The 11 best and worst things we tried from social media this year from productivity hacks to dishes that almost made us give up cheese

Insider's food reporter, Rachel Askinasi, tried a TikTok hack for mashed potatoes that instructs the cook to boil potatoes in chicken stock rather than salted water. According to Askinasi, the potatoes cooked in stock had a much more robust and rich flavor and were slightly creamier.

"I'll never serve water-boiled mashed potatoes again," Askinasi told readers.

Read more here.

Executive editor of Insider Reviews, Sally Kaplan, tried TikTok's famous "pillow slide" sandals and said these waterproof foam sandals have super thick and squishy soles that still offer a decent bit of support.

"I thought I was just getting a comfy pair of house sandals when I bought these, but they've become my go-to's for errands and walks around the neighborhood," she said.

Read more here.

I made the butter board that infuriated the internet and, depending on the ratio of butter to toppings, it qualifies both for the best and worst of the year.

It's delicious when you get the correct proportions of butter to toppings on a scoop of bread, and, ideally, it's relatively convenient to put together for an informal get-together. But, if the proportions are off, it feels greasy and unappealing. I wouldn't bring it to a housewarming, but I might make it again for close friends stopping by.

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TikTok became infatuated with "House of the Dragon" star Emma D'Arcy and their favorite drink, a negroni sbagliato, this fall when a clip of them and co-star Olivia Cooke discussing it went viral.

I made the drink — which cost me $75 in ingredients, though part of that is because my local liquor shop somehow only stocks artisanal vermouth — and became a fan. At first, the suggested ratios were too bitter for my taste, so I added more orange and prosecco. It's exceedingly easy to make, and your money will go further if you're making it en masse for guests at a summer soiree.

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2022 was the year of heatless curls on social media (#heatlesscurls currently has 2.7 billion views on TikTok), and writer Lauren Finney tried seven methods to figure out which ones worked best.

In Finney's testing, the options that created the best curls were the sock and chopsticks, scrunchies, and socks (sans chopsticks) methods. The scrunchies, with their "relative ease and natural-looking curls" were the standout trick, though, and a satin loop created specifically for heatless curls was disappointing.

"My inexpensive silky scrunchie kept my hair from kinking or bending, which was helpful in not only making my sleep comfortable but also in producing nice-looking curls," Finney said.

Read more here.

Insider's Pauline Villegas tried a Doritos chicken recipe shared in July by TikToker Sylvia Ferreria, @syllygirl, which racked up more than 19 million views.

Villegas said the recipe could have been improved for convenience, though, in the end, it still tasted "like fair food gone horribly wrong."

The verdict? "I think I'll be sticking with Doritos as a snack, not a meal, in the near future."

Read more here.

Lifestyle reporter Armani Syed tried a slew of beauty hacks popularized by beauty mogul Huda Kattan for improving everything from lipstick to foundation.

Syed tried Kattan's tip for the "longest-wear application" of foundation that would supposedly "make your skin look more beautiful." The technique — pumping foundation into a glass of water before applying it with a brush — was also recommended as a way to minimize transfer. But, for Syed, it was a disappointment.

Syed said the foundation clung to her brush and resisted slowly building up coverage, and the water ran down her face and made the product harder to blend. There was less transfer, she agreed, but only because the technique was "so drying." Kattan noted that the technique was "wasteful," and Syed agreed.

Read more here.

To Syed's surprise, she loved Kattan's recommendation of using eyeshadow as a lip liner.

"Lip liners can be an expensive product and you often only get one shade, but by exploring the eyeshadow palettes you already own, you can create new color combinations without spending a dime," she explained. "I also found that the powdery consistency clung to my lips for longer than the average creamy lip liner, as Kattan said it would."

*Be careful not to use eyeshadows that contain ultramarines, ferric ferrocyanide, or chromium oxides, as those are not thought to be safe for use on your lips.

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Reporter Sam Tabahriti made the pizza-pasta dish that captivated and horrified TikTok this summer and declared the recipe — which cost about $30 in ingredients and contains roughly 23,210 calories — the reason why he "may never be able to eat cheese again."

"It was what the French would call a sacrilege," Tabahriti, who is French, told readers. "This probably was one of the worst dishes I have ever made. Not because I messed up the recipe, but because it was just so rich and so cheesy. I genuinely don't know how anyone could eat this."

Read more here.

Lifestyle reporter Lauren Edmonds tried a few viral cleaning hacks for lifting stubborn stains out of plastic and wooden cutting boards — giving both methods a thumbs-up.

Using a tip from TikToker Armen Adamjan, Edmonds cleaned a plastic cutting board with baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, sea salt, and a lemon peel. "Aside from a few particularly willful stains, Adamjan's hack worked well and is much more cost-efficient than continuously buying new cutting boards," she said.

She then used Samira Kazan's TikTok hack, which combines sea salt, lemon, and food-grade mineral oil, to deep-clean a wooden cutting board — calling it "spotless" afterward.

Read more here.

Jandra Sutton, host of the personal development podcast The Wildest, tried a few of TikTok's popular productivity hacks, and named body-doubling, energy management, and the five-minute rule the techniques that worked best for her.

Body-doubling uses the presence of another person to increase accountability and productivity, while the five-minute rule lets you stop doing whatever it is you're doing after five minutes — though, since you've started, you may find yourself simply finishing it anyway. Energy management has you track your energy levels throughout the day so you can schedule around the tasks and times that naturally energize you to maximize your day.

Sutton also mentions that time blocking may work well for people who thrive on structure, and the Pomodoro Technique — which breaks the day up into 25-minute work chunks separated by five-minute breaks — as one of her least favorite.

Read more here.