Delights for the end of June days
Chocolate, cricket, yellow walls, green nails, canned drinks, great looking skin
Funny sort of meandering one this week because that’s the mood I’m in. My son broke up for the summer and I asked him how he was feeling about it. ‘Weird,’ he said, and it made me remember that peculiar, almost panicky sensation of a big blank space opening up ahead, one which you’ve been supposedly longing for but which you suddenly realise means not seeing most of your friends for two months. The certainty that something formative will happen but you don’t yet know what it will be – first love, first kiss, first fight?
For a great list of untwee summer nostalgia, read this by Natasha Poliszczuk/Book(ish).
By the way, I’m writing this from the boundary of a cricket pitch, one that is surrounded by fields and a vast blue sky. Look!
The Bezos wedding. I feel like I have to mention it but I don’t know why. It feels like nothing else, does it? It’s so compulsively awful. I don’t want to click on the story (algorithms) but then I think – maybe there will be another picture of someone really famous looking awkward (Leonardo di Caprio pretending not to be there). Or maybe I’m hoping to see someone wearing something that cost eleventy thousand pounds and looks hideous so I can inwardly – what? Hold some sort of moral high ground? ‘If I was a billionaire, I’d be dressed so much better?’ (I would!) But clicking doesn’t just make you feel the sort of revulsion you get after eating a Big Mac when hungover, it also feels sort of disappointing? I mean: $56 million (allegedly) to hire an entire city and the only people the papers care to mention are: Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom, Kim Kardashian and Ivanka Trump. You could lose 50% of that line up and not notice, don’t you think? Even improve the list with their loss? Maybe Mr & Mrs Bezos don’t have that many friends, maybe money can’t buy you everything.
(And there’s that high ground I was looking for – it’s not too chilly up there, you know.)
Watch the Brooke Shields documentary – Pretty Baby – on Disney+. It’s a shocking but sensitive and effective reflection on her life and the mores of her era. She was iconic, for so long. For women of my generation and above, it’s been a thoughtful time these last few years, and many of us have had to revise what we thought was acceptable and defensible. The argument isn’t over yet but this is a good contribution to it. Brooke Shields, for her part, is remarkably unbitter about what happened to her, apparently remaining more grateful for what she gained than angry about what was taken away.
OK, nice summer stuff, cos it’s hot, innit? Boots Soltan Spray On Suncream – smells like Sun Bum (to my mind, the best smelling of all the sun creams, though Piz Buin Oil also DOES something to me) but half the price at £9.50.
The Boots Soltan range is used by a friend of mine who has to be super careful in the sun so I think it works.
I have it on good authority that these are very good canned drinks – but not to be drunk from the can in the manner of an exhausted commuter on the 18.46. To be decanted into a proper glass with ice, please. Moth drinks – 4 for price of 3 at Waitrose.
I’m told the Paloma (tequila, grapefruit, lime) is top stuff, but I want the Spicy Margarita. (NORMALLY, martinis – vodka, verrry dry – are my bag, but the problem with them is: one martini, two martini, three martini, floor.)
Along the same genteel lines, this is my reminder to store some decent cutlery in the car. Somehow in the summer, I’m more spontaneous about staying out for longer or going on a drive to find a beach or antique shop or the place where Aunt Mary used to live, or maybe it’s because I spend a lot of time watching my son play cricket, and it invariably finishes too late to cook supper. Whatever the reason, I feel as if most of my food in July & August is on the run. I can’t bear a spork (I don’t live on Star Trek) and wooden cutlery, though ecologically sound, makes my mouth feel as if I’ve been running my tongue along the side of a tree. Even the most desultory petrol station wrap can be elevated with silver and a proper napkin, stored in the glove compartment.
I really, really want these shorts, from Sézane. A hundred smackers tho.
Not esp summery but useful: The spot bump remover. Note: not a spot preventer or cure, this is specifically to get rid of that hard bump that stays after the spot bit is gone. I think they work like those genius Compeed blister plasters. Anyway, they seriously sort the things out and any teenagers will love you until at least lunchtime tomorrow if you get them a pack. (A fiver!)
I finally bought Erborian CC Cream, after peeps had been raving about it for months. I discovered you can buy the 15ml sizes for only £19 each. You only need a tiny bit. And they are duly amazing, just evening out your skin – perfect for summer, when my skin feels better than it does in the depths of January. I bought both the Clair (pale) and the Dore (darker) but they are not drastically different. You can mix with moisturiser for a really glowy finish. PS They sent me a sample of the eye brightening cream too and that is also vg.
I had a week in France and coming home from a holiday always sends me into a frenzy of DIY… all those chic little spots one was inspired by, I suppose. And a general feeling that if one was surrounded by summery things, you’d feel happy all year round… To this end, I’ve been hanging summer hats up on the walls (bang in a nail – come Christmas, they’ll hold fairy lights or bits of holly and mistletoe) and decided to paint the boot room in Edward Bulmer’s Naples Yellow. Cheering
I fancy painting my toe nails in mint green. IDK why. But this one looks pretty.
In life, treats are very important. This is a good treat. Cadbury’s Biscoff collab. Subtle but it works.
That’s it from me! Have a gorgeous week. Let me know your loveliest summer bits and bobs, and click on the heart if you enjoyed it, please. If you’re not a subscriber, why not? It’s freeee.
Love,
Jessica x
I found myself wishing I’d put proper cutlery, plate, glass and, yes, a table napkin in the car for on the move moments this week. A mini picnic kit just for me. Just in case. In the planning now! Also huge fan of Erborian CC mini tubes of smoothing out ness. Happy hols for your son.
Skin looks excellent! Also lashes.