This month we were really obsessed with a certain French beauty brand, and a few practical homey and garden-related things. Plus we have a new team member, Georgie, adding her tastes and purchases to the mix!
As per the premise of this regular column, this is a strictly #gifted free zone – we spent our own hard-earned cash on the below, and loved them enough to share them with you.
Violette FR Frange Puff, $69
I’ve made a pact with myself not to buy any more expensive wildly pigmented eye colours from Violette: I have three now and every time I try to wear them I feel like a geriatric clown (although I did wear the purple one to the Shit You Should Care About book launch recently and dear Lucy and Bel were very appreciative of this detail. My 16-year-old, not so much). Anyway the good news is I visited Mecca on a lunchtime walk with Zoe, and walked out without one. The bad news is I left with a Frange Puff. Frange is, apparently, French for ‘bangs’ and given I showed a photo of Violette to my hairdresser when I got my bangs cut recently, duh, I needed this. I don’t know what it purports to do, but I’m hoping it makes me look like her? – Rebecca Wadey
Violette FR Bisou Balm in ‘Sucette’, $52
I bought this on the same lunchtime trip. I already have one, in the red Amour Fou shade (it’s smudgy and easy, like red lipstick for beginners), but had a compulsion to add to the million other lipsticks/lip glosses/lip oils in my handbag. This one is a very pretty raspberry pink that goes on slightly blurred, and is my new favourite. – Zoe Walker Ahwa
Lothlorian sweater and fingerless mittens from Service Depot (RIP)
I’m a Wellington girl, so was very sad about Service Depot closing. It’s been a staple in the city for 14 years, and always stocked and supported new designers alongside industry vets like Nom*d. Fortunately I was in Wellington when the news broke, so managed to get in one last time and cop a sweater on sale from Lothlorian. I didn’t know anything about the brand when I got it – though I’ve since discovered it’s been around since the early 90s, has its yarn spun in Wellington and makes its garments in South Auckland’s Pukekohe.
I particularly love that it appears to have no interest in being cool. The pictures look a bit like stock images for ‘shiny haired people wearing warm clothes in nature’, and the sweater fits better than any I own. I also got some of their fingerless mittens because I have Raynaud’s disease and perpetually have fingers that look like they belong to a dead person. Raynaud’s hive rise up (and get some Lothlorian fingerless mittens). – Georgie Wright
Fruit picker, $10
I love grapefruit, and the tree at our ramshackle property in the Coromandel is abundant this year. Sadly, it’s also directly above our decrepit water tank that looks like it may collapse if I so much as rest a big toe on it. My sister visited recently and suggested I need one of these. She’s right! I absolutely do! Life, changed. – RW
Dr Bronner’s Sal’s Suds, $45
One recent Saturday, after a family breakfast in Ponsonby, we slowly wandered down the road towards Three Lamps, stopping into a few stores along the way. I usually hate ‘going shopping’ like that — meandering, no purpose or plan (I generally shop online, or go somewhere for something specific) — but it was actually delightful. On the way, I bought this practical, chic and divine smelling all-purpose cleaner from Everyday Needs. – ZWA
Watering can, $30
Another post weekend family breakfast purchase. I bought it when my husband was overseas and I was supposed to be watering our indoor plants (plants often die in my care). I think it was an attempt to remind myself to actually do it. Did it work? Nope… But it is cute! – ZWA
Sphaera shampoo bar, $34 (RIP)
What a bleak pair of entries in Nice Things. Also devastated to hear that my favourite hair care brand is closing down. Through no doing of my own I have quite nice hair – but every time I used to wash it, it would fluff up a triangular formation that made me look like Patrick from Spongebob. Then I found Sphaera’s hair bars, which makes my hair feel like what I imagine a horse girl’s would. I bought another set of bars before I heard they were shutting up shop, but will promptly be stocking up on another 20 more to last me until I find a passable alternative. If they aren’t sold out already. – GW [Editor’s note: there are currently some products still left at a few of their stockists here, here, here and here].
Beaded bracelets, $6 each
A very cool 11-year-old I know started this custom friendship bracelet business. I’m off to visit friends (big and little) in the States this month and wanted something cheap, easy to pack yet lovely to take as gifts. I initially commissioned these as ‘Hotties4Harris’ bracelets but then thought my American friends might feel I was making light of a very heavy situation. So at the eleventh hour I changed it to Harris Walz. They’re perfect. Thanks Vivie! – RW
Stardew Valley game
Much like reading, I go through phases with gaming – and September was a gaming month. I’d ignored our Playstation for ages, but one rainy weekend I finally bought this game after many recommendations from others who love open-ended cosy games; they were all right and I quickly became obsessed. You’re basically tending a farm in a small village, and there’s super lo-fi graphics and a lot of repetition. The soothing brain bath that I needed. Later in the month I also bought the game Unpacking after reading about Bowen Yang playing it as a form of self-care (without leaning on weed). It’s so dumb! You’re literally unpacking the moving boxes of a character as she moves into new homes as her life (and love life) evolves. But again, very soothing. – ZWA
