January Round-Up
From new skincare that I found and loved to old faves that were rediscovered, I wanted to round up the products, clothes and other relevant things that stood out to me over the past month.
Beauty
I had been craving a good facial massage and finally booked one at a beautiful local spa, K. West Skin Body Spirit. I had a 1.5 hour fascia lift massage and microcurrent with Katie. It was heavenly and I will certainly try my best to make this a bi-annual for myself. The spa was beautiful, serene, and luxurious - truly the best way to spend a frigid and grey January afternoon. She used some skincare products from the brand Laurel, which smelled and felt divine, and I am definitely adding the Honey Berry Mask and Hydrating Elixir to my never-ending skincare wishlist!
In terms of new product discoveries, the new Sachi Skin Saponins Cream Cleanser has been a delightful addition to my routine. It’s a dense creamy cleanser that thoroughly cleanses the skin while leaving it nourished. I like cream cleansers but find that many don’t actually leave my skin feeling clean clean. This one actually leaves my skin really clean without drying it out. It doesn’t have any added fragrance, and vaguely smells of cucumber and pencil shavings. Au naturel, baby!
I also finally bit the bullet and bought the Biologique Recherche PIGM400 Cream after years of getting samples of it and falling more in love each time I used one up. The price tag hurts my soul, but this moisturizer feels so special when I put it on. It’s the kind of product that makes my morning routine a little happier. It has a slight luminosity to it, almost like a subtle highlighter, yet dries down to a satin finish that is not sticky or greasy. It has a perfect texture for my combo/oily skin, it has no discernable scent, looks beautiful under makeup and claims to help fight and prevent pigmentation over time. Pigmentation is my biggest skincare concern so I plan on tackling it on multiple fronts this year. Stay tuned!
For makeup, I finally used up my long-discontinued Becca Capri Coast Bronzer after multiple years of use, and treated myself to a new luxurious Chantecaille bronzer I had been eyeing for months. The Chantecaille Sirena Bronzer is a beautiful luminous gel-to-powder formula that imparts the perfect sunkissed glow. I love applying it with a more dense natural bristle brush like the Rephr 22 Brush.
My friend Dena and I also published our annual “Best of Beauty 2023” video, which is always such a fun tradition. This year marked the ninth year in a row of us doing this together! It feels so great to just chat about beauty with a good friend who is just as passionate about it as I am.
I also embarked on my yearly Project Pan challenge, where I set out to focus on using up a particular selection of makeup products throughout the year. Project Pan is a great challenge for fellow beauty lovers that tend to buy a lot more than they actually use up.
Fashion
With temperatures hovering near -10 degrees Celsius for most of the month, my knitwear has been getting all of the action. I documented some of my outfits over on TikTok, but the main heavy hitters have been the Khaite cardigans that I have collected over the last couple of years pre-loved from Vestiaire Collective. I have one in brown and one in hot pink. They were steep splurges, but I am reaching for them constantly and find them super chic and easy to style. There are some wonderful alternatives on the market that I also love, from brands like Almina Concept and Jenni Kayne.
I spent the majority of the month not shopping for new clothes and instead appreciating what I have. The Ezra Klein Podcast episode on How to Discover Your Taste was fantastic - it put into words so many thoughts I had regarding our fast-paced algorithmically-led environment online.
To me, much of the current fashion world on social media thrives on making us feel like we’re not good enough, encouraging us to hop on the overconsumption hamster wheel, chasing the next new item that claims to change our lives. Did you buy last season’s viral “clean girl” yoga pants? Too bad, because this season we’re doing the “mob wife” aesthetic so you need to get a faux fur jacket to really show the world that you’re with the times.
🤔🤔 do we really, though?
I’m exhausted by the revolving door of fashion trends that no longer reflect someone’s true taste and personality, but rather their screen time. Calling myself out here too! If anything, that podcast has enabled my internal voice to gently encourage me to trust my own taste and instinct, and enjoy the beautiful clothing I have already amassed in my decade+ of being a fashion-loving individual rather than mulling over the next hot thing.
I find myself to be way more creative when I am restricted by the number of items I have and I am constantly striving to make smarter, more sustainable shopping decisions. I’m not perfect by any means, but I am trying! I almost quit fast fashion last year, save for a couple of COS items, and I am going to have the same goal this year.
I am also incredibly inspired by this article in which a Vogue editor tries to only buy 5 new items of clothing in a year, and the lessons learned from embarking on that challenge. I will be tallying up the number of clothing purchases I make throughout the year and
Abandoned Carts 🛒
Here are the things that have been living rent-free inside my brain, that I swiftly talked myself out of:
Prada Beauty Foundation I almost checked out on this twice when it launched at Sephora and Nordstrom online this month. However, the little angel on my shoulder whispered “shouldn’t you try to use up one of your open and half-full foundations first before we add a new one to the collection?” I nodded in agreement and promptly closed the browser tab. It’s apparently coming into stores in March so if I am still tempted by it, I can try and get a sample of it first and see how it goes.
Tibi Sid Jeans in a darker wash I bought these jeans early last year in a lighter blue wash and they have been my most loved jeans of the year. They instantly elevate every outfit, every plain t-shirt, every knit. These jeans have the magical powers to modernize all the classic and more structured tops in my wardrobe. But do I really need to double down and get them in another color? Surely I can just relax and just wear the ones I already have, and put the $400+ in my savings account instead. 😇
Fara Homidi Lip Compact This has been on my imaginary beauty wishlist since last summer. I have a lip liner from this brand in the shade Minky and I adore it. I love the minimal yet fun aesthetic of this brand, and how curated and thoughtful the product selection is. As of me writing this, they only make a refillable lip compact in a handful of shades, a lip brush and a small selection of lip liner shades. I am dying over the Nude 1 and Red 1 shades. However, at $88 a pop and $40+ for refills, those lip compacts are not cheap. They sell them at Violet Grey so I am going to try and wait until they run a sale, they typically do one in the summer, and just enjoy my nude and red lipsticks in the meantime.
Final Notes
I’m currently watching the final season of The Crown, one of my favorite TV shows. I usually devour its seasons as soon as they air but purposely waited until January to take my time and savor the final season. It’s a depressing, gloomy month here in Michigan, so I need all the quality entertainment I can get. I also saved the second season of The Gilded Age for this purpose. There is also a new season of Love On The Spectrum on Netflix that I am so excited about. I loved the first season.
From comfort TV watching to comfort foods, I ordered a deluxe cookie box from Last Crumb and it was DELICIOUS. We loved digging into a new fun cookie for dessert each day. The cookies are huge, so one of them makes a perfect dessert for two. They’re the best cookies I have ever had, with clever branding and great flavor combinations. My personal favorite? The Basic White Girl cookie that is flavored like a pumpkin spice latte. They drop cookie “collections” in limited numbers and have really fun collaborations with other brands like The Beverly Hills Hotel and Fly By Jing.
That’s enough for me now, see you in February 🙂👋🏼
For more beauty highlights from the month, you can watch my January Favorites video below!
