Recent Obsessions #19: Charmed, frosty lip gloss and peanut butter cookies
Recent Obsessions #19: Charmed, frosty lip gloss and peanut butter cookies
Plus homemade matcha lattes and Florence Pugh's new movie
🛍 Coveting
I can no longer remember where I first saw this product—maybe a Tati Westbrook video?—, but I was absolutely sold on the Patrick Ta Highlighter Duo, specifically the light pink shade, Baby. I’m a big fan of that creamy, from-within glow so this has gone straight onto my holiday wishlist.
I swear this newsletter isn’t sponsored by Desigual, but they keep launching collections I love and I can’t not share them. My most recent obsession is this gorgeous dress they just released in collaboration with French indie label Maitrepierre. The trench coat is a winner, too.
💗 Loving
I have untamable eyebrows, so I finally bought the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Gel. Believe it or not, this is my first brow gel ever, and the only reason I went for something on the pricier side was because I found it on sale at Cult Beauty and I had some extra points I was happy to part with. I’ve used it a couple of times and I’m a fan of it already, but I’m sure there are more affordable options out there that will do just as good a job.
I treated myself to one of the Rabanne Glowies (the clear one in the shade Frost Love) and I’ve been loving it. An ode to the early 2000s frosty makeup trend, this gloss is a much softer, more wearable version of the Y2K pearly lips, with a beautiful holographic sheen. I’ve been wearing it on its own and over a nude lip liner.
My book club’s Long Books Readalong, which started on October 1st and was inspired by this post. It’s a three-month challenge that encourages readers to finally pick up the longest book(s) on their shelves and read them together. I’ve been loving our weekly #brickchecks and reading updates. It’s not too late if you want to join us on Discord!
🍓 Eating & Drinking
If I’m out and about in Lisbon, I’m stopping by The Coffee and getting myself an Ichigo Matcha, which frankly tastes nothing like matcha and more like a strawberry sundae (it’s GREAT).
Speaking of matcha, though, I’ve been making iced lattes at home, too. I’m using matcha from Companhia Portugueza do Chá, the Oat Drink Barista Edition from Oatly and honey.
I’ve tried two new restaurants this month: Pomme Eatery, which had been on my list for probably years at this point and was lovely (highly recommend their green lemonade! And don’t forget to make a reservation) and Fogo, which was pretty solid, but not as good as it was to be expected.
I’ve been trying to reduce my wheat consumption, so naturally I looked up flour-free cookie recipes (priorities!). I’ve made these flourless peanut butter cookies multiple times since and they are delicious once you get the tricky oven settings right. I add chocolate chips to mine.
📚 Reading
I’m currently reading Our Share of Night for the Long Books Readalong and I’m almost 300 pages in. It’s my first Mariana Enriquez book and I get the hype now; the author is extremely talented at creating dark, gory universes solidly rooted in religion and folklore. It’s creepy because it feels real! I’m enjoying it a lot, but I’m not loving it yet; I’ve had a hard time connecting with the characters and feeling truly invested in them. That being said, 300 pages is not that much when the tome is 730 pages long, so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
For this month’s book club pick, I’m reading The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. My fellow book club members wanted something witchy and cozy, and that’s exactly what we got. It’s the perfect read if you’re looking for something fun and wholesome for fall.
I am also reading/following Alan Watt’s The 90 Day Novel, a step-by-step guide meant to get you to the finish line of that first draft in three months. I don’t think this would work for all writers, but it has been very helpful to me. I’d been stuck in the discovery draft process for a while—I had a hard time committing to one story, so I was starting discovery drafts and abandoning them over and over again—, but I’ve finally gotten over that stage and it is very much thanks to this book.
I recently finished Alissa Nutting’s Tampa, an inflammable, highly controversial novel about a middle-school teacher who seduces her teenage students (it was disturbing, it was gross, it was a super solid read I won’t recommend to 95% of the people I know), and Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, a wisdom-packed book that could’ve been half the length, but was full of valuable information nonetheless.
Substack pieces I loved recently: The male mind cannot comprehend the allure of Tony Soprano by
/ closely reading advice from a literature phd: a peek into the archives by / F*ck Ass Bobs in Film by
🎬 Watching
I’m watching Charmed for the first time and it’s my new comfort show. I’m currently on season 2 and I love how terrible and campy the special effects are! Season 2 was released in 1999-2000, so their outfits are peak noughties (which naturally brings me immense joy).
I became a big fan of Mike’s Mic when he did that Pretty Little Liars recap (thank god for that because I could’ve never finished the show), so I’ve been watching his Gossip Girl recaps recently. It’s not that I need them—I’ve watched the show so many times, I could probably recite entire episodes—, but I love his commentary (and wigs!).
Thanks to Trixie and Katya, I discovered the absolute gem that is Kath & Kim and became an instant fan of the show. It’s an absolute meme maker. I wanna be effluent, mom, effluent!
I’ve been watching a lot of really mediocre movies recently! It’s a curse. It’s What’s Inside, The Woods and The Platform 2 were all okay at best, with the latter turning out to be a huge disappointment. Salem’s Lot was entertaining enough, and so was House of Spoils. Caddo Lake was perhaps the one that surprised me the most, although it’s one of those movies that, plot-wise, has certainly been done before. Still worth a watch, especially if you manage to go in knowing close to nothing about it.
I also watched We Live in Time, and I’m sad to say it wasn’t as good as I expected. Don’t get me wrong, it was good - there is no world in which Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield are bad actors -, but I’d read a piece in Vogue UK that really hyped it up, so my expectations were sky high and, sadly, unmet.
🎧 Listening to
I’d never heard of Dean Graziosi or Lewis Howes before, and I’ve been avoiding all forms of self-development content, but my algorithm took me to this conversation they had about money and it was very enjoyable to listen to.
💻 Posting
Character TBRs for Joey Potter (Dawson’s Creek) and the Halliweell sisters (Charmed);
A book review of Sugar, Baby by Celine Saintclare;
The weird book matrix;
Behind the paywall, things get a little more personal as I talk about the books I’m reading next, empty lip products I’m definitely not repurchasing, novel writing updates and my favorite moments from the past few weeks.
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