It’s monthly favourites time. I have severe PMT and am finding it difficult to string words together and so the less of an intro I do the better. I’ve already written three versions and one included a long and meandering sidenote about shark attacks, a subject so irrelevant to this month’s favourites that I just couldn’t work out what had made me think of it.
So let’s skip the formalities and just get cracking on the discoveries that have delighted me over the past few weeks.
[Ad info: this post contains affiliate links, the beauty products were sent as press samples.]
My Perfect Pair of Jeans
Found them, after five years of searching. The jeans of my dreams. The boyish, squared-off cut that I love so much that hangs from the hips (but not so loose that they fall down) and then straight legs that are not too wide, nor too slim. God, the relief at finally finding a good shape after trying approximately eighty-nine thousand pairs.
They’re not entirely perfect: I’d like the denim to be softer, more vintaged and worn, but I’m pretty sure Google will tell me how to achieve this. They also have a very thin white line down the front of them which makes it look ever so slightly as though there’s an ironed in crease and WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS, WE’RE NOT IN TEXAS, 1988, but you have to get quite close to see it. So I just don’t look down at my own legs too often.
Apart from these failings, they are denim perfection. They are the “Slim Regular” jeans £24.99 from H&M. I went up to a size UK14 (I’m usually 10-12) because they felt very snug - I would absolutely recommend sizing up at least one. If you can get hold of any - they seem to have all but sold out online, but give it a shot here if you like the look of them.
My New Apothecary Cabinet
I’m over the moon with my new apothecary cabinet, bought from a dealer (via Vinterior) to store skincare and makeup bits up at my work cabin. Do you know, I’ve been searching for precisely the right one for a year and a half? I almost caved in and bought a new one, which would have been a lot easier - getting hold of the perfect piece when it comes to vintage and antique furniture is often a long, long waiting game! - but then this one popped up and not only did it have exactly the right dimensions to fit the space it needed to go in, it had numbered drawers! For some reason this makes it feel a bit like a gigantic advent calendar, which is apt because I already have no idea what’s inside each drawer and every day holds a new surprise.
Where is the laptop charger? Who knows! Open every single drawer to find out!
I think I’m going to have to devise some sort of numbered plan. Or: makeup on the left, skincare on the right, practical bits and pieces down the middle. I’ve moved the chargers to the one drawer with the stripped-down wood: easy to identify in a hurry.
I wholeheartedly recommend Vinterior if you’re after special bits of furniture, or lighting, or art; I’ve bought countless things through them and sold a couple of bits too and it’s always a seamless experience with excellent customer service if anything is not quite as it should be.
I’m virtually done with the cabin, now, when it comes to decorating and furnishing. Just some paintings to go up, and some hooks, and then I’ll give you a little tour.
The Wattle Roller
If ever there was a skincare product designed for the wattle (that loose bit of skin under the chin at the top of the neck) then it was this rounded retinol serum stick from RoC. I hate myself for using the term “wattle” but it’s so much quicker and easier than explaining the bit of neck that I’m talking about, and I also find it to be a soft, clumsy word that means no real harm. I hate the expression “marionette lines”, on the other hand, and hate even more the term that some use for them, which is “folds of bitterness”.
WTAF?
I remember once going on a trip around one of the science research labs at a very big beauty company and their literature referred to the “folds of bitterness”. I was incensed. FOLDS OF BITTERNESS!
Anyway, I’ve been applying the RoC Retinol Serum Stick to this soft, wattle-y bit of skin under my chin for a few months and I do think that it is effective when it comes to firming up and smoothing. Possibly because the shape of the stick (rounded like a roll-on deodorant) is absolutely perfect for fitting into that area and so it feels very satisfying to apply it. I would hazard a guess that I have always ignored this particular area - and actually, when I think about how I usually apply serums and creams, it’s the exact place where I drag my hands downwards to finish off my face! - so to have been lavishing it with a twice-daily retinol dose must have had some noticeable effect.
RoC do retinol so well - potent yet sensitively formulated to reduce the usual risks of irritation and dryness. This particular serum stick has been designed for use all over the face and neck, but I save it for just that one spot!
Beauty product #2 and this has changed my hair life. The Living Proof Full Volume Root Lift Spray. If you are lazy like me, you will be very au fait with the phenomenon of hair looking absolutely shit about two hours after you’ve curled or waved it - the curl stays in at the bottom, but the roots are flat and rubbish and you get a sort of “triangle head” effect.
Well. No more. And, in fact, this new method I’m doing is great even if you can’t be bothered to wave or curl it afterwards - just the root lift alone makes everything look a bit glam, a bit done.
What you do is turn your head upside down and spray the Root Lift Spray into the roots and then blow-dry it in. Now I have dozens of products that are called a similar thing to this Living Proof spray, and I will endeavour to work my way through them and report back, but this particular one dries in fast and gives volume for - I’m not joking - at least four days. So no matter what happens with the rest of the lengths, it stays looking relatively bouncy and fresh. It has the added bonus (for me, at least) of working like a mega-powered dry shampoo, because I get no oil at the roots whatsoever. I’m tempted to see just how long I could go without washing, but I get a bit twitchy and itchy by day four!
I have actively avoided blow-drying my hair since the day I stopped modelling, which was in 2012 sometime, because my hair was blow-dried to the high heavens almost daily when I was a jobbing model and I could never be arsed to do it myself. I’d seen what it took to do it well. I’ve been an “air dryer” ever since. But the effects of this root-lifting business have changed my mind. I mean. Ten minutes, once a week, to have hair that looks as though someone has at least thought about it?
Living Proof Full Volume Root Lift Spray is here online
The Book of the Year
I know. It’s early to be calling it, but this could well be my favourite book of the year. Sandwich by Catherine Newman. Many will have read We All Want Impossible Things, which is so sad it had me crying from the first chapter; this is just as engaging, just as beautiful, as hilarious, as heart-wrenching.
I thought I had a deja vu moment then, because I thought to myself, I’m sure I’ve written these words before! Turns out I have: a few days ago. Ha! Told you - PMT makes me absolutely lose my mind. I’ve also just worked out why I was randomly writing about shark attacks, it’s because Sandwich is set in Cape Cod, and Cape Cod has (apparently) lots of sharks.
I’m not massively worried about sharks, because I don’t really swim in the ocean and am not a keen sailor and so the chances of me coming face to face with one are slim. Equally I am not ever considering a cruise, so I don’t see a Titanic moment in my future. I won’t 100% rule it out, I just want to point out that sharks aren’t something I sit in bed and fret about.
Unlike extreme caving! I live in fear of someone making me go caving. I realise I could just say “no” but still. What if there was an end of world scenario and we all had to take to the ground? And all of the big, sensible caves and tunnels were full and so we had to find ever-smaller caves and tunnels? Ugh. Honestly my knees have gone funny thinking about it. I’d rather take my chances with sharks than get stuck in a too-small underground tunnel.
Anyway! Sandwich! I’m going to nick a bit of what I wrote about it the other day - do feel free to upgrade your subscription if you didn’t read the book recommendations post. It means that you get access to absolutely everything, including my innermost thoughts, nearly always regarding extreme caving.
Consider an upgrade! It’s like business class but I don’t bring you a hot flannel before take-off.
Here’s the official book blurb:
One week at golden Cape Cod. The perfect family holiday. What could possibly go wrong?
For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to the beach.
The humble, quirky house they rent has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, shared mishaps and memories. It is a place where her family comes together and Rocky wants to cling to every moment.
Now, sandwiched between her children who are adult enough to be fun but still young enough to need her, and her parents who are ageing but healthy enough, Rocky wants to preserve this precious moment for ever.
And here’s what I had to say about it:
Good God this is an absolute corker! I’m going to write a whole separate post about Sandwich - it affected me so much that I actually photographed some of the passages and sentences. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.
The blurb above does not do it justice. It’s one of the best things I’ve read this year, if not the best, and it’s possibly the most poignant-yet-funny book about motherhood I’ve read full stop. Even though the central character is further along the parenting road than I am, with kids in their early/mid twenties, all of the themes still got me right where it hurts. Love, loss, the dramatic way in which you can swing from utter joy to complete despair; it’s all in there.
I love that it’s set on family holiday, in Cape Cod, and that it’s the same holiday that the family have been going on for two whole decades. It’s a very clever device, it makes it easy for us to flit between the present and the various pasts without it feeling hammy or contrived.
I just loved it. It felt comforting, deeply comforting, exploring all of the things that a woman in her mid/late forties might be feeling, hormonally or physically or emotionally, but doing it in what felt, somehow, like a very safe space. Usually I run an absolute mile from books talking about this particular age bracket, even though I’m in this particular age bracket, because they often seem to be filled with cliché and make me want to roll my eyes backwards into my head and never roll them back again, but Sandwich is phenomenal. 100% a hit.
You know the drill: there’s a whole feature-length video to accompany this post. For those who like to immerse themselves fully in my content. Bathe in it. You can watch it here:
