Oooph. It has been a month of seemingly fairly random on-line and in-person purchases however by God have these items tickled the collective fancy of my Instagram followers. From a pressure-relieving seat-pad to a face contour wand that creates prompt cheekbones, listed here are the bits and items that individuals have gone wild for.
I imply we should always clearly go in with the sexiest merchandise: this Gel Seat Cushion “for lengthy sitting” has a particular honeycomb design that helps to unfold load and relieve strain on the decrease again, hips, sciatic nerve and – crucially – on the previous fanjita. The undercarriage. Sure, associates, I purchased a seat pad particularly to cease my thrupenny bits from going numb when writing at my desk for lengthy durations of time.
I can hear you all now, screaming away, “you shouldn’t be sitting for that lengthy at a time anyway!”. “My Apple Watch makes me stand up and do leaping jacks each twenty minutes!!”. “GET A STANDING DESK!!!”.
Calm yourselves. If I want to sit at my desk churning out phrases till my total fanny loses all feeling then I’ll. And the brand new gel seat cushion permits me to go even longer than earlier than. What an accolade to earn!
Jesting apart, the cushion is definitely sensible you probably have decrease again ache and discover each single workplace chair uncomfortable. It doesn’t make it really feel all mushy and squidgy, as if you’re sinking into a settee, it simply form of…helps. In a very forgiving means. It additionally permits air circulation between arse and chair, which is useful, and you may choose up the cushion by its particular deal with (only a regular deal with, however I’m in QVC mode) and take it to make use of within the automotive or at The Globe theatre. (If you understand, you understand.)
I purchased mine from Amazon right here* – it was £24.99
*denotes an ad-affiliate hyperlink. Which means a small share is earned with each buy via the hyperlink.
Look, I do know that is subjective, however I’ve tried a lot of earplugs – I can nearly safely say most of them available on the market – and these are those which are nonetheless inside my ear come morning.
Most others are plucked out, blearily, at round 3am as a result of they’re so huge that they’re about to burst via the wall of my ear canal, or they’re protruding an excessive amount of and stopping me from sleeping on my aspect, or they’re too inflexible and giving me ear-burn.
Earlier than this explicit sort of ear plug, the very best I’d discovered have been the Alpine Sleep Comfortable (sure, I’ve tried Loop and all the opposite ones that steadily pop up as recommendations) as a result of the mushy silicone plugs have been simple to drag out and in (no rolling or twisting mandatory), have been sufficiently small for my dainty ear canals (fairly positive most ear plugs are made to suit giants) and shaped an excellent noise-seal that minimize out loud night breathing however nonetheless allowed excessive pitched noises to penetrate.
(Alarms, foxes mating, owls screeching.)
After making an attempt practically each sort of ear plug aside from the bespoke ones the place it’s important to have a mould made from your ear canal (I’m simply not that dedicated) the Alpine Sleep Comfortable have been the perfect. However then – then – alongside got here the Alpine SleepDeep!
These are oval and appear to only match that bit extra snugly inside (you give them further push along with your thumbnails and so they suction into place as if you’ve entered some form of outer area satellite tv for pc airlock) and so they additionally are available two sizes. Which is vital. I like to recommend the small, except you’ve got a really giant head. Or giant ear canals.
As talked about, these are the one ear plugs I can put in at evening and get up nonetheless carrying within the morning. I feel that they’re fairly phenomenal.
I purchased mine right here* – I purchased the blended pack with each sizes, however when you simply need “small” then go for the model labelled (confusingly) “50 pack”. That appears to be the small measurement by itself.
One thing of a cheat entry, as a result of I lined this wonderful vest high final week, however nonetheless one of the crucial widespread suggestions of the month. It is a mushy, beautifully-cut vest high that requires no underwear beneath it as a result of it has it inbuilt. I’m a convert.
You possibly can learn the total rave about this high right here, or purchase the Uniqlo Ribbed Bra High, £19.90 right here*
Some contouring on-line is an excessive sport, with individuals altering their total bone construction and magically reshaping their noses through intelligent optical illusions. I can inform you that this appears spectacular on movie however completely unhinged when seen up shut in actual life, so don’t really feel as if you’re lacking a trick when you’ve not but lined your total face with stripes and squiggles of darkish brown paint and buffed all of it in to a doubtful end.
What I can counsel, in order for you the aforementioned “supermodel cheekbone chisel” is a fast swipe of the e.l.f. Magnificence Wand in Contour (I take advantage of medium/tan) straight beneath your actual cheekbones after which a fast mud over with a fluffy brush to mix. The sponge applicator appears to use the color in a extra forgiving means than a stick – much less waxy, simpler to buff in – and the shades are nicely thought-out, non-orangey and stick round till you wash your face off.
It’s a great way to dip your toe into the sculpting world when you don’t need to put money into a dear contour product and I like that the plastic tube packaging is properly light-weight – excellent for my on-the-go make-up bag.
I purchased mine at Boots and it’s additionally on-line right here* – it prices £9 and is each bit nearly as good because the pricier merchandise it’s up towards.
I’ll bore you with a narrative: I’ve some actually beautiful Tiffany earrings. A gift, years in the past. Ten years? In all of that point I’ve tried and did not put on these diamond studs for various days at a time. The screw thread appears to only tear up the insides of my piercing holes when I attempt to feed the posts via and I find yourself with sore, swollen lobes each time that take days to go down once more.
I made the chief choice to promote the earrings and purchase myself some “new” ones (really pre-loved, so new to me however to not the world) and this time I selected the usual “push on” backs. All nicely and good, and my ears massively admire them, the graceful posts simply gliding on via, however I’ve to say that the girl within the jewellers put the concern of God into me about dropping the earrings. She was all for the screw submit for safety.
I set to some critical analysis, which took me all of about eight minutes on the practice dwelling from London, and got here throughout a possible answer: Lox lockable earring backs.
These intelligent backs permit the submit of the earring to enter it, however then it locks in place with the intention to’t slide the again off even when you apply Hulk Hogan ranges of pressure. There’s simply no budging it. Marvellous! To undo, you merely squeeze the prongs collectively (a bit of fiddly however nothing too irritating) and off they slide.
Thus far, so superb. I’ve been wanging round with the backs, taking them on and off a couple of hundred occasions, nonetheless no signal of the LOX power depleting.
It’s nearly a tenner for 2 units of lockable backs, which make these presumably the most costly small issues on the present market when you disregard MI5-level hidden spy cameras and nano-robots and the like, however by their very nature they need to be arduous to lose and so hopefully you’d solely have to purchase them as soon as for every pair of fancy earrings…
I purchased my LOX on Amazon right here* – £9.99
I didn’t need to self-promote (or did, however thought I’d depart it till the very finish!) however my most-purchased advice this month has really been my new guide, How To not be a Supermodel. I can not inform you what number of messages I get every single day from individuals who have completed the guide and really feel the necessity to inform me instantly how a lot they cherished it. Or from individuals who have simply began it and might’t put it down. Or who can’t cease laughing out loud in public.
Dozens and dozens of sensible, heart-warming messages and mini-reviews, usually with entire passages quoted again at me. It’s massively pleasurable listening to how persons are devouring it after which dropping the guide to their family and friends as a result of they’ve banged on about it a lot!
When you haven’t but learn it (or listened – the audiobook is accessible on Audible and Spotify and the entire normal locations) then you’ll find it in your native bookshop or order on-line right here*. I can promise you that when you even remotely like what you learn right here on Substack then you’ll love the guide.