Oooph. It has been a month of seemingly fairly random on-line and in-person purchases however by God have this stuff tickled the collective fancy of my Instagram followers. From a pressure-relieving seat-pad to a face contour wand that creates instantaneous cheekbones, listed here are the bits and items that individuals have gone wild for.
I imply we must 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, pals, I purchased a seat pad particularly to cease my thrupenny bits from going numb when writing at my desk for lengthy intervals 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 rise 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 whole 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 good when you 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 , .)
I purchased mine from Amazon right here* – it was £24.99
*denotes an ad-affiliate hyperlink. Because of this a small share is earned with each buy by 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 in the marketplace – and these are those which might be nonetheless inside my ear come morning.
Most others are plucked out, blearily, at round 3am as a result of they’re so large that they’re about to burst by the wall of my ear canal, or they’re protruding an excessive amount of and stopping me from sleeping on my facet, or they’re too inflexible and giving me ear-burn.
Earlier than this explicit kind of ear plug, one of the best I’d discovered have been the Alpine Sleep Tender (sure, I’ve tried Loop and all the opposite ones that steadily pop up as ideas) as a result of the mushy silicone plugs have been simple to drag out and in (no rolling or twisting essential), 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 lower out loud night breathing however nonetheless allowed excessive pitched noises to penetrate.
(Alarms, foxes mating, owls screeching.)
After attempting almost each kind of ear plug aside from the bespoke ones the place it’s a must to have a mould fabricated from your ear canal (I’m simply not that dedicated) the Alpine Sleep Tender 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 a superb additional push together with your thumbnails they usually suction into place as if you’ve entered some form of outer house satellite tv for pc airlock) they usually additionally are available two sizes. Which is vital. I like to recommend the small, until you’ve gotten a really giant head. Or giant ear canals.
As talked about, these are the one ear plugs I can put in at night time and get up nonetheless sporting within the morning. I believe that they’re fairly phenomenal.
I purchased mine right here* – I purchased the blended pack with each sizes, however in case you simply need “small” then go for the model labelled (confusingly) “50 pack”. That appears to be the small dimension by itself.
One thing of a cheat entry, as a result of I coated this wonderful vest high final week, however nonetheless one of the crucial standard suggestions of the month. This can be a mushy, beautifully-cut vest high that requires no underwear beneath it as a result of it has it in-built. I’m a convert.
You may 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 whole bone construction and magically reshaping their noses through intelligent optical illusions. I can let you know 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 in case you’ve not but coated your whole face with stripes and squiggles of darkish brown paint and buffed all of it in to a doubtful end.
What I can recommend, if you need the aforementioned “supermodel cheekbone chisel” is a fast swipe of the e.l.f. Magnificence Wand in Contour (I take advantage of medium/tan) immediately 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 in case you don’t need to spend money on an expensive contour product and I like that the plastic tube packaging is properly light-weight – good 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 pretty much as good because the pricier merchandise it’s up in opposition to.
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 didn’t put on these diamond studs for quite a lot of 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 by and I find yourself with sore, swollen lobes each time that take days to go down once more.
I made the manager resolution 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 recognize them, the graceful posts simply gliding on by, however I’ve to say that the girl within the jewellers put the worry of God into me about dropping the earrings. She was all for the screw put up for safety.
I set to some severe analysis, which took me all of about eight minutes on the practice dwelling from London, and got here throughout a possible resolution: Lox lockable earring backs.
These intelligent backs permit the put up of the earring to enter it, however then it locks in place so to’t slide the again off even in case you apply Hulk Hogan ranges of power. There’s simply no budging it. Marvellous! To undo, you merely squeeze the prongs collectively (slightly fiddly however nothing too irritating) and off they slide.
Thus far, so excellent. I’ve been wanging round with the backs, taking them on and off just a few hundred instances, nonetheless no signal of the LOX energy depleting.
It’s nearly a tenner for 2 units of lockable backs, which make these probably the most costly small issues on the present market in case you disregard MI5-level hidden spy cameras and nano-robots and the like, however by their very nature they need to be exhausting 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 go away it till the very finish!) however my most-purchased advice this month has really been my new e book, How To not be a Supermodel. I can’t let you know what number of messages I get daily from individuals who have completed the e book and really feel the necessity to inform me instantly how a lot they liked 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 good, heart-warming messages and mini-reviews, typically with complete passages quoted again at me. It’s vastly pleasurable listening to how individuals are devouring it after which dropping the e book to their family and friends as a result of they’ve banged on about it a lot!
For those who haven’t but learn it (or listened – the audiobook is on the market on Audible and Spotify and the entire ordinary locations) then you will discover it in your native bookshop or order on-line right here*. I can promise you that in case you even remotely like what you learn right here on Substack then you’ll love the e book.