It was my birthday last week which coincided with me feeling suboptimal for quite a few days, so I’ve been absent from the blog and social media (apologies to those whose comments I’ve left unanswered – I will get to it soon!). Fortunately, I have been restored to excellent health by a massive party this weekend and am excited to tell you about stuff.

1. Writing. First, some more personal updates. I mentioned in my New Year’s resolutions post that I want to do some proper writing this year. I no longer have any excuse NOT to do it, as J has given me a writing desk and a computer for my birthday. You can see the set-up on the picture and I’m very happy with it, although also nervous about my ability to actually write anything.

2. No-Buy February. Also somewhat related to my earlier musings on how to live, I’m not going to buy any skincare or makeup this month and preferably no books, clothes and perfume either. With the last three I know that I will not be fully abstinent (see reasons below) and that’s fine, some planned purchases are OK. As to the reasons behind the no-buy, it’s partly just my general desire to cut back and partly a pragmatic decision to direct more funds towards travelling. I’ll keep you posted on both elements.

3. Beauty. I admit that preparing for the no-buy February, I did get quite a few bits and pieces in the beginning of the year. I will do a skincare update in the coming weeks and give you an overview of the newness. The idea was that if I’m well stocked on everything I could possibly need, there will be no excuse for me to buy anything, as there will certainly be temptation. Most significantly, Sunday Riley is coming out with their retinol any minute now and Vintner’s Daughter is launching their second product, the much-anticipated Active Treatment Essence. In other news, Milk Makeup is now available on Cult Beauty, but unfortunately only for customers in the UK and Ireland. Estonians can rejoice, as Kaubamaja is now stocking DCL, a serious clinical skincare brand that I’ve mentioned before. It is not cheap, but if you are interested in proper science-based, result-driven beauty stuff, this is pretty much as good as it gets.

4. Perfume. There are also exciting things happening in the perfume world. Most crucially for me, Tom Ford has brought back Velvet Gardenia, one of my all-time favourite scents. It used to be the most realistic gardenia fragrance I had ever encountered and I hope it’s still the case. In addition to this, Gucci has released a more exclusive perfume line that looks absolutely amazing. I am sure it’s overpriced – I haven’t sniffed these yet – but that may not be enough to prevent me from buying something. There is also a new Chanel Exclusif, 1957: fortunately, this one will probably not be my thing, as it’s mostly about musk. That said, any addition to this line is going to get my attention.

5. Couture week. Talking about overpriced things, the Haute Couture shows have just finished in Paris. As always, you can watch all of them on Vogue Runway. If you don’t have time for every single show, I suggest picking Valentino (just the best, again), Viktor & Rolf’s meme dresses and Iris van Herpen’s unique beauty.

6. Best books. I have gone through Lithub’s ultimate best of 2018 list, NYT’s 100 notable books of 2018 and several SFF lists to put together my own – way too long – must-read list of 2018 releases (I did read a lot of new stuff last year, but there’s still much ground to cover). I will therefore try to focus on that and not be distracted by things coming out in real time. However, with the Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon Jones to be released this week and Ann Leckie’s Raven Tower coming out later in February, this will not be 100% doable. If you like to torture yourself, Lithub also has a list of interesting releases in 2019.

7. Good movies. Another memo, another promise to watch more movies. But I am serious, I will watch The Favourite no matter what and I’m sure Roma is excellent, too. Meanwhile, I did manage to go and see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which turned out to be delightful. Unless you are severely allergic to comic book/superhero stuff, I highly recommend it.

What are your plans for February?