Well, it's officially September and I couldn't be more excited! August flew by for me. I've been fairly locked in working on, well… work! But I'm happy with it. In the meantime, I've just been a little creature of the internet, finding little pleasures where I can, like getting lost in Zara Lawson's eye makeup or watching Nick Offerman kill it as a retired wrestler. With all of that, here are some August favs from the internet's best tastemaker (obvi).
Beauty
Earlier this month I got to try out Future Society's body wash in their scent Haunted Rose, and it's quite nice. It was gifted, full disclosure, but I will be repurchasing it myself. The wash lathers really nicely and has this very natural rose scent. It isn't overpowering or harsh, and is much more of a moody rose. It kind of feels a bit goth, like the rosary of a widow in the 18th century.
I really look forward to using this in the evening because it just settles on the skin so nicely. My nighttime ritual now looks like a warm bath, lathering with this, burning some papers from Santa Maria Novella, and slipping into a 100% cotton nightgown afterwards. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect slippers and new towels. I can't wait to settle into this ritual even more as fall comes.
I succumbed to a terrible breakout at the end of the month, which tbh is such a fucking buzzkill! Really throws me off. Anyways, I tried the Welly Face Saver Clear Spot Bandages. They aren't anything super special, but I really do appreciate their packaging, specifically the little tin. Honestly, it's why I bought them. I wanted to reuse the tin for perfume samples to throw in my purse. I like having perfume to touch up with during the day, or just to give someone tbh. I always have a few samples on me just in case. Why not make someone's day with something small that smells nice?
Idk what's in the water, but Zara Lawson's makeup artist, Sophia Sinot, has really been killing it. Her makeup for the recent festivals has been so fun, playful, and very necessary. I love that it's coming at a time when makeup just feels so boring. Now, will I recreate it? No. But do I think it's a work of art we should all be appreciating a whole lot more? Absolutely. I AM, however, planning on stealing some of these looks and incorporating them into nail art in the coming months.
Experiences
This month started with a visit to Edgewater Candles for their custom candle-making class. I've been once before, but they have since expanded their scents, which allows for even more experimenting with your custom candle.
Basically, you get to choose your own blend. Anything from something sweet and juicy to woody or citrus, you name it, they have it. You can throw in as many scents as you'd like. I ended up making something inspired by The Cure's song "A Forest," so it had a bunch of fresh, woody notes in it, just in time for fall. While you wait for your candle wax to harden, you also get to learn a bit more about candle care and composition, allowing for some real knowledge transfer from actual candle makers!
Fashion & Style
I've been wanting a 100% cotton nightgown for some time now, so I took the hunt to Von Maur and found the perfect one. It's from Eileen West. I got the Heirloom Dream Ballet Gown in an XL, and it's so spacious and flowy. The cotton is soft but also very crisp. It's honestly done wonders in the evening. I turn into a little heater at night, and while I'm still hot, I have found that I am much more comfortable in this gown, likely due to it being 100% cotton.
This has to legit be one of my favorite things I've purchased all year. So much so that I plan on buying several more, including a short version, a version with long sleeves, a robe, and even a more moody all-black one to wear out over a slip during fall. These sleeping gowns are just incredible. You could go Victorian ghost with it, or maybe weird Manson cult, or maybe even homo on the range. Please consider this me begging you to give it a try, and if you do, I wanna hear!
Speaking of homo on the range… let's talk Dolly Parton. Like so many, I was saddened by her passing. Her legacy is one of great kindness, beauty, laughter, and pure talent. I loved so much about Dolly, but most importantly her commitment to being unapologetically true to herself and being very public in that, which I can imagine was no easy feat. With that, I also have been remembering a lot of her incredible pieces, including some that are highlighted in one of my favorite coffee table books, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. This book chronicles a lot of her fashions and stage costumes, along with info about how style has impacted her life. There are lots of detailed photos of the pieces, which is so cool to see. I highly recommend this for any Dolly lover, or fashion lover in general.
Food & Drinks
This month I picked up something I fell in love with while at Taste of Andersonville in Chicago, and that's what I consider to be the best crackers in the world: these chili crisp crackers from Chinese Mom Kitchen.
They are such a good mix of savory, spicy, and that little bit of funk from sourdough. They have a really nice crisp and go well with anything. I loved eating them solo, but I also made some poached eggs and had the yolk over the top of them. They sell online as well!
I also had the chance to go to Apothecary Cocktail Lounge in Chicago this month. So cute, with unique drinks that feel elevated and thoughtful. Their whole thing is being an apothecary of sorts, so they make drinks that, in theory, are like tonics and target different needs. There are aphrodisiacs, antioxidants, and a bunch more. I had the Elixir of Hanami with Roku gin, nigori sake, sakura, sencha, yuzu, cranberry bitters, and sakura cloud. It was sweet but not overpowering. The gin and sake were a great combo with that final punch of cranberry. They also had a rosemary popcorn that was really good, which I look forward to trying to recreate at home.
Home & Lifestyle
I'm officially a composting woman now! I've always wanted to, but I've always lived in apartments and it never felt feasible until recently. My partner was doing some research and came across WasteNot Compost, which is local here to Chicago.
They have a couple of different plans, but ours is a biweekly plan. Essentially, every other week, a 5-gallon bucket is dropped off outside your house. You spend the next two weeks filling it up with your scraps, and then at the two-week mark they pick it up. At the end of the season, you can get your finished compost back to use as soil. It's really great and super easy. I leave the 5-gallon bin, which honestly holds all the smell in, on my back porch, and then have a tiny bin inside that I fill up during the day. Before bed, I empty the small bin into the larger one. My plan is $24 a month and very worthwhile.
As mentioned, I went to Edgewater Candles, so naturally I fell in love with so many of their scents. But one of my favs was #2 Pencil. It has notes of cedarwood, graphite, and pencil shavings, and is very much a nostalgic woody scent. It's clean and simple and makes for a nice option during the workday. I really love their waxes and wicks. They burn so cleanly and have really great projection.
Might I make a quick plug for Golden Coil? I know it's almost fall and my schedule is packed, but maybe that means you're also thinking about planning for the next year. I've written a bit about my love for this planner, but I will say that it's very customizable and can work into your life and schedule however you need it to. I use it for goal planning, bookkeeping, budgeting, and of course weekly planning, here’s how.
Media & Entertainment
I finally found someone to let me bum off their Apple TV (many thanks to Michelle), so naturally I've been making my way through all the things I've been wanting to watch. First on the list was Margo's Got Money Troubles, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Elle Fanning, Nick Offerman, and Nicole Kidman. I absolutely loved it, although it hit me a lot harder emotionally than I expected. Jinx, played by Nick Offerman, is a retired pro wrestler early in recovery, and his storyline felt particularly familiar to me. He also gets some incredibly funny one-liners, and I loved the way the show plays with performance through both professional wrestling and sex work.
Margo's sex work storyline was obviously another part I was interested in. There were pieces that felt a little unreal compared to my own experiences, but I think the show does a fairly good job with the complicated ways people respond to sex work. Some people see Margo's work as creative and are completely accepting of it, while others weaponize it against her, particularly when it comes to her being a mother. It's not necessarily an easy watch, but it's a good one. Also, Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman's chemistry is insane.
Help! I've been Ryan Murphy pilled! I've really been into his newest show, The Shards. The show centers on a group of high school friends in 1980s Beverly Hills, so naturally there's extreme wealth, fame, sex, and general debauchery. But there's also a killer on the loose.
The series pulls from a bunch of different flavors of Los Angeles horror, with elements of the Night Stalker, Satanic Panic, cult killings, and Manson all thrown into one very Ryan Murphy hodgepodge. It's cheesy in exactly the way I like my horror to be, the soundtrack is incredible, and the set design is extravagant and frivolous in the way only the '80s can be. There are also plenty of ridiculous Ryan Murphy b-plots, including a budding gay porn star struggling with a changing industry and VHS distribution. There's a big dyke playing a sleazy porn producer, which is just… incredible. Add Evan Rachel Wood as a pilled-up retired actress turned housewife and it's sensational. A lovely and unserious way to waste your time.
Naturally, The Shards has also sent me back into an '80s music spiral. I've been revisiting everything from Frankie Goes to Hollywood to Soft Cell, but The Police have been especially heavy in rotation. I've actually been reaching more for their late '70s stuff, particularly "So Lonely" and "Message in a Bottle."
And of course, I have to mention Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. If you want my longer reflection, I wrote about it separately, but the short version is that I absolutely adored it. It was strange, horny, campy, and far more emotionally affecting than I expected, which is apparently exactly what I wanted from my media this month.
Some other internet things I enjoyed/read:
Gen-Z Wants In-Office Sex to Be a Totally Acceptable Thing
TikTok Profits Off Drug Dealer Ads For Cocaine, Opioids And Xanax
The Pain of Knowing Your Child Will Never Launch
They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real
Things I Wrote/Created:
Adventures in Pelvic Floor Therapy
The Care and Keeping of Clothes | How to Make Yours Last
So that's August! Apparently my month was dominated by Victorian nightgowns, goth roses, compost, chili crisp, sex workers, and an alarming amount of 1980s cultural debris. Honestly, not a bad way to close out summer. I'm very ready for September, though.
Also, quick plug: if you are a spendy babe and want some spendy recommendations, I put together some weekly picks on my ShopMy.
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