I love putting these posts together. I keep an ongoing list on my phone that I squirrel away and add to throughout the month, so you’re really getting the good stuff here. Although I mostly write about fashion around these parts, you get something a little more well-rounded in these monthly posts. Still a sprinkling of style, but a decent dose of beauty, with culture, wellness and food shoehorned in as well. ENJOY!
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If you’re a regular reader of my ‘Everything I Wore This Week’ series, then it will be of no surprise to see the LESET Yoko Tank Dress* listed up top. The recent temps in the U.K. had me stressed. There was nothing in my wardrobe that felt appealing for a 32℃ day, and that’s exactly where this dress comes in. It’s tissue-paper-thin, barely touches your skin, and you can easily wear a bra underneath, which I mostly need for sweat-catching purposes. It’s on the shorter side (I’m 5’7” for reference), so throw on a pair of these underneath* to be on the safe side. If your size is sold out, try this for something similar*.
The weather this month has meant that I’ve been playing with a far smaller section of my wardrobe than usual. Jeans?! Sweaters?! Long sleeves?! I don’t know her! There’s been less to work with, and trying to conjure up an outfit whilst the first beads of sweat work their way down your back isn’t exactly an inspiring moment. So I’ve been leaning into ease. All black, all white - done. No faff, no fuss, I’m ready. Because of this, unsurprisingly, the pieces in my wardrobe that I own in both black and white have been in rotation the most:
Flore Flore May Tanks* - The big win this month was realising these bras fit perfectly underneath them*.
RE/DONE x Hanes T-Shirt* - I’ve had these T-shirts in my wardrobe for years; the perfect ever-so-slightly-cropped, vintage-feel tees.
LESET Barb Shorts* - The hefty, silky composition means these pair extremely well with lightweight cotton T-shirts or tanks.
DONNI Pop Cargo Pants* - I once owned these in five different colours, but have since downsized to just the black and the white. Nothing is comfier.
Sidenote: Yes, no more multiples going forward, but when I was decluttering my wardrobe with Reva, if I was regularly wearing both the black and white versions of a piece, I kept both. No point selling or donating something I was actually wearing!!
The newsletter inclusion that has been months in the making. THE TIME HAS COME! MERIT’s new mascara formula, Clean Volume*, has launched, and it’s the mascara that has got me back into daily mascara use. I was lucky enough to get an unmarked sample a few months back and have been eagerly awaiting its release so I could share it with you because it’s, well, game-changing. Let’s get to the good part - it comes off with cleanser and warm water - no separate eye makeup remover needed, but it also manages to hold a curl in my pin-straight lashes. If you have a natural curl to your lashes, this will be no biggie, but to those of us who usually have to do a whole routine with a mascara that feels simply impossible to remove come bedtime, this is BIG NEWS!
And the brush! It’s like a little lash comb, so you can coat each lash, almost push them into position, and lift them to exactly where you want them. The formula builds if that’s what you want, but because of the brush, it never gets clumpy. It doesn’t flake or smudge; it’s just my lashes, but with a little more volume.
*Sponsored mention (but trust me that I would have included this either way - it’s not left my makeup bag since)
It’s not that I didn’t care about SPF until I had a kid, but these days it’s built into my daily routine in a way where, before, perhaps I wasn’t as stringent. Now we all apply sun cream head-to-toe before we leave the house, and to make it pleasant enough for all (him and me), I make it as easy as possible. Boots Kids Soltan SPF50+ Lotion* on his body, an Ambre Solaire SPF50+ Spray* for his ears and the back of the neck and then the Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh SPF50+* on his face (it doesn’t make his eyes sting, and he’s genuinely into it because I tell him how it comes all the way from Korea).
For me, I stick to something from La Roche-Posay for the face (either this* or this*), but for the body I was always a little stumped. Sensorily, I despise anything sticky on my body, so suncream was never my favourite category. Bask sent me their Non-Aerosol Spray SPF50 Sunscreen*, and I have zero complaints. The fine mist sinks into the skin in a minute flat, leaving zero residue - you don’t even know you’ve got something on. It’s the kind of SPF that mates have been borrowing and then are instantly enquiring ‘What IS that?!’. For top-ups on the go, it’s golden.
Instagram suggested this song as an accompaniment to a carousel I was posting. My kid heard it, insisted we add it to his playlist (sidenote: such a good hack for long journeys!!), and we’ve listened to it daily since. It both feels like the unofficial soundtrack to this summer and makes me feel nostalgic for the summers of my mid-twenties, when mates would come and stay for long and lazy weekends, and we’d lie on the beach and read our books for hours. Can you tell I just really want to go to the beach and read for hours?!
Anna and I had a long discussion the other day about our love for Ocado. Peak adulthood is an early Monday morning Ocado delivery, and I will die on that hill. Not needing to physically enter a supermarket to do a weekly shop is the only way I can stick to a food budget, plus this way you get to sprinkle in a few M&S treats. Enter the M&S Loaded Pistachio Ice Creams. My word. These are HEAVENLY. I wouldn’t say I’m a chocolate ice lolly kind of gal. Give me a Calippo over a Magnum any day of the week. But these? Well, these are special. The chocolate is thick, and they use the same pistachio cream inside that they sell in the pot, which I happily eat right out of the tub. The ice cream of the summer for me.
Look, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t found the start of the summer holidays testing. It’s our first one, so we’re finding our feet with how to balance our little one being home 24/7, with pretty much zero childcare or clubs and figuring out how work fits into the equation. So know that you’re just seeing the nice bits here. But one silver lining has been summer evenings in Brighton.
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t live in London. I’m Brighton-born and-bred (I always explain it by saying draw a line down from London to the coast and that’s where I reside), and I know I’m biased, but I feel so lucky to be able to call it home. Nothing beats a post-dinner dip in the sea with a friend, or pushing bedtime and going down there with my husband and my kid, or wandering along the promenade after dinner at one of my favourite restaurants. Or even tiny glimmers, like picking raspberries at dusk or reading my book in the garden as the sun sets. My friend and I were talking the other evening about how romanticising our lives feels integral to our general day-to-day happiness, and we must try to do it more often. So my summer holidays survival tactic is to try and have some kind of ‘moment’ each day, even if it’s small and fleeting, because my word, I need it.
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