Happy Friday! The two of us are skidding into this weekend Indiana Jones-style, so here’s a letter before we go.
Taylore: Hey, hey. I’m getting ahead (can you believe?) by writing this at the tail-end of a relaxing long weekend (my first in a while). I really couldn’t be a bigger advocate of corporate America pivoting to a four day work week, because I feel like it really does take a full 72 hours to reset my brain to its factory setting.
I spent this particular Sunday braising away with Melissa Clark’s beef bourguignon, and I whipped some of the garlic confit I made last week into mashed potatoes to sop up the gravy. And on Monday, I finally started My Brilliant Friend and said so on my stories, and never in my life have I received so many polarizing responses. Half of you have made this series your cornerstone and the other half can’t see any appeal, so I’ll report back once I’m through. (Hopefully that’s soon-ish, as I’m pumped to see Olivia Coleman in The Lost Daughter but I’m firmly a book-before-movie/show consumer when possible.)
Speaking of simple pleasures, despite entering the last year of my twenties this coming Saturday, my new favorite possessions are essentially nightlights for grown-ups. Saje’s limited-edition holiday collection diffuser—it’s no longer available, but their others are lovely too—provides the perfect glow for my living room when I’m winding down. And I threw away the box so I can’t find the exact brand, but I now fall asleep to the relaxing glow of something like this every single night. Its constellations shift from a serene cobalt to a soft golden glow as the projection moves across my ceiling, and it’s like visual melatonin. Also, it’s just cute! I’m embracing cuteness wherever I can lately, and being lulled to sleep by pretty stars like a five-year-old just makes me smile.
For those looking to cozy up their space without buying more electronics, I’ve recently dipped into three of D.S. and Durga’s most gorgeous candles yet (I’m having a good few nose weeks guys!). The brand spankin’ new Salt Marsh Rose pays homage to co-founder David Moltz’s New England roots with green notes like sea lettuce, swamp ross, and lichen moss—cozy, like throwing on a fisherman’s sweater for a damp, moody walk after a seaside storm. Wild Brooklyn Lavender has quickly become a soothing, herbal fave amongst beauty editors, and the heady Tuberose Myrrhder (which I’ve previously raved about) reminds me of BF and I’s first date, which is likely a good indication of how that went.
Yes, the reccs above do reflect my conscious effort to slow the fuck down and relax more fully when I get the chance. (To that end, I am getting a lymphatic drainage massage later tonight at HigherDose in the name of birthday treats.) But watching the residents of New York City collectively try and dodge Omicron with the all skill and effectiveness of an Average Joe has brought me back to a very 2020 thought: I miss unfettered fun, and in turn, the silly, fabulous makeup looks that go with it. So here, I’ve made a list of products that are just flat-out fun, so you can experiment with abandon whenever you get the chance.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Infinite Chrome Flakes in every single shade: This recently-restocked eye and face glitter has once again set Tiktok ablaze, and ooh wow, are they a delight to fuck around with . I’ve been layering these holographic, foil-y formulas over Myricks’ Colorfix pigments, or just tapping them all over my eyelids, temples, and the tops of my cheekbones for a “falling star” kind of sparkle.
E.l.f. Cosmetics Face & Body Gems: $3 for a pack of sparkly, playful gems (or pearls) that’ll make you feel like an extra on Euphoria. We are all youths again!!!
Victoria Beckham Satin Kajal Liner in Sea Grey: Posh’s makeup line is truly great (I ran through her vamp-lite lip tint in a matter of weeks) and this limited-edition shade of her creamy eyeliner is party liner if I’ve ever seen it. Its fine shimmer reflects the light without looking heavy, and the itsy-bitsy sponge at the end of the pencil helps you blend and smudge it out.
Freck Beauty Slimelight Highlighter in Big Bang: A glittery liquid highlighter with a green-pink shift might not sound universally flattering, but somehow, it is. Use a small fluffy brush to buff it all over your lids and cheekbones for a lit-up, slightly alien glow. (Or if you’re more into more holographic blues and purples, try shade Space Face, like I’m wearing below.)
About-Face Matte Fluid Eye Paint in Everything Now: I expect little to nothing from celeb makeup lines nowadays, but Halsey’s cosmetic baby is a mainstay in my makeup bag. This matte liquid shadow is pigmented and vibrant and blendable… right up until the moment it dries. Then it's there for the whole damn night.
Jinsoon Nail Lacquer in Fete: Party polish in every sense. Sparkly, it goes with anything, and you can apply a coat or two in a moving vehicle without it looking messy if needed.
Pat McGrath Labs LUST: Lip Gloss: No one does a glittery gloss quite like Dame Pat. Vaporize a disco ball, and that's the kind of reflective yet superfine shimmery flecks we’re talking about.
Maybelline New York Sky High Mascara: This $11 tube has POWER within it. One coat of this (you’ve prob seen all those devout reviews on Tiktok) and my lashes are dusting the bottom of my eyebrows, which is arguably too much length. But if you’ve got stubby lashes that won’t curl, this formula is basically falsies in a tube.
Parfums de Marly Delina EDP: This has been touted as the “trap a man perfume” on Tiktok, but I’m going to go one step further dub this one Liquid Bi Panic. It’s sexy, sweet, and high-femme, and it’s just a ton of fun to play dress up with. The juice’s lychee and rhubarb hit you first, but it dries down creamy and more adult thanks to Turkish rose, vanilla, musk, and vetiver. I’ll be wearing it to ring in 29 for sure.
Christine: Good morning! It was -11 degrees here in Vermont this morning and it made me want to stay asleep forever! So, I worked out, took a cute little workout selfie, and used those endorphins to start my day.
It used to be that whenever I saw sweaty workout selfies posted to Instagram, I would (admiringly!) roll my eyes and swipe away. Working out was not my thing because living in my body was also not my thing. Moving my body made me feel silly and exposed in a way that I was mortified by.
Early on, I learned that my body was not the right shape and it made me feel trapped within it. Most of these reminders of my wrong-size-ness came from little things, like my mom raising her eyebrows when 10-year-old me cheerfully told her how much the doctor said I weighed.
“Really?”
“Yeah! Why?”
“Oh, nothing. Hm. I just heard about this great new Christian diet that incorporates prayer, do you want to do it together?”
Another one was when I was uninvited from helping my childhood best friend with her paper route because, as she said in the way that only kids can say vicious things so innocently, “my mom thinks you’re too fat to jump over the back seat quickly enough to be helpful.”
Mormons also have this thing called a “blessing” where men put their hands on top of the head of someone and say a sort of prayer that’s supposed to be funneled directly from God as advice to that person. When I was 12 or so, my grandpa gave me a grandfather’s blessing (even more special than a regular blessing!) that included God’s advice to me to lose weight. My pre-teen body was even too chunky for God!
One of the nice (?) things about being so isolated during the pandemic is that it brought to the surface a lot of long-standing issues, which quickly became untenable. I had to shake loose some of the psychic weight I was carrying around about my own unworthiness, and while it’s a work in progress, I do feel different. I’m more comfortable in my body than I ever have been (which I also hear is typical of being in your 30s).
I’m actually in the most successful workout routine of my life, but there’s a new problem. It’s a virtual reality boxing workout on the Oculus. Oculus, if you didn’t know, is owned by the menace formerly known as Facebook.
As a mouthy leftist, I should probably feel sheepish about this. I pay $20 per month (plus the initial $300 for the headset) for the illusion of being dropped into places around the world where black and white targets are coming at me that I hit with a weird plastic contraption in my hand. I look ridiculous and I feel amazing. It’s sweaty and engaging and silly.
Silly, actually, is maybe the perfect word for it. For a lot of this. It’s silly the way that we decide that some bodies are acceptable and others aren’t. It’s silly the way we try to create power structures by creating hierarchies of embodiment. Your body is wrong! Yours is okay! Yours would be okay if we did ____ to it! Pay us to do that and we’ll approve of you!
There’s a lot about my body that still feels silly to me, honestly. The way I have stripes along my hips from my skin expanding and contracting to fit my insides. The way my belly pokes out a bit if I’m sitting. The way that my boobs (the fat that we’re allowed to think is hot) just . . . sit there.
I don’t know, y’all. I’d rather not have a Facebook device in my household that I’m reliant on every day. I’d rather have a dignified favorite workout, like running or pilates. Instead, I’m waving my arms in my room like a maniac.
But, I’m trying to see silliness as a cute—and maybe essential—part of being human, rather than damning. So, on we go with the VR boxing. My chonky body and I will see you in the metaverse, I guess.
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