My High 5 Latest Suggestions

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 below are the bits and items that folks 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 stress 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 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 sensible if in case you have decrease again ache and discover each single workplace chair uncomfortable. It doesn’t make it really feel all comfortable and squidgy, as if you’re sinking into a settee, it simply form of…helps. In a extremely forgiving means. It additionally permits air circulation between arse and chair, which is useful, and you’ll decide 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 already know, you already know.)

I purchased mine from Amazon here* – it was £24.99

*denotes an ad-affiliate hyperlink. Which means that a small share is earned with each buy by way of the hyperlink.

Look, I do know that is subjective, however I’ve tried a lot of earplugs – I can virtually safely say most of them in the marketplace – 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 massive that they’re about to burst by way of 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 perfect I’d discovered have been the Alpine Sleep Comfortable (sure, I’ve tried Loop and all the opposite ones that continuously pop up as solutions) as a result of the comfortable silicone plugs have been simple to tug out and in (no rolling or twisting needed), have been sufficiently small for my dainty ear canals (fairly positive most ear plugs are made to suit giants) and fashioned an excellent noise-seal that lower 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 other than 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 Comfortable have been the perfect. However then – then – alongside got here the Alpine SleepDeep!

These are oval and appear to simply match that bit extra snugly inside (you give them a great 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, until you could have 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 believe that they’re fairly phenomenal.

I purchased mine here* – I purchased the combined pack with each sizes, however in the event 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 lined this superb vest high final week, however nonetheless one of the standard suggestions of the month. This can be a comfortable, 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 read the full rave about this top here, or purchase the Uniqlo Ribbed Bra High, £19.90 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 to be like 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 the event you’ve not but lined 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 properly 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 the event you don’t need to put money into a dear contour product and I really 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 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 pretty 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 simply tear up the insides of my piercing holes when I attempt to feed the posts by way of and I find yourself with sore, swollen lobes each time that take days to go down once more.

I made the manager choice to promote the earrings and purchase myself some “new” ones (truly pre-loved, so new to me however to not the world) and this time I selected the usual “push on” backs. All properly and good, and my ears massively recognize them, the graceful posts simply gliding on by way of, however I’ve to say that the girl within the jewellers put the concern of God into me about shedding 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 residence from London, and got here throughout a possible answer: Lox lockable earring backs.

These intelligent backs enable the submit of the earring to enter it, however then it locks in place in an effort to’t slide the again off even in the event you apply Hulk Hogan ranges of pressure. There’s simply no budging it. Marvellous! To undo, you merely squeeze the prongs collectively (just a little fiddly however nothing too irritating) and off they slide.

To this point, so excellent. I’ve been wanging round with the backs, taking them on and off a couple of hundred instances, nonetheless no signal of the LOX energy depleting.

It’s virtually a tenner for 2 units of lockable backs, which make these probably the most costly small issues on the present market in the event 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 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 suggestion this month has truly been my new guide, How To not be a Supermodel. I can not let you know what number of messages I get each 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 may’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, typically with entire passages quoted again at me. It’s massively pleasurable listening to how individuals are devouring it after which shedding the guide to their family and friends as a result of they’ve banged on about it a lot!

Should you haven’t but learn it (or listened – the audiobook is out there on Audible and Spotify and the entire common locations) then you’ll find it in your native bookshop or order on-line here*. I can promise you that in the event you even remotely like what you learn right here on Substack then you’ll love the guide.