It’s still January, so officially totally OK to issue this month’s memo – snippets that seem interesting to me and hopefully to you as well. I have labelled them clearly, so you can skip the ones that look boring!

1. Penguin Modern series. If you’ve been here before, you might know that I love Penguin’s little black classics. Now, these will get (on 22 February) a more modern follow-up, 50 small books from Baldwin to Rhys to Lispector to Nabokov to Achebe. I want them all.

2. IKEA and B. Åkerlund collaboration. Åkerlund is a Swedish stylist who has worked with Beyonce and Lady Gaga and whose personal style I’d describe as goth-baroque pin-up. She has teamed up with IKEA for a collection to be released in March. Not all of it is for me, but about half I would happily own.

3. Saga vol 8. I only noticed this was out thanks to my sister, so I’m simply alerting you, too. It’s still excellent and probably my favourite comic of all time – with Sandman the only other serious contender.

4. Ursula K. Le Guin. I’m sure you’re aware by now that Ursula has died and I’m still angry at the universe. I have talked about her books before and will most likely do it again. If you haven’t yet, this is a good time to read The Left Hand of Darkness. And I have to finally get my act together and read The Dispossessed. Or if you really cannot do speculative fiction, it was Woolf’s birthday recently, another possible source of reading inspo.

5. Stila Shimmer & Glow eye shadow. I raved about Stila Glitter & Glow eye shadows when talking about my 2017 favourites. If this sounded too scary, there are now new shimmer shadows that are less glittery, but look equally gorgeous. Plus there are some new shades in the original formula.

6. NIOD newness. For serious skincare nerds, NIOD has launched the second generation of its star product, CAIS. When I’m back to buying stuff, this is one thing I’ll get. Also relatively new – and exciting! – are the RE:Pigment serum and Survival products.

7. Asarai. This is a new Australian skincare line that I haven’t tried, they are only shipping to the US at the moment. But look at that packaging! If I just wanted my skincare stash to look cool, it would be a mix of Glossier, Chanel and this. The products don’t sound bad either and prices are reasonable.

8. Couture. The couture shows have just ended in Paris and you can check them out here for some escapism and visual stimulation. Valentino was my favourite show, with Dior and Givenchy also showing lots of nice stuff. Iris van Herpen remained beautifully herself, as always, and I quite liked Schiaparelli and Viktor & Rolf, surprisingly.

9. Black Panther. The most visually stunning thing I’ve seen recently was not couture, but the Black Panther trailer. I’ve been waiting for this movie (not just for aesthetic reasons) for more than a year and it’ll be here soon. If it’s even half as good as the trailers, it’s going to be amazing.

10. My tweets. I’ve resurrected my Twitter account to document my #30daysofperfume. So if you are interested in following my scents of the day (and some other stuff), head this way.