Hi shoppers!
Last time we did a little roundup of all my favorite lip products so since we did such a nice and neat theme for that issue, this time it’s gonna be just pure fucking chaos. I love these editions because I really just get to share all the stuff I’ve purchased lately that has given me that boost of serotonin I’m always looking for when I shop, and that has also genuinely made some part of my day easier, more fun, or prettier. Also my birthday was last week so some of these were gifts to myself, or gifts from other people (and of course if you want to give me a gift my Venmo is @ms_creilly.)
I also want to mention a quick housekeeping thing — for now, I’m officially swapping Material Girl Watches to Material Girl Reads, just because I’ve developed an unhealthy dependence on Scandinavian crime fiction and really do very little else in my spare time. I’m also gonna hold off on the Material Girl Eats section for now, I haven’t been cooking a ton — summer is my least favorite season and I always just want something quick and easy so the recipes are really not worth sharing (unless you need tips on how to boil a Nathan’s hot dog!)
In any event, here are some fun, useful, and Material Girl approved things to add to cart to alleviate the feeling of being in summer purgatory (the second half of August.)
Fragrance Free Clinique Hairspray: I have bangs which is really an emotional, physical, and aesthetic commitment and sometimes I just want to slick them back off my face but in my experience every single hairspray is so heavily fragranced that I end up just trading off the discomfort of bangs on my face for the nausea of feeling like my hair is holding potpourri. This Clinique Hairspray has been a game changer; it comes in a spray bottle — not an aerosol can, and gives what I would consider to be a light to medium hold (I have fine hair but a lot of it.) It has absolutely zero fragrance and I actually love that it comes in a spray bottle because I poured a little into a travel size spray bottle to keep in my purse!
bkr Tumbler: I am both an iced coffee girlie and terrible at drinking enough water and I now own two of these new tumbler style glasses from bkr and I love them. I use one for water exclusively and one for iced coffee and I like that they’re all glass and all the mechanisms are clear and detachable which makes cleaning so, so much easier than other water bottles or coffee cups I’ve had. I also like that they come with straws if you buy the kit; I use the straw in my one with water and I do believe firmly that a straw encourages you to drink more!
Chanel No. 1 Skin Enhancer: Look, I really, really, really did not want to love this. I wanted it to just be another glowy primer that I could use as a foundation — basically like another version of Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter. But I should have known better, I should have known that Chanel would have perfected this formula beyond my expectations; I watched a bunch of makeup artists use this and most bought the two lightest shades and mixed and that’s what I did. It has a skincare component which really does such a beautiful job of keeping your skin hydrated through the day; unlike other glowy primers, it has a serum like texture that goes on like skincare and absorbs into the skin. It blends easily so you can play around with the colors to get your coverage and color just right and it has wonderful lasting power throughout the day. It is fragranced like most of the Chanel makeup and skincare, but the fragrance dissipates almost instantly for maximum comfortable wear all day.
Djerf Avnue Breezy Dress: Yes, this is a Djerf Avenue stan account and it will stop being one when she stops making perfect fucking clothes. I pre-ordered this dress as soon as it was available and it is the ideal late summer dress. It has a really unique neckline that can be adjusted to the height that’s most flattering on your body using a tie in the back. It’s so easy and flowy and comfortable.
Afloral Faux Flowers: If you know me, you know I love making lavish floral arrangements from supermarket flowers, but there are also weeks where I am too busy or too tired to keep up with the maintenance of pruning and changing out the water, or even getting to the grocery store at all. I’m typically pretty firmly anti-faux flowers but years ago a family member bought some poppies and assorted stems from Afloral and I have to admit, for the first time I questioned my anti-faux beliefs. I recently was sent some lovely gifts from the brand, and ended up going back and buying more myself because they were just that damn good. Most of my spaces are curated with multiple vases with arrangements of different sizes so I use Afloral for larger, more high maintenance arrangements, and then will add smaller vases with real tea roses or other varieties of real flowers and I find that adding low maintenance real flowers to a room with faux flowers also makes the faux flowers look even more real.
BlindBox Empire: Call it healing your inner child, call it never actually growing up, but I love me some Sanrio, especially blind boxes. But as a neurotic, compulsive control freak about my purchases and my decorations, I simply cannot fully enjoy buying something without knowing exactly what I’m getting. Enter the assortment of *open* blind boxes, available through this small business. I had my eye on a couple characters in particular and found them to have the best supply, really competitive pricing, and wonderful customer service. I was a little worried that open blind boxes would mean they were used or not in pristine condition, but even the boxes themselves barely looked touched; the ones I ordered had been very *very* carefully opened on one end just enough to have slipped out the card that indicates which character is inside.
Kevyn Aucoin Cream Stick Collection: I have worn KA since I worked at Nordstrom in college, when the man at the counter told me how Kevyn was responsible for Sophia Loren’s (my queen) iconic eyeliner look. I’ve sworn by their products ever since, and I recently was lucky enough to be gifted their new line of cream contour, blush, and highlighters. I love cream products but often they lack lasting power, and they’re hard to layer with powder products — not these. They melt into the skin and last all day, they layer beautifully with all of my other products including foundation and loose powder — and each other, and I also find them to be incredibly versatile. I use the highlighter sticks as eyeshadow almost everyday for a light summer glowy look, and the blush stick on my lips for a soft matte neutral look. They’re incredibly comfortable, they have no discernable scent, and they’re so, so easy to use. For as longlasting as they are, they’re incredibly blendable so you don’t have to worry about placing your blush or contour in the wrong place because you can always take a brush or your hands and move the product around on your face until it looks just right.
Material Girl Reads: The Girl Who Played With Fire (Stieg Larsson)
Yeah, yeah I know another Scandi Noir — gonna be honest, that’s all I read so get used to it. You’ve probably heard of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — maybe you’ve seen the movie or read the book, it’s pretty much regarded as *the* Scandi Noir novel to read if you’re into the genre, or if you’re starting to get into it. It’s a perfect novel, Stieg writes like no other author I’ve ever encountered; his prose is beautiful and complex but easy to follow somehow all at once. The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second in the Lisbeth Salander/Millenium series and it is every bit as perfect as its predecessor. I literally felt my soul getting sad as the second half of the book started the thin out and I knew I was getting close to the end. It has intrigue, espionage, and of course murder — and brings you even deeper into the world of Salander who is an unbelievably complex and riveting character. 10000/10 stars.