Now through May 22, Pop-In@Nordstrom is partnering with the much-loved skin care brand Aesop, celebrating the simple virtues of our daily routines. In this blog series, we explore five skin care rituals with Aesop's own Dr. Kate Forbes, general manager of products and research & development.

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." Amelia Earhart

Products for invigorating body care to guide the journey from indoors to outdoors, for adventurous spirits and wandering minds:

What makes this ritual so unusually effective?

Nordstrom blogs: This selection is about preparing to venture into the outdoors, and also what you'll do afterwards.

Dr. Kate Forbes: Exactly. One of the key products is our deodorant. It's different from how other brands would approach deodorant. It's not an antiperspirant. We're working on controlling body odor instead of stopping sweating. It's an interesting formulation: we use a zinc ricinoleate as one of the active ingredients. That helps to bind odor-forming bacteria before they can product the malodors that can occur and we associate with underarms. We screened all the essential oils that we use for their effectiveness against some of the bacteria that cause underarm odor - Staphylococcus aureus and Corynebacterium xerosis - and developed a suite of 11 essential oils that have that antibacterial effect. And also combined, a really interesting aroma. The product helps you develop your personal fragrance.

About that zinc: is introducing metals into the skin a good thing?

So what we've got is a zinc compound that does sit on the surface of the skin, but true, is in contact with the skin. Zinc is an essential metal for the skin, part of many body metabolic functions. It's different from aluminum salts, which many antiperspirants use to and block the pores to stop sweating.

Also curious about the lab testing of underarm bacteria modulated with this deodorant. Are you swabbing employees' armpits?

Ha, no. We outsource to an external microbiology laboratory. We look at their tests, at the bacteria in a petri dish with those essential oils. You can measure how much spread the essential oil has on the bacteria on a plate, which shows you how effective the essential oils are. When we do testing, though, we see how effective the formulation is firsthand. We do use our internal staff for test subjects sometimes, although we never force them. I should say all our testing is on human volunteers. We don't test on animals.

Everyone's body odor is different. Does this deodorant fit everybody?

It's not going to suit everyone. We do have a second deodorant, an herbal deodorant launching shortly. This one is quite a woody profile, using ingredients like tea tree and clove. The other one will be more rosemary and sage. This one is the original deodorant. It's earthy, which is an iconic note within the aroma profile of Aesop.

What can you tell me about the exfoliant in the hand wash?

It's mild. It has fine pumice-it's something for people who need gentle exfoliation, they may be going outdoors, gardening, exposing them to tough conditions. It's a little bit different as a hand wash from what you might normally expect.

-Andrew Matson