My High 5 Current Suggestions

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 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, 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 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 good in case 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 kind of…helps. In a extremely forgiving manner. 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 realize, you realize.)

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

*denotes an ad-affiliate hyperlink. Because of this 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 can be 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 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, one of the best I’d discovered had been the Alpine Sleep Delicate (sure, I’ve tried Loop and all the opposite ones that continuously pop up as recommendations) as a result of the mushy silicone plugs had been straightforward to drag out and in (no rolling or twisting obligatory), had been sufficiently small for my dainty ear canals (fairly positive most ear plugs are made to suit giants) and fashioned a superb 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 almost each sort of ear plug aside from the bespoke ones the place it’s a must to have a mould manufactured from your ear canal (I’m simply not that dedicated) the Alpine Sleep Delicate had 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 they usually suction into place as if you’ve entered some kind of outer house satellite tv for pc airlock) they usually additionally are available two sizes. Which is essential. I like to recommend the small, until you will have 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 here* – I purchased the combined pack with each sizes, however should 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 superb vest prime final week, however nonetheless one of the vital fashionable suggestions of the month. It is a mushy, beautifully-cut vest prime that requires no underwear beneath it as a result of it has it inbuilt. I’m a convert.

You possibly can 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 total bone construction and magically reshaping their noses through intelligent optical illusions. I can inform you that this seems to be 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 should you’ve not but coated your total 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 manner 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 should you don’t wish to spend money on a dear contour product and I really 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 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 pretty 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 simply 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 manager determination 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 nicely and good, and my ears massively admire them, the sleek posts simply gliding on via, however I’ve to say that the woman within the jewellers put the worry of God into me about shedding the earrings. She was all for the screw submit for safety.

I set to some severe analysis, which took me all of about eight minutes on the prepare residence from London, and got here throughout a possible resolution: 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 should you apply Hulk Hogan ranges of drive. 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.

Thus far, 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 nearly a tenner for 2 units of lockable backs, which make these presumably the most costly small issues on the present market should you disregard MI5-level hidden spy cameras and nano-robots and the like, however by their very nature they need to be laborious 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 wish to self-promote (or did, however thought I’d depart it till the very finish!) however my most-purchased advice this month has truly been my new ebook, How To not be a Supermodel. I can’t inform you what number of messages I get every single day from individuals who have completed the ebook 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 good, heart-warming messages and mini-reviews, typically with complete passages quoted again at me. It’s massively fulfilling listening to how persons are devouring it after which shedding the ebook to their family and friends as a result of they’ve banged on about it a lot!

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