Whoever dies with the most stuff, does not win.
Buy less choose well, as Viv said.
Bonj, and welcome back.
A quick skin update: three solid weeks of using Biologique Recherche and I am furious. It works, so well. I also had a glorious facial at FENN which was brilliant, Brooke was fantastic (tell her I sent you) and used lots of cooling dodads and whatsits on my face which was delightful. If I could have a facial once a week I think that’d be pretty much heaven for me.
In other news, I contributed to / copy edited a whole book (!!!) which is on sale now. It is my current excuse for being terrible at publishing these newsletters with regularity. If you like anthologies of profiles and interviews and fashion, this book is for you. While working on said project I met the incredibly talented and wonderful Simone who has Astrophe Magazine, which is worthy of your time and attention (and money).
I also wrote this, and this, and this.
Here are things I’ve consumed this past fortnight and enjoyed:
this Mexico City travel guide — we’re gearing up for our trip* and while I look forward to curating my own travel guide (I love writing them so much) this one was really insightful and led us to booking our MDXC accommodation: we’re staying here — it’s a tiny micro-hotel above a book shop in Roma Norte, looks incredibly chic and has really ramped up my excitement for the trip.
I came across this The Art of the Dinner Party article the other day while I was scrolling through Pinterest (for aesthetic pictures of drinks / dinner tables for an article for InStyle which you can read here) and I think I am wistfully dreaming of apartments large enough to fit whole dining tables in, for entertaining.
a profile of Yasi Salek on Passerby magazine’s website. I know, I know, but I love her so much.
this Instagram post from Oblivion Los Angeles about shopping local, which really resonated with me (if you’ll recall my rant about buying magazines which you can read: here).
followed up swiftly by a viewing of Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, a documentary on Netflix which made me feel sick about our consumption habits, and much better about not buying anything (except for booking discounted hotels in America) in the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales.
Even though I did a lot of research about said sales for a couple of articles, if anything, trawling through the internet for the BEST SALES and BIGGEST DISCOUNTS and LOWEST PRICES had the opposite effect on me insofar as it completely diluted my desire to purchase anything from the internet, and reminded me once again that if you really want something, you should be able to wait for it.
I keep coming back to this, a reflection on sneaky luxury — which Sydney, especially, is full of, and even more so at this time of year.
The Party Issue of InStyle is out and while technically I am only adjacent to the glossy these days, if you look really hard you might spy my name in magazine (very exciting) and while I am absolutely biased, I also think it’s a fabulous issue and you should buy a physical copy and enjoy the sneak luxury of reading it cover to cover somewhere sunny.
Here is a moody playlist for you:
It includes some cute new bands (Sonic Reducer who are from Canberra, bless) and Mannequin Pussy because I am obsessed, who we saw play in Sydney on Friday (it was very good except for the rude girl in front of me who seemed determined to have a bad time) and who I pitched to interview but maybe next time !
FIN.
Congratulations on the book edit and love the title of this latest Substack. 🧡