin with “less acne and blackheads.”
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“It lathers well, leaves my skin feeling clean and refreshed, and has a pleasant tea tree scent,” reviewer Lili said. “It helps soothe itchy skin without being too harsh. Excellent quality for the price.”
Reviewers love this tea tree soapfor keeping them fresh and fighting fungus. Read more 5-star reviews and grab a pair of bars for almost 30% off.
“My body has reached the age where there are creases and crevices that collect stuff that gives off that distinctive ‘old lady smell’. This soap is a godsend – fresh smelling and assisting in eliminating the source of the odor. I am delighted with the amount of lather. I have gotten in the habit of letting it drain resting on edge, since the flat sides stick to the shelf in my shower.” — Motorcyclist
“Nice smelling antifungal soap helps dry out the fungus between the toes nicely. Pleasant to use for everyday” — Gitti Rosenburg
“Great for athletes. I sometimes hate the feeling of how icky it gets working in a gym, so when I get home this combined with exfoliation finally get me able to feel clean again. Since I share equipment with many people in the gym, I appreciate the antifungal because I don’t know what’s going on with everyone else’s bodies.” — Nate R
“This tea tree oil soap is perfect for daily use, especially after hitting the gym or when traveling. It leaves your skin feeling deeply cleansed, relieves itching, and leaves a super fresh scent. Having the 2-pack is super convenient. Highly recommended!” — Mayde Gomez Leyva
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Loving tea tree oil? Check out these expert-backed picks featuring it, courtesy of HuffPost Shopping.
Amazon
Straight-up 100% tea tree oil (26% off)
According to chemist Asia Noelani Fee, 100% tea tree oil is great to keep in your bathroom cabinets for home spa treatments or use in a diffuser. Because pure tea tree is such a concentrated oil, she said it has a longer shelf life than products that contain tea tree oil, yet it needs to be diluted before use. “A little goes a long way, so it is always best to use in diluted forms, whether it is a few drops in your bath/steam or mixed into a carrier oil for scalp treatments,” Fee says. Get it for 26% off.
Promising review: “I can mix with a carrier oil for topical use & I also use the oil in my Diffuser. Versatile” — Victoria Andrews
Dermstore
Dermalogica Clear Start wash, if you’re prone to breakouts
When it comes to formulated products that contain tea tree oil, cosmetic chemist Jane Tsui recommends the brand Dermalogica, specifically their Clear Start wash for breakout-prone skin and their conditioning body wash you’ll find on the next slide. Clear Start is a gentle foaming cleanser with salicylic acid to unclog pores tea tree and lavender oils to help tame redness and irritation.
Promising review: “My face is clearer, smoother, less whiteheads, less blackheads. I like that it is a clear gel. It foams easily.” — Anonymous
Dermstore
Dermalogica conditioning body wash to cleanse and condition skin
To enjoy the goodness of tea tree from your neck to your toes, Tsui recommends this conditioning body wash from Dermalogica. It has a soothing eucalyptus and lavender smell and it works to tackle dirt and grime without drying out your skin.
Promising review: “I have very sensitive and dry skin – I can’t use all of the perfumed cleansers – This is perfect for me – I love the clean, simple smell- My skin loves it!” — April
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The Real Deal: We use deal trackers and commerce experience to sift through “fake” hike-and-drop deals and other deceptive sales tactics. Products will usually be rated at least 4 stars with a minimum 15% discount. (And when there’s an exception, we’ll tell you why.)
As dermatologists previously told HuffPost, crepey skin can be indicative of sun damage — which indicates deeper health issues like higher rates of skin cancer or being more susceptible to bruising or other damage. Experts have previously recommended products with niacinamide to address this skin concern, and as luck would have it, we found a niacinamide serum from La Roche-Posay thatreviewers swear by not just for smoothing and plumping skin, but also for helping signs of sun damage like dark spots and melasma. Even better? It’s currently 36% off at Amazon — the lowest price we’ve ever seen it at. So we recommend you grab some fast.
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Per the Cleveland Clinic,niacinamide is a form of vitamin B3 that can “help smooth, brighten and strengthen your skin.”
These days, it seems there’s a buzzy new skin care trend every dang day. If you like your ingredients to be the subject of scientific studies and actually on the radar of experts, niacinamide is a solid option with a ton of uses, especially when it’s in a serum with other rock-star ingredients like exfoliating salicylic acid, hydrating hyaluronic acid and soothing plant extracts.
In addition to those goodies and of course, a generous 10% niacinamide, this serum is made with La Roche-Posay’s thermal spring water as well as “melasyl” the brand’s proprietary molecule designed to brighten the skin. Per the brand, it’s also formulated with selenium, an antioxidant that helps protect skin from UV damage and inflammation while boosting collagen and strengthening skin.
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Best applied after cleansing and toning, this “multitasking powerhouse” serum has a lightweight, gel-serum texture that helps skin feel strong and protected.
According to experts, crepey or sun-damaged skin isn’t just an “aesthetic concern”; it can make your skin more sensitive to the sun (meaning higher potential cancer risk) and more sensitive in general, as it often means skin is thinner and less elastic, meaning potentially higher risk of infection from tears or bruises. Fans love this serum for making their skin look smoother and brighter, but also for making skin feel stronger. “Have been using on my old lady Florida chest and my hands, which has longer damage, and it’s working also,” JC wrote. “…My skin feels plumper and healthier,” another reviewer wrote.
One fan called it “an absolute game-changer for anyone looking to boost their skincare routine with a touch of magic” and a “glow-up in a bottle,” noting “it gently hydrates, brightens, and smooths the skin, leaving a fresh, radiant glow that lasts all day.”
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Others said the serum “is the one I reach for every morning and night,” claiming that the lightweight, non-sticky formula it’s helping “bring back” their skin in tone and texture. “Smooths skin, protects against environmental stress,” Jem wrote. “…Hydrates, plumps, and softens fine lines….Restores moisture and brightness for smooth, fresh skin.”
And it’s adored for its ability to fade discoloration and brighten dull skin — especially if you’re patient and consistent.
Branded as an “anti-aging dark spot corrector,” it’s no wonder this serum is also loved for helping reviewers with unwanted dark spots and hyperpigmentation. While some report quick results, others encourage you to give this baby some time to really shine.
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“As a life long sun worshiper I’m paying the price with age spots and melasma, this is worth its weight in gold,” one shopper wrote. “Not only is it fading the spots on my face but on my hands as well, after only a week of using this 2x a day the spots are at least 70 percent faded, some are gone altogether!”
Another reviewer shared they think the blend of melasyl and niacinamide “works wonders” for brightening their complexion and reducing the appearance of fine lines. “After just a few weeks of consistent use, I’ve noticed my dark spots are fading, and my skin looks more radiant and youthful.”
Reviewers called it their “best ally,” “a little bottle of confidence,” and the only product to actually bring lightening results — especially with prolonged use.
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“I’m a fair-skinned, retired coastal Floridian, who’s often outside. I HAD splotchy, sun damaged skin on my cheeks. Within 60 days of using this product, my skin looks 50% better,” DLR wrote. “It’s hard to believe that this product works as well as it does. Give it a chance.”
P.S. — despite the serum being scented, many reviewers with sensitive skin claim that the offering has been a real treat for their skin.
“Even though I have sensitive skin, this product is very gentle and doesn’t cause irritation or breakouts,” said one user. “I really appreciate the high-quality ingredients and the fact that a little goes a long way. The packaging also feels premium and hygienic.” “Serum is very soothing & easy to apply. No irritation, and i do have sensitive skin,” Jenny said. “Be patient! Your dark spots will be reduced!”
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(Beauty expert reporting with free game here: Although sensitive skin reviewers praise the product, it’s important to take your time with product application. Instead of following the morning and night application recommendation, start applying this product once a day to see how your skin responds. Everyone’s skin is different.)
Check out even more promising reviews about this super-effective serum and grab yourself a bottle while it’s the lowest price ever.
“I was uncertain at first on getting this cause of the price. I have oily skin and have been using this along with the normal to oily skin purifying foaming cleanser by the same brand. I have noticed a difference in my skin, my dark spots are fading away. I mainly use it at night before bed 10/10.” — Tivia Joseph
“After just a few weeks, I noticed my dark spots fading and my skin looking brighter and more even. It feels lightweight, absorbs quickly, and doesn’t irritate my sensitive skin. My complexion looks so much clearer and smoother now — this has become a must-have in my skincare routine!” — Maygle Monterroza
“It’s working. Results take time but I’ve noticed the brown spot on my cheek is fading. Pics are not altered in any way. First pic is May 7. Second pic is June 29. Third pic is Nov 18. My bottle is almost empty. I applied most every night to the spot only.” — Jennings
“I’ve been struggling with dark spots for a while, and this serum has truly made a difference. After using the La Roche-Posay Mela B3 Serum for a few weeks, my skin looks brighter and more even. Some of the dark spots have visibly faded, and my overall complexion feels smoother and healthier. It absorbs quickly, doesn’t irritate my skin, and works well under makeup or sunscreen. I love that it feels gentle but still effective.” — Andry Gonzalez
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Looking for more ways to improve your skin’s texture and tone? Check out these three vitamin C serum options, curated by the HuffPost Shopping team.
Sephora
Paula’s Choice C15 Vitamin C Super Booster (25% off)
This powerful serum from Paula’s Choice is formulated with 15% vitamin C, vitamin E, ferulic acid, hyaluronic acid and peptides that can help to fade away sun damage and hyperpigmentation as well as post-acne scarring while moisturizing and smoothing the skin. Get it for 25% off.
Promising reviews: “Products gives a good glow, notice a difference when I forget to apply in the morning. I have very sensitive skin and this product does not irritate my skin at all. Apply a SPF after, always.” — tdkh “Great addition to skincare routine. This is my first time using vitamin C and it’s been almost three weeks since I started. I have dry skin and adding this to my everyday routine has been a game changer. My skin looks brighter and looks/ feels smoother.” — gigiatsephora
Maelove
Maelove Glow Maker antioxidant serum
Considered by many skin care enthusiasts to be an affordable alternative to SkinCeuticals’ cult-fave serum above, this option from Maelove is full of vitamins C and E, ferulic acid and hyaluronic acid. It provides long-lasting hydration as well as all the benefits that come along with a powerful vitamin C serum.
Promising reviews: “So many c serums out there, but Maelove is wonderful. I stopped using SkinCeuticals. Maelove is less expensive and the serum does give me a clean tight glow.” — Kay B.
“My derm recommended this product and even he was impressed! Works just as well if not better than that very expensive brand we all know. I’m thrilled that I found maelove!!” — Erica M.
“Glowing skin. I love the texture! I noticed my skin looked a lot more alive, less dull and brightened within a couple of days. I use this consistently every morning after I wash my face.” — Danielle K.
The Inkey List
The Inkey List 15% vitamin C and EGF serum
Ideal for sensitive skin or those who are only just beginning to dabble in active ingredients, this serum from The Inkey List is as powerful and effective as it is gentle. Vitamin C and plant-derived epidermal growth factors can help smooth, brighten and tighten the appearance of skin.
Promising review: “Wonderful for Brightening. I have very sensitive skin, and have tried countless vitamin c serums. This is the only one that doesn’t burn when I apply, and leave my skin covered in red bumps. My skin looks brighter since I’ve started using this, and more plump. I feel like I can get away with wearing way less makeup on a daily basis since starting this.” — miaaaa96
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The Real Deal: We use deal trackers and commerce experience to sift through “fake” hike-and-drop deals and other deceptive sales tactics. Products will usually be rated at least 4 stars with a minimum 15% discount. (And when there’s an exception, we’ll tell you why.)
Andy Burnhamvowed to give Brits “some breathing space” when it comes to the cost of living during his first speech as prime minister.
That was only a month ago – and he has already unveiled a series of policies aimed at making everyday life a little easier for the general public.
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But just last week, Burnham also admitted that the changes he made might not be enough.
He told the BBC: “We will do everything that is possible for us to do. But I think everyone knows I am in position with limited room for manoeuvre.”
It was a noteworthy admission considering he has made the cost of living the central mission for his government.
Burnham has implemented a £2 cap on single bus rides, scrapped VAT on household electricity bills and announced a ban on “subscription traps”.
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He unveiled a 20% cut to business rates for pubs, social clubs and live music venues from April onwards.
His government have also promised to help the number of unemployed young people as the number of 16 to 24-year-olds not in work surpassed a million this year for the first time in more than a decade.
The incremental changes he has unveiled appear to have had some cut-through, his net favourability rating of +13 is the highest for any prime minster since Boris Johnson at the start of the Covid pandemic, according to YouGov.
But, as Burnham alluded to when speaking to the BBC, there are plenty of obstacles which stop him from being able to make significant changes to the cost of living.
Though this is out of the government’s control, there’s a risk voters will still end up blaming the government – as they did when the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in energy prices in 2022.
Energy regulator Ofgem is expecting the price cap for household energy bills in Britain to rise by 4% in October.
There is a growing body of support for expanding drilling in the North Sea for oil and gas to boost the economy and reduce Britain’s dependence on international energy imports.
The summer heatwaves and the subsequent droughts have rocked the agricultural sector too.
Farmers fear for their yields will be hugely impacted in the months to come – meaning groceries are likely to go up in price.
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Dr Liliana Danila, chief economist at the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) said: “Supply chain disruption isn’t going away.
“Alongside geopolitical volatility, extreme weather will continue to put pressure on the price of key ingredients. This makes it increasingly difficult for food manufacturers to shield consumers from price rises and protect their our resilience.”
The Bank of England will decide whether to raise interest rates next month, which could add another layer of pressure to Burnham.
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Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks during a TV interview at The Hub Cafe following a visit to Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026.
via Associated Press
The TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, said: “With inflation ticking up because of rising energy bills – and no end in sight to Trump’s illegal war in Iran – we are going to have to see more government action to support households in the coming months.”
But where will this money come from? UK debt is nearing £3 trillion, which represents 94.1% of gross domestic product (GDP).
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It comes after official figures showed an unexpected hike in government borrowing to £1.8 billion.
Speculation that the government will therefore raise taxes to meet its spending commitments is therefore rising.
All eyes will be on chancellor John Healey when he unveils his Budget on Wednesday, October 28.
The prime minister has tried not to raise the public’s expectations too high when it comes to what he can do to help the cost of living – he wrote on social media this week: “We won’t fix everything overnight.
“But wherever my government can make life a little easier, fairer or more affordable, we will. “
His last two predecessors, Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, tried to adopt a similar message – and neither won any plaudits from the public for doing so.
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The question is whether Brits will even feel the changes Burnham intends to make.
“What Burnham has is an opportunity to say to the public that we can’t do everything immediately.
“And I think they understand that international affairs are a big driver of this, but it’s sort of saying, we’ve looked at areas where we can make a difference and we’re doing that.
“It may be that he cannot meet public expectations on this and it goes the other way of other previous prime ministers.
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“But I don’t think there’s an option of not being seen to do this.”
Burnham is, of course, still enjoying the honeymoon period. But will he able to live up to his own expectations?
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
The signals suggesting the power of the coming phenomenon have been so strong that the UN issued an urgent climate warning over the issue. Prof McGuire told us: “The signs are that it could even be the biggest for a century and a half”.
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Now, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today, Professor Adam Scaife, the head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, agreed, saying it looks like the next El Niño will be “the largest since the 19th century”.
Why is this El Niño such a big deal?
“During a normal El Niño, the temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean typically reaches 0.5°C or more above normal,” Prof McGuire shared previously,
“If this figure reaches 1.5-2°C, the event is described as a super El Niño.”
On BBC Radio 4, Prof Scaife stated: “We’re expecting the biggest El Niño for over a century, peaking at something over 3°C. That is unheard of in modern climate records… It’s up 2°C already.”
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We’ve only had five super El Niños in the last 75 years, with the most extreme being the 2015-16 event. The bigger the El Niño, the stronger its effects on the world’s weather systems.
That means we could see “particularly strong [impacts] throughout the tropics, where we expect really severe droughts in places like South America and the west Pacific”, Prof Scaife explained.
Though they are linked to an overall hotter climate, the effects of El Niños vary from place to place. In the UK, for instance, they can sometimes lead to colder winters.
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Prof Scaife said: “There are wave-like disturbances that come out from the tropics and affect places like the UK. So we already see signals for increased rainfall and storminess in the autumn here in the UK around November time”.
After an emergency meeting last week, meanwhile, PM Andy Burnham also said: “We might be in for a wet autumn and winter straight after this, because of El Niño and some of the issues there, which was reported to Cobra”.
