If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked comedian and actress Janelle James — who stars as Principal Ava Coleman on Abbott Elementary — about the air purifier, toaster oven, and skin-care products she can’t live without.
The full size is $100, which is wild. I’m going to start with that. I got a small one as a gift, then I was like, “Why’d you do this to me? Now I need it all the time.” And that’s how I entered the world of hundred-dollar candles. Every time I think I’m not going to spend that much, or I’m going to find a dupe or whatever, it is not the same. When I light it and people come into my home, everybody talks about how good it smells, so there you go.
They describe the scent as “old library.” I’ve been to libraries — they don’t smell like that. Libraries smell like damp children. But this smells like leather. Then it has some fruit in there. But then it also reminds me of lipstick from before they started adding fragrance to it, that waxy old-school lipstick smell, which reminds me of my mom. Then, I guess, a book? Maybe they threw a book in there.
I hate walking into somebody’s house and it smells like cats or dogs. And I have a huge dog, so I really do my best not to be that house. Not only that, I’m allergic to everything — dust, my dog, you name it. I’m just trying to keep my home as a clean place where it’s like, “Oh, I’m home. It smells good. I’m calm. I’m not sneezing. I don’t have dermatitis. Let’s relax.”
When it’s off, I’m sneezing. If I unplug it and forget it’s not on, I’ll be looking at my dog Watson like, “You smell like a dog. What’s going on?” And it would be that my air purifier is off. So it definitely does the job. It’s huge, but it’s very quiet. It has a little hum that is relaxing, so it has the dual purpose of being a white-noise machine too. It’s another thing that’s not cheap, but very worth it. I don’t read instructions, so I just turn it on and I keep it running all the time. I know you can set different timing and speeds, but I just keep it at the lowest setting and I run it all the time.
I don’t even know if this does anything, but it makes me feel healthy. I don’t remember to take my vitamins, but I’ll drink this, it’s the first thing I drink in the morning. Then I drink one of those healthy shots, like turmeric and ginger — whatever burns. It makes me feel like it’s burning the germs on the way down or something. I don’t know what anything is doing, but even if it’s a placebo, it sets me up for the day and all the crap I’m going to eat for the rest of the time. I at least try to start off correctly.
I hate yogurt, but I always hear it’s good for you. So this drink makes me feel like I’m eating yogurt, like I’m a healthy broad and I’m getting my probiotics, whatever those are. My boyfriend is the one who introduced me to this. I won’t call him a health nut, but he’s healthy. And he was like, “You getting your probiotics?” I’m like, “What’s that? Who knows?” He started buying them for me, then I just kept it going. And so every time I drink one, I think of him just nodding in approval. What do probiotics do anyway? Make you regular, right? Gut health and such. My gut is healthy and he likes that, I guess.
Because I don’t cook, this is my warm-up device of choice. That’s all I do — I warm up. It’s better than a microwave, in the same way you warm up something in an oven and it tastes better. You get a little crisp. It does air frying, it toasts. But I mostly warm up food that I’ve ordered. I have heard the scare stories about air fryers. And so this one in particular is not plastic. It’s like a minioven. I just put it on for ten minutes and I walk away, then — boom. Perfect.
People think hot sauce is about the heat. People who are like, “Oh, I could eat the hottest hot sauce,” they don’t know nothing about hot sauce or flavor. It’s not about how hot things are — it’s different hot sauces for different cuisines. The reason this one is good is that it tastes good on almost everything, any of the hot sauces from this brand. It has a hotter one, then it also has a white-truffle one, which is a different flavor than this black-truffle one. I’ve introduced so many people to it, even people who don’t like hot sauce.
It really has that truffle flavor. You know when you go to a restaurant and they’re like, “You want truffle?” And you’re like, “The fuck? I’m not paying that much for a mushroom.” Then they give you some so you’re like, “Oh, that shit is good.” That’s what this does, in a cheaper version. My other favorite is a hot sauce that one of our cameramen on set makes from his garden, but nobody else can get it, so I couldn’t include it here.
I like this perfume because my boyfriend bought it for me. He bought it for me at the airport, I think in Paris, a little over three years ago. It was like one of the first things he bought for me, other than the Paris trip. It’s so girly. It’s pink. And I would say that I’m not a pink bitch, but I am. I am a girly broad. I try to act like I’m not, but I do love girly things. It smells just like it looks: girly and sweet. I usually like deeper, almost unisex smells, but this is like, “I’m wearing a skirt.”
It’s definitely for going on a date, for when I feel really pretty and I want people to say I smell good. Sometimes you want to smell good, but you don’t want nobody saying nothing. There’s certain scents that are like “Get away from me, you can’t afford to talk to me” type scents. This one is, “You can’t afford to talk to me, but you can’t help but say I smell good.”
I’m trying to stay away from the chiclet teeth that everybody’s getting and just remember that my teeth are nice and white enough, and using this helps me stop thinking that my teeth should be whiter. It’s a two-part system, a toothpaste, then an activator. You put a little dab of both of them on your toothbrush, so now you feel like you’re doing science. The toothpaste is kind of gritty, so you feel like you are getting a scrub, like when you go to the dentist and they kind of scrub and polish your teeth. I like that feeling. There’s also accompanying mouthwash that you can use with it as well. I like this whole system — and when I fall off, I do notice my teeth aren’t as white.
This and my foundation are the only things, makeup-wise, that I consistently finish, and I have a lot of makeup. I’ve bought multiple of these. They’re the perfect color, so I must keep buying them. With every makeup artist that I use, I bring these along just in case they don’t have them. The undertones are perfect and they don’t look like makeup. It is very natural. I like the application. You don’t have to put a lot on, and they don’t turn muddy. And also they don’t make me break out. That’s big, because almost everything does.
Unfortunately, my face only likes expensive shit. That’s what I’m realizing. I’m expensive from my smells to my gut — my body only likes expensive stuff. I found this La Mer foundation last year. I did not know that La Mer did foundation, and even if I did, I would’ve thought it was only for white women. It’s just not in the Zeitgeist as a brand for me, other than its moisturizer. And it’s always been like, “Oh, J.Lo uses this.” And I ain’t got J.Lo money. So I never really looked into the brand, until one of my makeup artists introduced me to this foundation after having multiple foundations breaking me out. My skin doesn’t like makeup — I don’t wear makeup on my personal time. And so at work, I’ve gone through all the foundations, constantly trying to find something that doesn’t affect my skin or I’m not allergic to. We use this one for Abbott and since I’ve switched from my former foundation, I’ve noticed people being like, “Ava looks so glowy, the glow is real.” And that’s all the foundation. I don’t sleep, so I know I ain’t glowing on my own.
It’s $150 a bottle, and I have to use two shades because nobody’s face is one color. But sometimes you got to pay more, because you know what costs more than $150? Multiple facials to get your skin back after you fucked around with some drugstore shit. I have to spend way more to correct my face after I use something that goes wrong. So I’m just biting the bullet. I will say, the bottle is luxurious. It’s glass, which I can’t be trusted with, so I don’t really like that. But it’s nice to have on your vanity. It just looks expensive — and it is, so it should.
Again, expensive things. I just started going to Shani’s salon for facials. You go and you’re like, “Damn, I look good. Let me get that company product so I can continue to look good.” Even though you’re like, “Oh, this is so expensive. I can find a moisturizer anywhere. Why do I have to use this lady’s moisturizer?” But this shit is the bomb. Unfortunately, I always want to find something cheaper, but this shit is good. It’s $60. Ain’t even a lot in the bottle. I’m so sorry, but it is really good.
I use it every day, morning and night. It’s actually moisturizing and doesn’t make me break out, and that’s very hard for me to find. I do have a lower-cost moisturizer, but it just doesn’t feel the same. I think sometimes that’s what you’re paying for — the feel of when you’re rubbing it on your face, and this one just feels more luxurious. Of course, there’s moisturizers that probably moisturize the same, but Shani’s feels rich.
I’ve been a sunscreen person for longer than people have been talking about it. And so again, I’ve gone through so many of them. Being a Black woman, it is always a trial to find a sunscreen that doesn’t make you look pale or ashy. Then with me, I want all those things, plus it doesn’t break me out. I’ve been using this one for years because it doesn’t feel like anything, it isn’t greasy by the end of the day, and it isn’t ashy. This has been my ride or die.
I think sunscreen is important if you want to be somebody who doesn’t want to wear makeup all the time. That’s what helps you keep your skin together so that you don’t have to wear a bunch of makeup. But I have layered it with makeup and it does work out.
Good old staple. I’ve been using it since I was in my 20s, and I give it credit for keeping my skin together. This was before everybody was talking about retinoids and all of that stuff. I was using it for acne, just trying not to be depressed about how my face was looking. Then I found out all the other benefits of reducing fine lines and marks and all of those things. This has been my one tried and true almost my whole life, the product I have used that has consistently made the most difference and I think has kept me together, in spite of all my bad habits.
Tretinoin is something you got to build up to. I think I’m at the highest percentage now, but I started lower, then I built up. Now I do it every other night, depending on what else I have going on. I like beauty products and I’m always trying new shit. Now I’m famous, I get free shit — hooray! — but that’s bad for your skin to keep trying shit. Then when I fuck my skin up, I got to go back to the tretinoin.
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