Lists
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Best of 2021: Skincare
I am happy to report that in general, I have been buying fewer things. Well, with the notable exception of books – things seem to be getting worse on that front. But otherwise, there has been progress. I still have a soft spot for skincare, however, and tried quite a few things this year, some of which were very good. So here they are, in a vague order of application.
10 Perfumes I Have Been Wearing Recently
Marina asked somewhere in the comments whether I was going to do a post about my autumn perfumes this year. I have to admit this isn’t quite it, it’s just an overview of things I’ve bought and worn recently, so it has more of an end-of-summer, early autumn vibe than a true, rich October-November feel. Many of these I would wear year round, though, so let’s not get too hung up on seasonality and simply talk about the scents.
September Memo: Dark Academia
I first heard about the Dark Academia aesthetic about two years ago and for once, I was sad that I’m not a teenager in this day and age (mostly I’m extremely grateful to have grown up pre-social media and before all kinds of standards became absolutely ridiculous). I would have been ALL OVER this subculture in my teens – I mean: Reading! Tweed blazers! The Dead Poets Society!
10 Fragrances I Cannot Live Without
The title is of course a lie – I am currently out of at least two perfumes mentioned here and I am still very much alive (although perhaps this explains my recent health troubles…). But a follower on Instagram asked me to provide such a list and I thought: why not? I have enough experience with wearing and paying attention to perfume by now to select scents that I’m reasonably confident I’ll not change my mind about any time soon.
The Best Books of 2020 I Haven’t Yet Read (Science Fiction & Fantasy)
Compared to 2019, which was an incredible year for genre reads, my 2020 wasn’t quite as special. That said, there were several books I had really been looking forward to, but didn’t manage to read when they were published, so it’s possibly my own fault. This makes it even more important to comb through the best-of lists and get to at least some of the last year’s books this year.
The Best Books of 2020 I Haven’t Yet Read (Non-fiction)
For the introduction to this series, go back to the first instalment for details – if I try to explain it all again, it’ll take me forever to get to the point. The point being, in this case, great non-fiction published last year. It was an excellent year for this kind of literature and I read many of the books already as they came out. Still, there are about a dozen or so that I still want to check out, including but unfortunately probably not entirely limited to:
The Best Books of 2020 I Haven’t Yet Read (Fiction)
There are very few things I enjoy more than pondering which books to read. Sometimes I suspect I enjoy this process more than the actual reading itself. So every year, I go through all the ‘best books of xxxx’ lists I can find and, based on these, compile THE LIST of things I would like to read. It is not a firm TBR, as my success rate with this list is maybe 50% (which is completely fine by me) and it’s also not a full TBR, as there are of course also new books I want to read and a massive amount of old ones.
Best of 2020: Lockdown
Let me first assure you that I do not think that lockdown was one of the best things to happen in 2020. But the fact is that it happened – and continues to happen – to most of us and coping with the situation has become an important life skill. So I wanted to briefly mention some things that have started or continued to make sense in lockdown – either to do or to buy or to enjoy.
Best of 2020: Books
This was a weird reading year for many, but my reading rhythm was largely untouched by the pandemic. 2020 was final proof, if any was required, that my ability to read depends mostly on how busy I am at work.
Best of 2020: Skincare
I didn’t initially plan to talk about skincare favourites this year, as it seemed irrelevant. But then I realised that – unlike with makeup which I wore very little and didn’t really buy – skincare had in fact been an important part of 2020 for me and I believe for many others as well. And as I do actually have some new firm faves, let’s get to them.