Mid-week Quickie #15: animal print, Gucci suede, Harris Tapper, Friends with Frank, Apple Cider Vinegar
I smell Autumn
Welcome to the Mid-week Quickie, a mid-week check-in with personal updates and thoughts + things I’ve seen and enjoyed of late in a (usually) quick, snappy format!
Hi friends!
Not to sound like a character out of Apple Cider Vinegar (which I’ve now seen all of - review below), but I’ve always been a fan of infrared saunas. I go to Nimbus in Bondi and I’ve been trying to go weekly since the start of the year.
There’s something about sitting and sweating in a small space that makes me happy! It’s a moment of solitude, peace and quiet. I take my book, a huge bottle of water and I try to tune everything out for my 45 minute session. I always seem to have creative ideas while sitting in there or find solutions to problems/unanswered thoughts. I like to go in the afternoon or early evening and it leaves me floating through the rest of the night. I always sleep so well after too.
Fashion/style/suede obsession continues
I’ve been a long-time fan of New Zealand brand, Harris Tapper. I love how their pieces are so elegant, fluid but structural. They are fresh but classic and whilst being minimal, stand out in the best way. Their new collection shows off their continued strength in creating pieces for the modern woman, pieces I personally adore and it seems I’m not alone - as they often very quickly sell out!
Another local brand I always look to and buy from is Friends With Frank. I think what sets them apart - other than making really wearable, evergreen wardrobe essentials - is in the styling of their lookbooks and campaigns. I am always inspired by how they put together looks, it makes their clothes all the more enticing. As far as Australian brands go, their styling is top notch and up there with the best.
My suede love affair continues - a month ago I saw this Gucci B suede bag in a beautiful dark green in an Instagram post. I took a screenshot and moved on with my life. Then I spotted it again a few weeks later and this time, it had a name and now it’s safely saved in my wishlist as a potential future purchase.
Gucci is also front of mind this week after seeing Meredith’s (Wishbone Kitchen) unreal burgundy leather trench purchase in Paris.
On a very different end of the price spectrum, COS’ targeted ads found their way to me in the form of these two suede bags - one red and one chocolate brown.
And then Sezane have had me turning on alerts for when these completely sold out suede Caroline loafers are restocked. They do make them in a glossy chocolate leather which are also very enticing.
Not at all suede related but this Ganni jacket needs a shoutout. It’s so fun! Want, want, want.
Food
If you’re after a delightful sweet treat, may I recommend Bomberry? I found them in my local Maloney’s and they’re frozen raspberries dipped in belgian milk + white chocolate (they also do dark choc). Simple and light and it hits the spot on summer nights. (They are $14, so quite $$$ but yolo).
Over the weekend Angus and I cooked up a feast of steak with salsa verde (we just used salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil lemon, parsley and basil), steamed spinach and roast potatoes. I was on roast potato duty - they were more ‘smashed’ potatoes though. Inspired by this TikTok recipe - I roasted them over 2 hrs or so. The key is to consistently take them out of the oven and add olive oil and salt. I did this at least 5 or 6 times. I also added paprika for a kick of extra flavour. Throghout the meal Angus and I kept just staring at each other, saying wow! In awe of what we created. I can’t wait to make them again!
Another dish I made during the week was this creamy sausage pasta. I served it with a side of steamed spinach + silverbeet. It was delicious!
I also made some chilli peanut noodles - using a variation of these two TikTok recipes (recipe 1 & 2 here). I also make it with chicken, tofu, egg, spinach, bokchoy and peanuts.
Beauty
This makeup look on Saoirse Ronan by Nina Park for the BAFTAs stopped me in my tracks. I immediately saved it for a future evening event I have coming in March. Nina used only Bobbi Brown products - I’ll be purchasing the lip products - Lip Liner in Red and Luxe Matte Lipstick in Traffic Stopper.
After using and loving Crown Affair’s Leave In Conditioner and hearing so much hype for their Air Dry Mousse, I bought myself a bottle on a recent visit to Mecca. It’s the perfect product for me and my low-maintenance approach to hair care (I rarely heat style my hair), as I usually opt to air dry my hair.
Last week, I was invited to discover Aesop’s newest fragrance, Aurner. Made by nose, Céline Barel (who also made Aesop’s Tacit a decade ago), it’s Aesop first ever floral fragrance but it’s a floral scent for everyone. From first spritz, I immediately liked it. It felt familiar but unique. Fragrance notes:
Top notes are Pink Pepper, Cardamom and Citrus. Middle notes are Magnolia Leaf, Chamomile and Geranium. Base notes are Sandalwood, Cardamom, Cedar and Cypriol.
TV
Apple Cider Vinegar (on Netflix) follows the story of scammer, Belle Gibson, an influencer and wellness guru, who lied about healing her (fake) cancer through healthy food and lifestyle choices. She made an app called The Whole Pantry and accompanying cookbook, which gave users and readers the tools to eat and live healthily. If you were in Australia in 2013-2015, this story was everywhere. A lot more info here if this story is new to you.
I’ll spare you from the 8 minute long voice note I sent to my best friend with every single thought I had about this show but here’s some dot points:
I don’t love the style of the show - it felt chaotic and unnecessarily dramatic and embellished. The story of Belle Gibson is so brilliant on its own - so I would have preferred if they focused on the pure story (changing what they needed to for whatever legal issues they were trying to avoid)
Kaitlyn Dever’s Australian accent was completely flawless, as was her performance
That side of the health and wellness industry is so ick and wrong
How Belle has still not really seen true consequences for her despicable lies and activities, is wild to me. If she wasn’t a young, white, slim, attractive woman - I feel the outcome would have been drastically different.
I’ve just seen there’s a documentary dropping called The Search for Instagram’s Worst Con Artist (lol that’s quite a mouthful!) - coming Feb 20. Hopefully this delves deeper into the Belle story and focuses on all the facts, vs the extra faff they added into the tv show.
We’ve also finally watched the first season of Severance (on Apple)! It took me basically until the final two episodes to really lock in and care about the show. My best friend (and everyone else who’s ever watched the show) assured me it was worth sticking with. What a strange show. I like it.
More Smooth Brain Thoughts soon,
Ali xx
love both harris tapper and friends with frank and their latest collections, definitely getting me excited for the autumn and winter weather!