Chill Pill: The Shark ChillPill, Cold Mists and Bath Soaks for Cooling Down

In 1955, Wallace Laboratories launched Miltown, named for Milltown, New Jersey. Its drug, meprobamate, became the first blockbuster psychotropic in the United States, and the era's nickname for it was the tranquilizer. People did not ask for a medication so much as a way to stop the noise. Seventy years later, we still say it to each other in the same breath: take a chill pill.

I like that the modern chill pill has stopped being a pill. It is a fan you hold at your face on a hot commute, a cold roller in the fridge door, a fizzy tablet you drop in the tub. Shark, the appliance brand, put its own spin on the idea with the ChillPill, which it calls a 3-in-1 personal cooling system. The brand says it combines a bladeless fan with ten speeds, a dry-touch mister and a cooling plate it claims can lower skin temperature by up to 16°F in seconds. It is a summer makeup survival tool more than skincare, and I mean that as praise.

The trick is to think in terms of what you are trying to lower. Start with the first grid: the Shark ChillPill 3-in-1 Cooling System with Fan is the full version, the 2-in-1 Fan and Mist in Rose Gold is the simpler one, and Touchland's Cool Down Performance Body Spray is the no-battery way to do the same thing. Aura Cacia's Calming Chill Pill Fizzy Bath is the literal, evening version. Peter Thomas Roth's Water Drench Ice-Facial Cooling Mist, Tower 28's GoGo Cooling Shimmer Stick, Skin Gym's Cryoroll and The Superbloc's Bloc & Chill Spray are the pocket-sized ones.

Start with the fridge shelf. Keep one mist where the milk is, and pull it out after a run, after a flight or at 3 p.m. when the office heating hits. Cold water on the face is the oldest cooling trick there is, and a good mist is only a tidier way of doing it.

Sofie Pavitt Face's Fridge to Face Blemish Defense Cooling Mist has the idea in the name. Tower 28's SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray, with hypochlorous acid, is the calming one for skin that gets angry in the heat. The INKEY List's Hydro-Surge Dewy Face Mist and Yepoda's The Mist Have are the friendly, everyday sprays, and Dermalogica's Multi-Active Toner is a hydrating face mist you can keep in a bag.

Then the smaller, nicer bottles. Chanel's Hydra Beauty Essence Mist is the elegant one to spritz over a finished face, and BIOHEAL BOH's PROBIODERM 3D Lifting Cream Face Mist has a cream texture in the name. Caudalie's Vinoclean Moisturizing Toner with Rose Water is the gentlest, the one I would wipe on with a cotton pad after cleansing.

A pairing I like: mist first, then pat in a moisturizer while the skin is still damp. It keeps the water where you want it.

What I would skip: spraying a mist straight onto skin you just exfoliated or waxed, unless the label says it is for sensitive skin. A cold cloth is kinder.

Try this: put your roller or your eye masks in the fridge, not the freezer. The freezer makes them stiff and too cold for the thin skin around the eyes, and you will stop using them by Wednesday.

Skin Gym's Cryo-Ice Massage Sticks and its Cryo Chill Ice Beaded Face Mask are the big cold gadgets in the group, and the Large Body Cryoroll is the one for calves and shoulders. 111Skin's Cryo De-Puffing Globes and its 8 Pack of Cryo De-Puffing Eye Masks are more targeted, a set of eyes-only tools for the morning after a late night. Solaris Laboratories' White Cryo Eye Mask is a second eye-mask option if you want to compare.

For the roller, Chasin' Rabbits' Freeze Tag and beautimate's Ice Roller are simple, easy to keep in the fridge door and quick to use. Roll upward and outward, and keep the pressure light.

A pairing I like: mist, then roll, then moisturizer. The mist gives the roller some slip, and the cream seals it after.

What I would skip: leaving a cold tool on one spot. Keep it moving, and stop if your skin feels numb or looks blotchy.

One rule for a soak: make it the last thing you do. No phone on the edge of the tub, no email, and towel and pajamas within reach. The whole point is to close the day.

De Mamiel's Anchor Bath Soak and Surya's Muscle Relief Bath Soak are the two I would pour first, one named for anchoring the evening and the other for sore muscles. HigherDOSE's Serotonin Soak is a magnesium bath salt, and goop Beauty's The Martini Emotional Detox Bath Soak is the one with the best name on the shelf. OSEA's Vagus Nerve Bath Oil and Susanne Kaufmann's Mountain Pine Bath Oil are the two oils, for anyone who likes a bath to feel a little more like a treatment.

Sangre de Fruta's Garden of Earthly Delights Botanical Bath Salts have the best name in the grid, and Ortigia's Fico D'Indi Bath Salts are the ones I would give as a gift.

A pairing I like: after a hot day, run the bath warm, not hot. Then finish with a cold mist on the face and a glass of water. The contrast is the treat.

What I would skip: a very hot bath after a heat wave day. Warm water winds you down. Hot water wakes you back up.

I think the smartest chill pill is a small habit that makes your day cooler. Miltown promised to turn the volume down for you. These do it with cold water, a fan and a soak, and you can stop whenever you like.

So I would start with a fridge mist, add the Shark ChillPill if your summers run hot, and keep one soak for the end of the week. Add the ice tools last, once you know you will actually use them. Nickname aside, a tranquilizer was a promise. A cold mist, a fan and a bath are simply a plan, and you can carry out that plan tonight. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Face Mists for Dry Office Air and Overheated Rooms and L'Oréal Setting Spray and the Mists and Primers That Hold Makeup.