Shop TODAY’s The Checkout: Beauty, Fashion & Lifestyle Product Picks

If you stepped inside the Shop TODAY office at any point during the day, you would hear dozens of conversations about the best flats for the office, debates about which cleaning product is best for the shower and more insightful topics that all revolve around the art of shopping (and yes, we do consider it an art!). As much as we enjoy this office chatter, we decided to pull back the curtain on TODAY's commerce team and create a YouTube series called The Checkout. (If you haven't yet subscribed to our YouTube channel, now's a great time to!)

The series revolves around — yes, you guessed it — shopping! But we also cover topics like tried-and-true classics in our rotation, what our team is currently shopping and how franchises like Shop TODAY's Beauty Awards come to life. We'll also sit down with beauty and fashion experts from the show to talk about trending products taking over the cultural zeitgeist, trusted advice to perfect your routine and more.

"That's the big thing about shopping: if it brings you joy, buy it!"
Francesca Cocchi Zabloudil, Senior Partnerships Editor at Shop TODAY

Read on below to learn more about the series and the inaugural episode.

The Checkout, Episode 1

Shop TODAY Editors Share How They Choose Products, Skin Care Tips From a Derm and More

In the first episode of The Checkout, Shop TODAY editorial director Adrianna Brach brought out two team members — editor and producer Julie Ricevuto and senior partnerships editor Francesca Cocchi Zabloudil — to talk through their current shopping wish lists, popular reader favorites and how we test products across the team for our various franchises like Beauty Awards.

That list is over 1,400 products. That's how many submissions we got for our Beauty Awards. We cut it down to around 500 products, and then that's when we start testing. We have 110 people testing, and they are staffers, but also moms.
Julie Ricevuto on Beauty Awards testing

Brach then brings out board-certified dermatologist Dr. Shereene Idriss to talk about the skin care products you should splurge (and save) on and more burning beauty queries.

I joke that the cleanser is the forgotten stepchild or the third class citizen. People don't even put any sort of importance on a cleanser, and they end up ruining their skin barriers in the process. You want to find the right cleanser for your skin, because that's going to set the foundation of what's to come.
Dr. Shereene Idriss on the best skin care products for any routine

The team wrapped up the first episode with a fun game called 'Buy or Bye' hosted by Alexa Arent, a Shop TODAY associate producer. Arent lists out a bunch of hot shopping topics and the team spills whether they 'buy' into the trend or say 'bye' to it completely.

Look, life is crazy. It's very busy. Sometimes you just don't have time to wash your hair, and you get the greasy roots.
Adrianna Brach on Dry shampoo