7 Things That Changed My Life in September

GQ’s wellness-and-grooming director shares the best products she tried this month, including a Japanese pepper balm and a relaxing sound frequency app.The other morning, I looked up and realized the first day of fall had come and gone. You can forgive me for the oversight. These days, Los Angeles rarely dips below 80 degrees before mid-October. Even so, fall is unequivocally my favorite season, with its brisk evening breezes, freaky misshapen gourds, and 12-foot-tall skeletons. And every year it feels just a little bit more elusive, whether that’s because of some inclement weather event or the calendar creep of the looming holidays. (I don’t blame the CVSes across the nation for putting out Halloween decorations at the start of August every year in rebellion.) My plan to savor the season includes spending as much time as possible in nature, seeking heat inside my favorite spas, and making time for little moments of solitude (and plenty of sleep) before the rush and gluttony of the holidays hit. Below are a few things that’ve helped me perfect my routine.Diffar Fragrance Multi Balm in Fresh MossNot all lovers of fall are fans of pumpkin spice. This balm—which can be used to moisturize your skin, style your hair, or simply as a fragrance—offers an alternative autumnal spice made with an ingredient sourced from Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture: sansho. The pepper berry is sharp and fragrant, and pairs well with oakmoss and sandalwood to conjure an old-growth forest after a fresh rain. I’ve taken to using it on my elbows and hands in the morning, and will occasionally run it through my bangs to achieve a piece-y look. (Which, if you haven’t heard, was the hairstyle of the Venice Film Festival.)DiffarFragrance Multi Balm 14310 Fresh MossSoaak AppHenry NindeNo matter what season it is, I’m chasing a good night’s sleep. The Soaak app is an easy way to better prime your brain for exactly that. It offers a menu of clinically proven sound frequency compositions, each typically 20 minutes in length, that can help with things like stress, nervous system regulation, clearing your mind, or getting more REM and deep sleep. It’s essentially a mobile sound bath that you can put on in moments where you’re craving a bit of stability, whether that’s between a marathon of back-to-back work meetings or while you’re unwinding before bed. The app is apparently effective enough that the US Air Force has experimented with it. And if you happen to log your sleep through an Oura ring, Whoop, or Garmin health tracker, it will integrate with the system and make suggestions for sessions based on your stress levels and sleep score. I’ve made a habit out of turning on a “nervous system reset” session after work, or the “sleep well” recording about an hour before bed. The nights that I do, I’ve slept all the way through.Hoka Speed Goat 7I’ve always thought Hokas were a little dorky. Who needs a shoe that embarrassingly thick? Not me, I would say, while dealing with a million little aches and pains post-run. But after I took up jogging up and down my neighborhood’s hilly and poorly maintained sidewalks, I decided to give them a shot. After just one or two 20-minute spins around the block, my knees and back felt less beat up. So yeah, I learned to love both Hoka’s jumbo padding and grippy Vibram soles, especially since those features mean the Speed Goat translates well on my local trails too. (Which, for the record, is the official purpose of these shoes.) The very thin, glovelike vamp is also a lovely way of making them feel especially light and breathable.For Bitter or for Worse—Eva’s SpritzThe colder the season, the more bitter the cocktail I desire. This is an especially sophisticated NA option in that category. It’s bright and acidic, with notes of hibiscus, rhubarb, and citrus. Again, my kind of autumn spices. Like all my nonalcoholic beverage recommendations, it fits the bill of being relatively low in both calories and added sugar. My one piece of advice: Pour it over ice. It’s a little pungent straight out of the can.Eva's SpritzFor Bitter For WorseKindia GlowGel Hydrocolloid Pimple PatchesI’m usually very careful about recommending unisex products in this newsletter. So I’ll first preface this recommendation by sharing that I’ve noticed more and more men wearing visible pimple patches (usually from Starface) out and about in New York and LA. A win both for men’s self-expression and men’s skin care! Now, let me introduce you to pimple patches from the skin care company Kindia. They come in the shapes of lotus flowers, jasmine flowers, chandras, and jalebis (a common West Asian sweet snack), and each shape correlates to a different function, ranging from calming active breakouts to soothing already popped pimples. If you’re feeling nervous about taking the leap, maybe wear some around Halloween and tell people you’re dressed as an angsty teen.KindiaGlowGel Hydrocolloid Pimple PatchesJennifer Black at Highland Holistic Acupuncture in Los Angeles is a real miracle worker. She’s gentle and effective with her needle treatments, an intuitive cupper, and not afraid to target aches and pains with some firm gua shua. I can’t recommend her enough.While I was in New York recently, I had the chance to visit Lore Bathing Club in NoHo and sit in on a Friday evening aufguss set performed by none other than the club’s owner. For the uninitiated, aufguss is an aromatherapy-centric one-man show in which a “sauna master” whips a towel around in a sauna to move heat and essential oils onto sweaty onlookers. My session at Lore, soundtracked to Bob Dylan, included a wave of menthol that was especially energizing for the lungs. Lore is a clean, welcoming, no-nonsense space, and watching the set with fellow spa comrades really made me feel like I was in community with my people—especially when we all jumped into the cold plunge afterward.Not a subscriber? Join GQ to receive full access to GQ.com.Alyssa Bereznak is GQ’s Wellness & Grooming Director. She previously worked as a Senior Features Editor at the L.A. Times, where she launched the publication’s wellness section, and as a podcaster and Senior Staff Writer at The Ringer, where she reported, hosted, and produced two investigative podcasts: Boom/Bust: The Rise ... Read More