The Dark Side of the Sun: Summer Black vol 1
The idea of this blogpost is older than the blog itself, I’ve even had the title of the piece for more than five years now. There have been others in this category, like this piece on overdressing and the one about gin in teacups, but today’s post has taken ..
August Memo: Gucci, Meghan and a Foaming Cleanser
I haven’t done a memo for a while – it has not been a conscious decision, it’s simply been a struggle to remain consistent recently and I also don’t want blogging to become a chore, so I don’t beat myself up too much about it. I’ve had more time over the hol..
Me and Statement Sneakers: An Unlikely Love Story
I have done statement dresses, statement shoes, statement earrings, statement skirts, statement everything, but even relatively recently, I would have been incredulous at the thought of wearing statement sneakers. But fashions change, as do people – see my r..
Parfums de Nicolaï: The Most Underrated Fragrance Brand in the World?
Perfume business is a weird business. It seems so simple: obviously, people would just buy perfumes that smell the best to them, right? In reality, the whole thing is so heavily influenced by hard-core marketing, prestige, status, group-think and aesthetic c..
On Thinking Yourself out of the Box
I like to believe I’m a pretty clear-eyed person when it comes to myself: I tend to think I know myself well, don’t have many illusions and can assess my strengths and weaknesses with relative accuracy. While I do often ignore that knowledge – I’m frankly no..
Dr Sam: Skincare for Sensible People
When it comes to skincare, I’m definitely not a reasonable person. I like things to be effective, I honestly do, but I also like them to smell lovely and to come in nice packaging and maybe include some ingredients that sound good, but don’t really do much, ..
Ormonde Jayne Champaca: An Unusual, Addictive Floral
Ormonde Jayne, a niche London fragrance brand, was among my absolute favourites when I became seriously interested in perfume – more than 10 years ago now. Their original line-up was diverse but coherent and there were no duds in the bunch; from the gorgeous..
Call Me by Your Name: Peaches, Tan-lines and Desire
Last year, I missed the right moment to read André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name: it is meant to be read in a heatwave and ideally while longing for someone exquisite. If the latter state of mind is not available, just a heatwave will do, but I waited too lo..
On Dressing During the Apocalypse
If you are a regular reader, you know that I occasionally talk about sustainability and environment and climate change, but not really in depth. It’s not because I don’t think these things are important, I think they are HUGELY important – I have worked with..
Thoughts on the 8 Novellas Nominated for Hugos and Nebulas
I have made a pact with myself this year to read all novels and novellas nominated for the Hugo awards. And Nebulas, if I can manage. With the novellas this wasn’t a huge challenge, as there is a big overlap between the two shortlists: reading the Hugos got ..