to shop / recent purchases

1 / I eyed these Duralex colored glass tumblers for years. Expiring Nordstrom promo credit finally made me do it. The mister says ‘they are great for ice cream’.

Image: Nordstrom

2 / I really like cleaning my face and in recent years, I almost always double cleanse. It feels so satisfying after a long day. I love love love this Farmacy Beauty Very Cherry Clean cleansing balm. The cherry scent is a limited edition version that is only available on their own site. While I like a sherbet texture, the Lip Smacker-esque faux cherry scent is why I really love it and I look forward to using it (like how I fell in love with oil cleansing with the Tatcha cleansing oil). Massage on dry skin, add water to emulsify, and wash off! This sells out at times but you can sign up for restock alerts.

Image: Farmacy Beauty

to shop / {deal alert} muji acrylic cases for $10

This deal is available online and at select stores. They are stackable and very popular with the makeup community. If you purchase online you have to pay an additional handling fee for each unit and shipping. Not every store is running the promotion — it’s confirmed at the new Boston Newbury store, the Soho NYC store (which is closing for renovation at the end of February), and reported at a SoCal store. The Soho store also marked down most of their stock, excluding cosmetics/skincare, aroma diffusers, and luggage.

All light grey inserts in the cases below are sold separately.

Images: Muji

to shop / {favorites} muji top five

In celebration of Muji US reviving its online store, here are my favorites from Muji. And yes, I cheated a little and grouped a few together. Please note, not all items are available in the US online store.

[1] Beige porcelain dish for curry and pasta // Ash wooden tray (in-store only at this time)

The older I get, the more attention I pay to Muji kitchenware. A Muji Taipei store was promoting this curry dish and the packaged curry when I stopped by — I ended up grabbing a couple dishes. It’s the perfect size for a meal and I think it makes almost everything look yummier. And it looks so lovely on Muji’s ash wooden tray, which I also often reach for. The tray is the second to largest size and is often sold out in the NYC stores. I’ve been looking for more of the similar sized PP tray to no avail. (By the way, this tray was styled by the mister.)

[2] Nylon mesh hard cases // Soft case

I have these nylon mesh hard cases in various sizes and a large soft case. I picked most of them up at Narita Airport, so they were pretty cost effective. While they aren’t the prettiest, they are semi-clear making it super easy to find things and the material is super durable. You see, my Mansur Gavriel bucket bag is spacious but a bit of a black hole and I use that iPhone flashlight function more often than I’d like. I also have one of these purse organizers in black nylon mesh at the bottom of the bag. I’m not sure if it’s still sold — I got it many years ago. I have a small hard case for non-immediate credit cards/gift cards/lip balm/bus tickets that I can find by feel. The large A4 soft case (pictured right) fits my MacBook Pro 13″ as a sleeve. Overall, these cases are super convenient for travel, herding things in your purse, and easy on the eyes and wallet.

Photos: Muji

to shop / muji poncho

Muji is a requisite stop whenever I visit Taipei. It helps that there is one less than 5 minutes away, is open late, and is often on the way home. I was greeted by a ton of ponchos (pictured) when I stopped by the other night in many different prints and colors. Yum! They’re also running a storewide promotion during my stay which means I need to strategize my spending. And don’t be mistaken, late October weather in Taipei means 70s-80s with 80% humidity but it’s been cool and breezy lately thanks to Typhoon Koopu. Otherwise, I’m sweaty and don’t want to look at any wool. I have no idea if this product has hit the US stores yet (silent fist shaking at how long the US Muji store has been offline). You can gawk on the Japanese Muji site if you’d like and then inquire with your local store.

P.S. Similar cape scarf in a light gray pinstripe from Madewell looks slightly heavier if that’s what you’re looking for.

Image: Muji

I haven’t felt like / had time to blog much lately, but here’s an update!

(1) Hangers. I never thought I’d be a fancy hanger snob. My mainstay are Joy Mangano Huggable Hangers (I have two shades in my closets, HSN has the best color range). My current squeezes, aluminum hangers, found their way into my check-in luggage and are super lightweight and aesthetically pleasing. You can find them at Muji (I think they are roughly 1.5x in the US > Asia and less variety) and at Zara Home in gold (much cheaper in Spain/Portugal, thanks to the weak Euro and home country advantage, but currently on sale in the US).

Sidenote: ZH was one of the few places I actually spent money at in Barcelona – definitely worth a browse but this online shopper cautions against buying sight unseen – their tableware, vases, etc. were extremely heavy. I’m also really confused why many vases cannot be filled with water?!? 

(2) Brooks Brothers. My male coworkers always wore a ton of BB, but I never gravitated toward it because I’m not an avid button down shirt wearer and it always seemed pricey. It is still pricey but I just discovered their Red Fleece line (a prepster’s dream) and their wonderful sale prices (70% is the peak I’ve seen). I ordered a ton during their last sale to check out (a lot of it is going back). I’m not inclined to venture into a store — reviews of their service are horrible.

• Here’s a big thumbs up to their blazers.The cut and quality of their Milano fit navy blazer beats Ann Taylor and J.Crew, in my opinion right now. There is a lot of negative press for J.Crew at the moment and it’s merited. Do you want a stylish, classic blazer cut or a trendy one?
• If you are a button down shirt wearer, they have a lot of cute styles in the Red Fleece department. Reviews said that Red Fleece was sized smaller, but I found it fit the same as the regular collection, TTS.
• For the Loro Piana junkies, there are some styles on sale with Loro Piana wool (don’t trust the search box). BB is also on ShopRunner. So, if you like anything, sign up for their mailing list and wait for the extra sale on sale!

(3) Books. I still need to figure out where to go in Provence. I browsed through Janelle McCulloch‘s gorgeous Provence book yesterday while I was at Anthropologie. It provided a good high-level of the region. I’m also very intrigued at Monocle’s new travel guides. London has launched and New York follows in a few days.

(4) Lucky Magazine. If you haven’t heard, Lucky Magazine is no longer going to be in print. I’m waiting to see what this means for my print subscription…

(5) Returns. I ordered some vegan leather weekend bags from Sole Society (because it was featured multiple times on a popular blogger). The smell of it was nauseating. It immediately went back. I still much prefer a Longchamp that is lightweight and foldable. I also ordered some leather shopper totes from Cuyana. They are beautiful but too big. I really hope they make smaller sizes of the smooth leather tote. A recent J.Crew order didn’t go well – everything’s going back and I can’t say I was pleased with their service. Ann Taylor was worse than J.Crew though.