Perfect Linen Trousers For Less Than $40

Maybe you’re like me: double-vaccinated yet still panic-inhaling bags of chips. It seems my extra Covidpounds™ are sticking around.

H&M’s drawstring-waisted linen trousers have been my salvation this summer. Only $39.99 Canadian ($34.99 on the US site), they saved me when most of my other pants no longer fit. They’re crisp and breathable and great for day with a t-shirt and Birkenstocks but this faintly oyster, barely there grey is dressy enough for evening. I’ll be wearing them next week to my first girlfriend patio dinner since 2019 with black sandals, a Rae Feather clutch and some sort of silk top (although definitely not sleeveless like the beautiful model here.)

They’re often sold out in other shades (the dark blue is especially good, more midnight than navy) and grey is a tricky colour to order online because it can look flat. But trust me. This is a good, pale, silvery grey. Oh, and disregard the fact that they’re called ‘joggers’ on the site. That is mis-marketing at its finest.

H&M linen joggers look sleek with a chunky lug sole sandal and sleeveless shell top.

Mother's Day Gift Guide

The chicest thing ever is to buy a vessel, like this bold and cheering Casa Cubista stripe jug, ($50, Saudade Toronto) and take it to your favourite florist for filling. The recipient gets both the ephemeral gift of flowers and the enduring reminder to keep buying flowers for themselves.

This Mother’s Day, let’s honour the women we love who kept it all together this past year despite 24/7 childcare, Zoom meeting tyranny, virtual house arrest and unending meal prep. And let’s recognize those friends who mothered us when we needed it- the ones who dropped off baked goods or emergency booze. It’s time to spread the love.

The lockdown-inspired resurgence in creating home bars is also a reminder that gorgeous presents can come from the liquor store. Canada’s own Laneway Distillers No. 12 Vodka ($51.45, LCBO) with its pale green label and frosted bottle is too beautiful to hide in a cupboard and pairs beautifully with a gold Japanese jigger ($32, Cocktail Emporium.) And a Moscow Mule made with ginger kombucha is perfect for Spring.

This brass-clad home bar belongs to Ett Hem hotelier Jeanette Mix.

This polished swoop of rose quartz is a Gua Sha ($40, The Fix with MC) a tool used in traditional Chinese medicine to get a depuffing, drainage massage (follow the steps in this video from MC herself.) An application of facial oil prevents the Gua Sha from tugging on delicate skin and Biossance Squalane + Vitaminc C Rose Oil, ($95, Sephora), is a rose-scented and moisturizing skin brightener as well.

A Slip silk pillowcase ($119, Sephora) sounds like a a frivolity but silk stops hair frizzing up overnight and prevents pillowcase creases from marking one’s skin. Plus, the giddy sensation of sinking into a smooth, silk-covered pillow at the end of the day cannot be overstated.

With its overdose of raspy, sunlit bergamot, Malin & Goetz Bergamot eau de parfum (Sephora, $120) is the perfect mood-booster that effortlessly punches a hole in a cloudy sky to let the sun shine through. And because it’s an eau de parfum, it lasts longer than cologne (which frugal moms will appreciate.)

Best Smell of the Week: Deciem ‘Shop’ Room Spray

In my dreams, an invisible fairy places fresh flowers in every room of my house twice a week. That’s most likely not going to happen, so finding a great room spray seemed like the best alternative.

For the longest time, I would walk into Deciem stores and be struck by the smell: elegant, woody, leathery, yet light - like commingled, very expensive men’s colognes. But whenever I asked, the cheery salesperson would always say something like “Brandon created it exclusively for the stores. We might start selling it eventually…” This went on for years.

Sadly, Deciem founder Brandon Truaxe died suddenly in 2019 and after that I assumed the room fragrance would never see the light of day. But now Deciem’s new owner, the Estée Lauder companies, have released it under Deciem’s newish Abnomaly brand. It’s called Shop and it is brilliant.

Shop is fancy, like actual perfume and its list of notes reads like the afore-mentioned pricy men’s scents: sequoia and cedar wood, resinous labdanum, musk and patchouli. There’s even ‘Iso E super’ a perfumer favourite ingredient that brings a transparent woody and earthy aspect to a scent- like a forest shot through with light and air and sun.

Angela Tsementzis’ Concrete House in Toronto

The result is a scent that is woody, leathery and resinous to create the sensation that you’ve entered a deceptively simple and restrained, light-filled modernist house with an enormous picture window overlooking a thickly treed valley. And Shop is only $23 CAN which is a bargain for something of this quality. It could easily go head to head with Aesop or Diptyque’s interior fragrances.

I have been furiously spraying my disorganized office in the hopes that I will be inspired to finally wrestle the space under control. The room is untidy, but if you close your eyes, it smells like everything is perfectly arranged on uniform shelves or hidden away in custom walnut built-ins. Such is the power of Shop.

A February Box of Lockdown Treats (and the best cheese fondue recipe)

Outdoor dining in Switzerland: a sheepskin to sit on and a blanket on top will keep you warm while you devour your cheese fondue. Photo: Liza Herz

If I could, I would charter a flight to Zürich and we’d all go eat cheese fondue together outdoors. Sadly, a private plane is too expensive and too large to fit into my February box (and it would contravene lockdown rules).

A February Box is really just an amped up Valentine’s gift to yourself which acknowledges that warmer weather is still weeks, maybe even months away, so we need better treats than just heart-shaped boxes of chocolates.

Choose one or all of the following. Because now is not the time to deny yourself anything.

Nothing says love better than melted cheese which may be why fondue pots are harder to come by right now. This one is nice and please do scroll down to the end of the story for the best Swiss fondue recipe ever.

Caudalie’s newest scent range, Soleil des Vignes, launched last summer, but I knew I’d need it now, when the scented bath gel with tiare (gardenia steeped in coconut oil) could lift me from my seasonal torpor.

REN’s Moroccan Rose Otto Bath Oil is a room filling, mind-alteringly wonderful bath classic.

When you are frozen solid and only a long soak will defrost you, Ren’s Moroccan Rose Otto Bath Oil, $61, with geranium, palmarosa and Moroccan rose otto, is the happiest ‘stay in the bath until your fingers go all pruny’ solution.

Did you know that fancy Portuguese fragrance line Claus Porto has a lower priced range of soaps, Ach Brito, which is as good, and as beautiful, as the more expensive main line? This bar of Luxo Banho is three quarters of a pound of snowy white, crisply-scented heaven. Available online and for curbside pickup from Toronto’s exquisite Saudade design shop.

Earthy and sensual, Balmy Summer roll-on fragrance ($36) from super-chic and super-chill west coast surf and style boutique Merge, is truly genderless, with notes of amber, vanilla and woody spruce. Wear this skin scent yourself or (in a not-so-selfless act) share it with your romantic partner.

Conjure a venerable hotel’s marble-clad bathroom by lighting this woody and creamy smelling Alpine Cedar scented candle ($42, Nordstrom.ca) from Canadian brand Maple & Lather, before soaking in the tub.

This white Rina Menardi cachepot $240, from Toronto’s Hopson Grace elevates your grocery store hyacinth and perfectly hides the ugly, black plastic pot it came in (no having to transplant, just pop the whole thing in.) And its gently bulbous shape harmonizes with contemporary decor or lightens up a room full of heavy antiques.

Rationalization, because it is rather pricy: it’s a modern classic that costs less than, and will afford you more pleasure than say, yet another pair of designer sunglasses (besides, everyone is buying $20 shades on Amazon now anyway.)

A very chic, über-hostess friend of mine bought a pair of Sunbeam heated blankets for hosting socially distanced coffee dates on her back patio this winter. Sheepskins are nice to sit on, but can you imagine diving under a soft fleece blanket?

***

Authentic Cheese Fondue for two

Please try this cheese fondue recipe instead of defaulting to those foil pre-mixed packets at the grocery store. This version is easy to assemble (the only challenge may be in finding the perfect cheeses, see note below) and only takes minutes to pull together. It’s so worth it.

400 grams total of grated Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois cheese (see Note, below)

150 ml white wine, like a nice Riesling

2 tsp cornstarch

2 tsp kirsch

A round or loaf of sourdough or country bread with a deep crust, cut into bite-sized cubes

A plump clove of garlic

Instructions

Cut a garlic clove in half lengthwise and rub the cut side all over the interior of your fondue pot (caquelon) releasing the garlic juice. Leave the little garlic bits in the pot.

Whisk the cornstarch into the wine in a measuring cup. Pour this into your fondue pot with the bits of garlic still there.  

Place the pot on the stove and heat the liquid over low-to-medium heat until hot but not boiling and then add all the cheese. Whisk constantly allowing the cheese to melt, paying special attention to scraping up the bits on the bottom of the pot and not letting the heat go too high. 

Once the cheese has melted, add the kirsch. Remove the pot from the stove, light the heating element on your fondue stand (the ‘rechaud’) and place the pot on the stand. Adjust the heat so your cheese is hot enough but not furiously bubbling. Add a tiny bit more wine if it’s too thick. 

Skewer your bread cubes on your fondue forks, dip and twist to remove excess cheese and enjoy. Tradition has it that anyone who loses a bread cube has to pay for the next bottle of wine.

As you eat and the amount of cheese in the pot goes down, you will have to turn down the heat so as not to burn what’s left. If there is a caramelized circle of cheese at the bottom of the pot when you are finished, carefully pry it off with a wooden spoon (not metal because it will scratch the finish) and enjoy. 

This recipe increases easily. Add 200 grams of cheese and 75 ml of wine for each additional serving.

Note: a classic Swiss mix of cheeses for fondue can be as simple as the above half Gruyère and half Vacherin Fribourgeois version, but you can also add small (or larger) amounts of Emmentaler, Appenzeller and Challerhocker as well.

The Nice List: Gifts For All the (Newly) Silver Ladies

Whether by active choice or bowing to circumstance, there are a lot more silver-haired women roaming our streets. As a long-standing silver, it is thrilling to see women really leaning into their newfound follicular DGAF.

Appearing in photographs with visible regrowth is now the new power move. (Viz this portrait of foreign affairs specialist Fiona Hill that accompanied her New Yorker magazine profile this past summer.)

Fiona Hill

But culture-shifting semiotics aside, there is a learning curve that accompanies this dramatic change.

Choosing silver is not the maintenance-free lark some would assume. Despite not having to police your hairline for regrowth, you now have to keep your hair from absorbing any airborne pollutants, or it goes a dingy yellow like you’ve been spending your days in a dark, smoky bar.

If you have a friend who has made the switch (Hi, Sue!) support and encourage them with any of these gifts:

The gold standard, the pure, uncut, good stuff, Kerastase Masque Ultra Violet, $69, will bring hair back from the brink, conditioning dried out hair (silver gets very, very dry) and transforming any yellow strands to a piercing silver. Some brave souls even leave it on for hours to tint their hair a soft purple, but that is a very off-label use and you didn’t hear it from me.

Mixed Feelings Purple Leave-In Blonde Toning Drops, $38, Sephora are an easy way to tend to silver hair. Add a couple of drops of this intensely pigmented, purple serum to a favourite styling product to neutralize brassy colour for pure silver hair. This is one of those genius ‘how has no one thought of this before?’ products.

The Manta hair brush is perfect for delicate silver hair

The small but mighty brush from Manta hair comes with an origin story that might make you weepy. Gentle enough for even the most fragile silver-to-white hair, the silicone and bendable Manta was created by a stylist whose wife developed a fear of conventional stiff bristled brushes as she lost her hair to cancer treatment. Manta’s flexible bristles bring gentle order to hair, but still feel like a soothing head scratch. It’s perfect if going silver has turned your formerly sturdy hair into delicate cotton candy fluff.

Silver hair an be infuriatingly delicate and susceptible to colour change from pollution and water deposits and you don’t realize that it’s gone faintly (ugh) yellow until you wash it, so scrupulous maintenance is the key. L'Oreal Professionel’s SerieExpert Silver holiday gift box of shampoo and conditioner is two behemoth bottles (500 ml) of brass neutralizing magic. OK, not magic, science. But the sparkle they give hair seems magical.

Colour Boost

You don’t realize how much life your hair colour adds until you go silver and the colour seemingly drains from your face as your features all but disappear (just giving it to you straight.) Draw your features back on with a few key items, so people know where to look when talking to you.

19/99 Beauty’s Colour Kit One is everything you need in one covetable pouch

19/99 Beauty, the clever new line from two former Bite Beauty execs, just released their all-in-one Colour Kit One, $79: two eye pencils, one dark and one light and shimmery for definition and highlight, a smudging brush and their singular, universally-wearable red pencil Voros, plus a sharpener to keep them all ‘on point’ (sorry) all in a vivid, graphic pouch that is easy to spot in your bag.

Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow dual palette is life-giving colour made portable.

Charlotte Tilbury’s popular FilmStar Bronze and Glow dual palette, mini $40 is a portable quick fix for pallor. You can safely ignore the ‘sculpt’ edict, which is for 20something Instagram makeup aficionados, and use the bronze shade on the outer perimeter of your face to softly add depth, and the highlight to bounce light off the high points of your face.

Maybelline Falsies Lash Lift is the lashes of your youth returned to you

I will never understand the allure of pricy mascara. Mascara needs to be tossed every three months for hygiene’s sake, plus the best are always the drugstore brands anyway. You will have to pry the Maybelline from my cold dead hands. Their $12.99 Falsies Lash Lift mascara gives you of the lashes you once had by adding the perfect amount of thickening fibres without clumping.

The Nice List: A Gift Idea for Your Overworked Girlfriends

Fill stockings for a childlike Christmas experience.

Who runs the world? Overtaxed, exhausted women, that’s who.

All my female friends are wrung out right now: planning Christmas, worrying about elderly relatives, and still having to work and sit through endless Zoom meetings under less-than-optimal lighting.

Not as chic as a my all-white main image, but Dollarama still delivers.

This year I’m giving them the beauty version of childhood Christmas stockings: bulging and filled with lots of little things: wee jars of cream, small tubes of hand lotion, face cream, and mini candles. I have amassed a collection of those beauty gift boxes that are so thick on the ground this time of year, all to be divided up and their component parts packed into (admittedly scratchy) red ‘velvet’ Christmas stockings from Dollarama (my love for Dollarama is boundless and well-documented.) I’m even planning to individually wrap every last, silly little item and seal it well with scotch tape just to prolong the whole unwrapping process.

Oh and weed gummies. I’m going to buy weed gummies, because I think my friends could really use them.

Quo beauty’s gleaming Cosmetic Christmas crackers, Shoppers Drug Mart, come six to a pack for only $15, each containing a wee lip gloss.

It is an indisputable fact that Nest makes the best Christmas candles. Their Holiday Set, $90, Sephora, is two of their most popular scents - Holiday and Birchwood Pine - in festive gilt trimmed vessels.

Caudalie’s hand cream trio, $24, is a happy collision of Shea butter, antioxidants and polyphenols with the singular sophisticated fragrancing of Caudalie perfumes Thé des Vignes and Rose des Vignes.

You know that friend who adds Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel spice to literally everything? I love resinous (and much more refined than patchouli) vetiver and want to add vetiver to every scented item I have, so I am bossily giving Monsillage’s beautiful Vétiver soap, $12, in the hopes of converting all my friends. Available from Montreal’s Etiket boutique, Canada’s most idiosyncratic and well-stocked beauty store.

Tucking a Softlips slims lip Hydrating Lip Balm ($4.99 for a package of three at Walmart) into a stocking is a very Mom thing to do. The peppermint ones look festive in their candy cane striped suits (there’s even a bonus cherry in the pack) and each has spf 20 because worrying about your friends’ sun exposure is even more peak-mom.

Biossance Your Clean Routine Overachievers set ($77, Sephora) skincare contains the brand’s bestsellers for glowing skin, all built on a base of their hero ingredient, sugar-cane derived, cruelty-free squalane.

The annual L’Occitane advent calendar, $84, is always a delight - bath gels, creams, their famous Shea butter hand protectors, bar soap in the shape of a leaf. You can buy the calendar to give to someone whole or just get one and tear it apart. Maybe it will be on sale by now given that we are well into advent?

What genius created watermelon THC gummies? (ChowieWowie’s watermelon gummies come four to a pack but your seasonally stressed friends should only take one at a time.)

According to Canadian Canabis firm FIGR, Canadians prefer to receive edibles by a wide margin (49%) over the kind you smoke. And my friends are all well above the age of consent and in need of some chilling out, so THC it is.

When all this is over we will want to return to our favourite cafés to sit and nurse a macchiato (or a dry white, which is all foam and no actual liquid milk and is apparently the latest thing.) Supporting your friend’s favourite locals will help keep the cash flow flowing.

Montreal’s Dispatch Coffee describes their offerings in highly detailed foodie/perfumer language so you can easily pick the right bean. They sell single bags, gift subscriptions and all the necessary tools a coffee addict could possible need.

Beloved Korean brand Belif’s Glowy Holidays kit, Sephora, contains different iterations of their famous Aqua Bomb super hydrators all in their signature, adorable top hat jars, as well as a hydrating essence, all for only $30.

The Nice List: Your Emergency Gift Stash (most under $20)

My mother and her friends were pros at buying random items on sale, so they’d have fully stocked ‘gift closets’ to choose from when they needed a present. (The old line-up-for-hours William Ashley warehouse sale was the source of many ‘off-registry’ crystal vase wedding gifts back in the 90s.)

Saturday Night Live nailed the phenomenon in this music video about the endless regifting of a terrible, peach scented candle. (Christmas bonus: the 80s-into-90s overdone makeup, lacquered hair and furs ‘n’ turtlenecks sported by Emma Stone, Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant in the video are a holiday present all their own.)

As an antidote, here are some wonderful beauty gifts to keep on hand, all at Secret Santa prices, because no one wants to be passing off the current equivalent of that dreaded candle.

And while some brands have beautiful holiday packaging, others sadly have not. Combat this by tossing the offending boxes and wrapping the contents in tissue and then into a tiny festive bag from the dollar store. Not sure how I lived before Dollarama became an integral part of my life.

Bodtini hand wash in Yuzu, $24, from editor favourite Tips Nail Bar, is citrussy and uplifting and the black and white graphic bottle suits any bathroom. Or the lucky recipient can keep it by the kitchen sink to stop from washing their hands with dish liquid when they come in the door. Available for delivery or next day pickup in Toronto.

Nice soap is the best kind of gift - an elevated version of something everyone needs, and nothing is chic-er than black soap.

This beauty (only $14) comes from black-owned local Toronto brand Sade Baron. Wrap two or three in white tissue and you have a wonderful design-y gift. Done.

The Body Shop Warm Vanilla Duo actually contains three items in their pleasingly creamy Warm Vanilla scent: body scrub, body butter plus a bath scrubbie - all for only $10.

This Eos Limited Edition Super Soft Shea Lip Balm pack, $9.97 Walmart.ca, is a petroleum-and paraben free trio of their signature natural balm spheres in seasonal flavours of Champagne Pop, Caramel Brûlée Sleigh and Cotton Candy Snow. If shops were open, I’d suggest taking them out of their blister pack and arranging them in a small white bowl, but maybe I’m getting unnecessarily fancy.

Hand cream, like lip balm only works if you’re consistent. This Burt’s Bees Holiday Hand Cream Trio, $14.99, has clean bright sunny scents, is loaded with protective Shea butter and beeswax, and because there are three, your recipient can put one by the bed, one by the sink and one by the couch. (Ok, in a plastic bin under the couch along with at least one lip balm.)

Come ON! This midnight blue Christmas cracker that’s actually a Quo Beauty Lip Gloss Set gives you eight shades from sheer nudes to deeper berries and three fun party shades and is only $20. It may be sold out online, but they’re still available at Shoppers in-store. Run. Run now.

My Fresh Essentials Holiday Ornament, $14, from L’Occitane contains an adorable leaf-shaped soap, body lotion and hand cream in summery verveine. (In English it’s ‘lemon verbena’ which to me sounds fusty and faintly old ladyish, while ‘verveine’ sounds French and glamorous.)

The Nice List: Gifts for Your Most Anxious Friend

Lockdown and living with the constant background static of fear of illness and loss has hit some of us harder than others.

Reach out to your most anxious friends with some low-key, no-agenda phone calls (remember phone calls?) and a calming gift or three. Just connecting makes all the difference.

Not getting enough sleep is a vicious cycle. Sleep deprivation leaves one prone to anxious thoughts which, in turn, can keep you awake the following night. A two pronged attack is required. Latitude Night Shift Yland Ylang Charcoal bath salts blend patchouli, ylang slang and jasmine-scented Black Sea salt and Epsom salts with THC and CBD for full-body, pre-bedtime relaxation.

Part two: After your friend drags their bath-relaxed self to bed, they can put on this unbelievably soft, pure silk Cilque sleep mask, $36, because study after study shows that letting in even the tiniest bit of ambient light dramatically interferes with REM sleep. Plus, a little bit of 1930s ‘movie heiress in her all white bedroom’ glamour never hurt anyone.

Dermalogica’s Phyto Replenish Body Oil, $73 is an orange and bergamot scented marvel that manages the clever trick of being energizing and mood-boosting while also relaxing. And with skin-replenishing fatty acids from avocado and French plum seed oil it’s self-care, moisture and an olfactory promise of spring, all rolled into one.

This Kerasilk Reconstruct Gift Set, $35, is a clever ‘why isn’t everyone doing this?’ gift.

Not only will your friend get nourishing, soothingly-scented Kerasilk Reconstruct Shampoo and Conditioner, but there’s also a gently fragranced, elegant bottle of liquid hand soap (because while we need to be rigorously washing our hands, we really don’t need a constant reminder that we are under viral siege.)

The light from screens overloads our brains, but staring at a candle flame does the opposite. Atelier Cologne’s Mini Candle Trio Set, $135, Sephora, brings the calm with three distinct fragrances: Orange Toscana and Clementine California citrus and Oolong Wuyi, each blending citrus and herbal notes, to evoke the feeling that we’re outdoors, not locked up.

An annual classic in Germany where charities vie to be included, the 24 Good Deeds Advent Calendar, $24, now in Canada, is proof that there is good in the world. Each day when each little window is opened, you see what your donation has done helping charities around the world and at home. This year’s recipients in Canada include a mix of children’s, social and environmental projects and every dollar goes to the charities, not to organizational costs.

Jigsaw puzzles have become a lockdown star this year and these beauties from Inner Piece, $30-$35 US, are works of art. Curated images, a beautiful box and a canvas zipped pouch to corral your pieces make each a sensory pleasure. (I’ve completed three of them, and “Home”, pictured here, is my favourite.)

At only 500 pieces, you see the image start to emerge sooner, while the reverse of each puzzle piece is a soothing pale blue or yellow, not cheerless, naked cardboard. #godisinthedetails

What Would Sylvie Like? Gifts for Your Pickiest Friends

Choose the right gift or suffer the quiet disapproval.

I aspire to not being terrified of terrifying French women. But I am still obsessed with Sylvie, the chilly Parisian boss on Emily in Paris who I already wrote about here. And I’ve been wondering: what could I give her (and by extension, my pickiest friends) for Christmas?

Red lipstick is a ‘French beauty’ staple (remember going out?) But it’s also a saviour when you want to look #thirtyflirtyandthriving on a Zoom call. The Yves Saint Laurent Mini Rouge Pur Couture mini set, ($65, Sephora) offers four tiny perfect, jewel-like mini lipsticks so you can select the perfect shade of ‘blood of my discarded lovers’ red. Or pick one of the two deep rosy shades if you are feeling more subdued.

There’s a special brand of fear when selecting gifts for notoriously choosy friends or relatives. Bastide, the beauty and home line created by former hair stylist and all-around French heartthrob Frederic Fekkai, has taste bona fides in spades. Inspired by Fekkai’s own languid Aix-en-Provence life, Bastide’s La Triple Flame candle trio, $145 at Holt Renfrew, is two cozy, wintery scents, Ambre Soir and Au Coin Du Feu, as well as the sunny Figue d’Été, for dreaming of a South of France summer. And the honeyed glass vessels throw the warmest light.

Very fancy Hungarian mud masks and cleansers from a beauty company owned by a polished aristo and his soignée wife would resonate on a bone-deep level with French women (who are genealogy snobs).

Omorovicza’s Mini Mud Set , $78, Nodrstrom.com, provides a tour through the mineral rich mud from Hungary’s Lake Heviz (which claims to be the largest, biologically active, naturally medicinal water in the world) with a black mud cleaning balm, a mud mask and an exfoliator.

My (very French) Tante Yvette insists that “leaving the house without lipstick and jewellery is like going out without your bra and panties”. (Obviously she never looks anything less than immaculate.)

This Jenny Bird Constance lariat ($110) would be Tante Yvette and Sylvie approved for the sinuous lines of its drops and subtle emphasis of one’s décolleté.

It’s not chic to whack people over the head with your perfume. Subtlety and surprise are essential building blocks of French chic, so Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Oud Satin Mood Scented Hair Mist ($110, Holt Renfrew) reveals its charms quietly. This alcohol-free hair mist softly whispers its notes of violet and rose anchored with oud and amber only when you turn your head and only for the benefit of yourself or someone close to you.

Who famously said you can never have too many cheese knives? Oh wait. That was me. But it’s still true and a Sabre Bistrot Cheese Knife from Toronto’s Hopson Grace in chic faux tortoise is just what every cheese platter needs this holiday season to feel worldly. If you want to really make a statement, package it up with a bottle of red wine and a generously cut, perfectly ripe slice of La Sauvagine or any other wonderful French cheese.

If the French did Christmas stockings, you’d definitely want to include this, as French women adore practical yet luxe pharmacie beauty products. 

Bioderma Atoderm Huile de Douche Ultra-Nourishing Anti-Irritation Shower Oil is not only a beauty editor favourite for its subtle scent and moisturizing capabilities, but this massive, 1 litre bottle costs only $20. Remember, no one loves a bargain like a discerning Frenchwoman.  

The Nice List: Gifts for the Budding Feminist

Guest columnist Lesa Hannah is a beauty writer/editor who guest edited an issue of Sassy, the seminal feminist teen magazine when she was 19 and due to the pandemic, still hasn't seen Bikini Kill live. Follow her on Instagram at @lesahannah.

By Lesa Hannah

The world will be infinitely better if we keep teaching the next generation to continue to smash the patriarchy.

BLOODLINE

To menstruate in modern times is to 1) be mindful of the environmental waste you create when using disposable pads and tampons, and 2) be in touch with your body and not be grossed out and shamed by a natural process. Menstrual cups were once only for the Earth Mother type, but they’ve been growing so much in popularity that there’s now endless options beyond the OG Diva Cup. Made in Canada, Nixit, $54, is modeled after a diaphragm and collects blood right under the cervix. It’s also made of soft, thin and flexible silicone so it’s easy to insert and once in, utterly undetectable because where it sits has less nerve endings. As a backup for when the cup runneth over or to be worn instead of a cup because of light flow (lucky you), there’s period underwear by The Period Company. Co-founded by gamine, politically aware, cool AF Hollywood stylist Karla Welch, the brand makes six styles in black cotton, from Bikini to The Sleeper. Each pair is $16 compared to the typical $40 plus from other brands. You’re damn right I ordered $100 worth for myself. 

NOTORIOUS RBG

As if 2020 wasn’t shitty enough, we lost feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The liberal SCOTUS (and second woman to serve on the bench) pushed for progressive votes on issues like abortion, voting and same-sex rights and was capable of holding a plank position well into her 80s. She also had a mean scrunchie collection but I digress. Honour the woman’s legacy with I Dissent, $25, a game that involves casting your own votes on hot button issues (Are cats jerks? Is a hot dog a sandwich?) or dissenting and standing your ground for more points.

P.S. The documentary about RBG’s life was just added to Netflix so if the younger women in your life haven’t seen it, assign them this as required viewing.

READING MATERIAL

I discovered Bust in 1993--the year it launched-- in NYC and immediately subscribed because I felt it was my duty to support the small feminist mag that miraculously continues to this day! A year’s subscription, $40, will keep any beginning member of the resistance up to date on topics like celebrity, music, fashion, art, and media reported on through a feminist lens. 

PIECE OUT

With a winter looming that won’t be filled with the usual socializing indoors (I’m going to miss having friends over for cozy, gossipy dinners this year), this may be the time to finally embrace puzzles. This 1000 piece Nevertheless she persisted jigsaw, $20, will pass the time as well as educate the young ‘uns on notable bad asses like Betty Friedan, Angela Davis and Harriet Tubman.

HANDS DOWN

With Toronto in another lockdown, manicures aren’t possible for the next few weeks, so Leeanne Colley, owner of Tips Nail Bar, our favourite nail bar in the city, came up with the genius idea of Tips Press Refresh . Measure your nails, pick from nail art designs, $75, (courtesy of Colley’s killer team) or a solid shade, $35, and order away. Within three days the press-ons will arrive, along with an orange wood stick, nail file, buffer and alcohol wipe and a link with instructions on how to apply. Your gift recipient will admire their tips while you can feel good about supporting a woman-owned, local business. 

SHUT YO MOUTH

When Kamala Harris pointedly told milquetoast Mike Pence she still had the floor during the Vice Presidential debate back in October, it was as if she was talking on behalf of all women who’d ever had her own words steamrolled by a man’s. It instantly became a memeable moment that deserves to be commemorated on everything from bumper stickers to T-shirts. This I’m Speaking Mug, $27, will do just fine. 

HOME MAKER

Sewing is a skill that some might see as antiquated and domestic, but whether it’s to make your own masks, tend to minor repairs or shorten pants, the ability and satisfaction of being able to do all of the above cannot be overstated. Seriously, being able to sew makes you feel powerful and in control. After you make that reverse stitch to secure your seam, you’ll find yourself saying “F--k yeah!”  The Singer M2100 Sewing Machine, $190, is reasonably priced and ideal for newbies.