The Nice List: The Gift of Sleep

Bedtime bliss: fresh linens, a reading lamp and an unimpeded path to the bathroom.

Apparently sleep is the new sex. And while I don’t want to delve into this too deeply, I do know that amongst my friends, an uninterrupted eight hours can be elusive. So here are some holiday gifts to help anyone set the stage for a restful night.

You don’t see lab mice hunched over their phones, doom-scrolling before bed. According to a 2022 study in Biology, copying mouse behaviour and “adopting a regular behavioral pre-sleep routine was found to be more efficient in facilitating sleep than medication”.

And just look at the helpful illustration that accompanied the study. Isn’t the fluffy mouse bed inspiring?

For a human nesting ritual, spray this heavenly-scented and relaxing Body Shop Sleep calming pillow mist, $18, bodyshop.ca, (made from 100% natural lavender and vetiver ) on your pillows and linens. Then throw open the window for that blissful ‘warm bed in a cold room’ sleep.

Simplest solutions are often the best. The Slip silk sleepmask ($70, Sephora.com) completely blocks out all light because even the faintest amount can muck with your circadian rhythms. This unbelievably soft mask is made from pure mulberry silk for breathability and even the filler is silk, as this is no time for polyester to be anywhere near your face.

I loved Flintstone vitamins as a kid so I was charmed by Nature’s Bounty Hair, Skin and Nails gummies. Their latest release, Nature's Bounty Sleep VitaBeans soft chews, $19, amazon.ca contain melatonin, the natural hormone found in our bodies that has a role in our wake and sleep cycle. Each generously-sized VitaBean contains 2 mg of melatonin and they’re a great occasional aid for insomnia or jet lag.

If your insomniac friends ‘partake’, then have them try a THC/CBN combo edible before bed, as CBN acts as a sedative by helping the body raise serotonin and melatonin levels. These sugar free Blackcurrant CBN Gems from Olli, $8.95, are designed to be low enough dose to take during the week with no after-effects the following day.

An epsom salt bath can soothe and relax on its own but the added lavender, chamomile and melatonin found in Dr. Teal’s Melatonin Sleep Soak, ($10.49, Shoppers Drug Mart) will help to calm even the chattiest of brains before bed.

All soothing, all the time. After your bath, the last thing you need is some tastebud-searing toothpaste to wake you up just as you’re trying to wind down. Hello Goodnight lavender & chamomile toothpaste, $6.97, Walmart.ca, is a naturally flavoured, dye-free, fluoride-free paste with lavender and chamomile that harmonize with the subtle mint flavour. It’s an unexpected flavour pairing that works, and a fun way to get more ‘time for bed’ cues.

No screens before bed! Instead, spend some quality time with this reissue of Hotel Splendide, a charming collection of vignettes by Ludwig Bemelmans about his life as a waiter at the New York City Ritz the 1920s, before he hit it big with the Madeline books.

Then turn out the lights and instead of counting sheep, just recite Madeline’s famous opening lines:

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines

Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines…

Hibernation Nation

On the old Australian tv show, Your Life on the Lawn, decluttering experts would empty the contents of messy houses into the yard, so homeowners could see all their belongings in the bright, unforgiving sunshine.

I could use that assist right now, choosing what deserves to be in my home and what should get chucked and never spoken of again.

It is late November. We are about to be stuck inside with all our stuff for the next four months. Between the weird stasis of early lockdowns and just life in general, things are a bit chaotic over here.

And while I am certainly not the person to offer decluttering advice (I mean, I still want help from an early 2000s tv show) I can recommend these small additions to your home to make things a little bit nicer this winter in your hobbit hole.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” That’s me, trying to elevate a discussion of toilet plungers with a William Morris quote.

Unless you have a fleet of invisible house fairies who keep the moving parts of your home working without your knowledge (the dream), you need a plunger within reach. This Libman premium plunger and caddy, $16.99, Canadian Tire, stays within grabbing distance, yet almost blending into the wall when stored discreetly in its white holder.

If you have hard water (and more than three quarters of us do) it can interfere with laundry detergent’s ability to do its job. Add to that our propensity to overload the machine while also using less water per load and you have all the elements in place for lacklustre laundry. (I illustrated this story with a beautifully stocked linen closet, because you cannot overstate the satisfaction, nay, the joy of freshly washed and folded laundry.)

Downy Rinse & Refresh, ($8.99, grocery stores) is not a fabric softener. Rather its low pH helps lift product residue and by extension, bad smells from natural and synthetic fibres. So if your synthetic workout gear doesn’t smell as good as new despite repeated washings or your university-age children bring their laundry home, Rinse & Refresh could be for you. And the Fresh Lavender scent is wonderfully light and non-cloying.

Now that it gets dark by 5:00 p.m., it’s time to lay in an unholy number of votives (and it pains me to say this) but not the IKEA tea lights in their little tin sleeves. These Crate & Barrel votives, ($39.95, crateandbarrel.ca,) come 50 to a box and their sleeves are clear plastic, so when lit, the candles glow like little lanterns.

Extend the life of your wooden cutting boards, kitchen utensils and even that 70s wooden salad bowl if you have one. Clapham’s beeswax salad bowl finisher, ($23, Home Hardware) is a blend of naturally antibacterial beeswax and mineral oil which won’t go rancid like natural seed oils. It’s like moisturizer for your kitchen. Clapham’s is meditative pleasure to use, smells wonderful and brings all your kitchen bits back to life with a warm sheen.

Even if you can’t or won’t ‘Marie Kondo’ your lingerie and sock drawers into rigorous order, these Santa Maria Novella scented wax tablets impregnated with the citrus notes of Acqua Della Regina (classic eau de cologne), will make your jumble of socks and underwear smell very fancy. Queen Caterina de Medici would be very proud of you.

A ‘November Box’ For Hunkering Down in Style

The welcoming front hall in designer Rose Uniacke’s London home.

A November box is a collection of treats to help see you through the rain and chill of November, which is, in fact, the cruelest month, not April.

HomeCourt from Courteney Cox is a welcomed not reviled celebrity brand.

For those of us who don’t want our homes to smell like a giant synthetic lemon after we’ve cleaned, Homecourt surface cleaner, $20 US, (mine was a gift from a dear friend) is a revelation. So, thank you, Courteney Cox for launching scented homecare instead of yet another celebrity skincare line. Cece (one of four beautiful, non fake lemon scents) is gently smoky with cardamom, cinnamon and leather. It makes your living space smell like a mansion turned members-only club: all wood panelling and deep, down-filled chesterfields to lounge on in front of roaring fires as discreet staff bring you drinks and lovely nibbles on silver trays.

Vetiver is so smokily resinous, earthy and grounding in fragrances (like Chanel’s best in breed, Sycomore) that I never understood why there aren’t more vetiver candles. Diptyque’s Vetyver candle, $98, Holt Renfrew, is both grassy and evocative of a humid jungle but also cozy and wintery. And if you are in Toronto, head to Yorkdale Mall, because it houses Canada’s first freestanding Diptyque boutique. This, more than the coming downtown Nobu should truly make Toronto ‘world class’, yes?

It gets dark by 4:30 p.m., so celebrate that and have a drink. No, not alcohol. Chocolate! Specifically, SOMA chocolatemaker Dark Side of the Mug drinking chocolate, $8. Mixed into hot water (or hot milk if you are feeling flush) it will give you the serotonin you need in the darkness, as chocolate contains tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin. #betterlivingthroughscience.

It’s time to reread Nancy Mitford’s classic The Pursuit of Love before India Knight’s modern reworking, Darling is available in Canada. Luckily the modernized reimagining is getting good reviews, but the original, and its companion book, Love in a Cold Climate (same time frame, different characters) are worth an annual reread, or a first read if you have never had the pleasure.

Birkenstocks, my father’s favourite shoes, will one day return to being woefully out of style. But in the meantime, I am enjoying seeing bulbous-toed, jolie laide Bostons on the same people who, in 2016, wore furry Gucci Princetown slides. Shearling lined Birkenstock Bostons, $220, make cozy slippers and the closed toe hides the evidence if you’ve been skipping pedicures in the winter. Get the Black or the Mocha (dark brown) that are lined in dark shearling. The pale suede ‘mink’ ones are pretty but they’re lined in white shearling, which is impossible to keep clean and they will look shabby quickly despite your best efforts.

No need to fear the dry, moisture-sucking air this winter if you have this generously-sized jar of Laline Dead Sea Minerals Salt Scrub, in the shower (laline.ca, $45.) The fig and sandalwood scent is both brightly green and earthily soothing while the sea salt gently nudges away dead skin cells as the argan oil and glycerin soften your skin.

The Joy of Deceptive Suitcases

As much as I want an old and battered Louis Vuitton Keepall with patinaed leather the colour of cognac, I actually don’t understand the penchant for really expensive suitcases. They’re like a beacon to thieves, begging to be pinched.

Away hardcases: millennial pink was the colour of choice.

Suitcases for regular folk used to be relatively anonymous. Just picture the endless parade of black rollies coming down the chute at baggage claim.

But in 2015, Away luggage launched their colourful roller bags that came with built-in chargers so you’d always have enough juice in your phone to post travel pics (including your snappy new suitcase) to Instagram. Then, in 2016, LVMH spent $716 million for a majority stake in German luggage stalwart Rimowa, and suddenly your suitcase was now one more thing you had to worry about in the name of fashun.

But because I believe that anonymity Is cool and security is even cooler, here’s some travel advice from Shakira Caine, who, as the wife of actor Michael Caine, spent a lot of time bouncing between her husband's movie locations and glamorous holidays. In a long ago print interview she recommended covering your suitcase with children’s stickers to thwart thieves who would then hopefully ignore your bag, assuming it contained nothing more than kid’s clothing. They would then turn their attention to more desirable quarry, like, say any Vuitton Keepalls within view.

As air travel has ramped back up to pre-pandemic levels and checked luggage is going astray more often, a bag that actually ‘flies under the radar’ is a good idea. Airlines are still woefully understaffed and although I don’t know any personally, I’m assuming that thieves are happy to be out there ‘working’ again.

But for Shakira Caine’s sticker plan to work you have to commit. Don’t just cover a Rimowa like this (right), because the effect is actually cool, leading one to assume that this case contains what? Box fresh sneakers and vintage selvedge Levi’s? Or maybe a trifle like Balenciaga’s new $1500 leather clutch that looks like a crumpled Lay’s potato chip bag?

No. You need uncool children’s stickers: drawings of apples and kittens and maybe a SpongeBob or two.

And if that involves too much effort, then how about a child’s suitcase from a Disney franchise, like this Olaf and Sven the reindeer number from Frozen? And no, sorry. No Elsa and Anna allowed. Secondary characters only.

Obviously, you need nerve to wheel this up to reception at your hotel, but it probably won’t get nicked and if you do have to check it because you bought wine on your trip, at least it will stand out at the baggage carousel.

Friday Five August 19

Oh, this view. Shall we all meet on these lovely deck chairs somewhere in Italy? I’m an obedient sunscreen user but I do love the devotion to sunbathing you see on the Mediterranean.

Anyway, here’s what’s on my mind as we head into one of the last August weekends, from the infuriating (the untimely firing of Lisa LaFlamme) to the sublime (boozy dessert). Happy Friday!

Well, Lisa LaFlamme was let go from her post as CTV national news anchor and the women of Canada roared back. You can read Leanne Delap’s analysis here in The Kit (yours truly contributed a thought as well.) Who would have thought that letting your grey hair grow out would cause such consternation in the C suite?

If you have plans to hang out and watch a movie this weekend, I strongly recommend I’m Your Man, a German romcom from last year. Not only does it have a female lead in her late 40s (!!), but because it’s not a formulaic American studio comedy, you can’t predict where the plot is going, which is just so refreshing.

This film would be a great bet to watch in deep, dark winter when we all need a lift, but I’m nervous that Crave.ca will boot it from their lineup by then, so I urge you to watch it now. It’s about a scientist who takes part in an experiment living with a robot who has been programmed to be her perfect partner. British actor Dan Stephens (whose German is excellent) plays the robot and after having seen him as the waxed-chested, flamboyant Russian pop idol in Eurovision, I am completely invested in seeing him become a huge star.

My favourite cocktail drink right now is like an amped up Paloma, but with grapefruit sorbet instead of juice to go along with the tequila. You just put a scoop of sorbet in a tallish glass and pour a shot of tequila over. Enjoy with a spoon. So what do we call this, a ‘Paloma’ slushy? Or maybe a ‘Tequila Affogato’ after the classic Italian dessert of espresso poured over vanilla ice cream? Name aside, this works as both a festive early evening cocktail or a simple (but possibly lethal) dessert.

Making your own grapefruit sorbet is easy — just some mixing, heating and stirring. Plus, you can make this even if you don’t have an ice cream machine as the added vodka (alcohol doesn’t freeze) prevents the mixture it from freezing into an unwieldy solid.

Pink Grapefruit Sorbet

Ingredients

3 cups freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice (I buy freshly squeezed juice at the gourmet store having rationalized that it costs the same as buying all those grapefruits. Much easier.)

2 tablespoons light (clear) corn syrup

2/3 cup granulated sugar

3 or 4 tablespoons of vodka

Instructions

Prepare the mixture the day before you want it and let it cool overnight in the fridge before churning or get your mixture assembled and chilling early early in the morning (like, before your coffee) so you can freeze it that afternoon for a late dinner.

In a small saucepan, heat one cup of the grapefruit juice with the granulated sugar and the corn syrup over low heat until the sugars dissolve. Add this mixture to the remaining grapefruit juice, add the vodka and put the whole thing into the freezer to cool for a couple of hours or into the fridge overnight.

The next day, when it is thoroughly chilled, churn it in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can pour it into a loaf pan or shallow dish, stick it into the freezer and run a fork through it every 30-45 minutes or so while it’s firming up to break up the ice crystals.

If you are one of the silver or blonde tribe, there is nothing like Kérastase Blonde Absolu masque Ultra Violet, $74, Sephora, to bring your hair back from the edge, and light it up so it’s visible from space (I exaggerate, but only slightly.) This mask will keep your hair bright and beautifully moisturized and de-frizzed. (FYI, so many purple shampoos dry your hair out like crazy so don’t overly rely on them but do use a mask and a conditioner a lot if you are silver-haired.)

Silver hair maintenance, step two: L’Oréal’s Color Radiance Purple Reviving Oil, $9,49, Shoppers Drug Mart, is a hair smoothing, yellow-banishing serum-slash-leave-in-treatment you can use between shampoos. Use it sparingly (you can always add more, but you can’t add less) and for heaven’s sake, wash your hands afterwards because it is purple (did I mention that it’s purple?) It is very effective at turning faintly yellowing drying out hair into a silvery, light-reflecting, wonder.

The 'I Want To Be Invited Back' Cottage Gift Guide 2022

Lake of Bays, 2022.

Bringing generous and practical gifts for your cottage-owning friends all but ensures an invitation next season. For more suggestions see the last cottage gift guide here.

Instagram’s new favourite account is @ironicboatandtote because the hive mind discovered that LL Bean will embroider whatever you like on their signature sturdy canvas carryalls ($39-$59.) A cleverly monogrammed, oversized tote to haul necessities from the car to the cottage and down to the dock is always welcome.

You can take inspiration from the irreverent folks above (our favourites include ‘ Zoloft’ and ‘Prada’) or embroider your host’s name or initials or their cottage name on a tote. The all-cream LL Bean version is very chic, especially with the same colour embroidery, for a truly monochromatic look. But if you can’t get your hands on one, the dark blue or black straps are still the classic choice.

Put the boat in the water, take the boat out of the water, haul some rusty scrap metal to the dump, clear the overgrown brush by the road.

Having a cottage is a never-ending chore list, so Awaye pain relief cream, $23.29, Amazon.ca, is a very thoughtful, if rather unexpected, gift. Not a CBD cream, it contains β-caryophyllene that blocks the pain receptors in the body’s endocacannabinoid system (ECS) like CBD creams do. Added capsaicin, (with its pain relieving properties) amplifies the effects of the β-caryophyllene making Awaye more effective than CBD alone. And because Awaye doesn’t actually contain cannabis, it isn’t subject to cannabis regulation and costs much less than CBD cream.

Endear yourself to your friends by clearing some of that afore-mentioned brush (obviously ask first.) A sandvik, aka Swedish Clearing Axe, $76, Leevalley.com, slices through unwanted saplings (I’m looking at you, poplars) and underbrush like butter.

A new Maglite flashlight for the bunkie or a guest room is always welcome, because you can literally never have too many flashlights at the cottage. A Maglite is sleek-looking, reassuringly hefty and the light it throws can illuminate a scary walk back to your cabin.

If you are borrowing a family cottage for a week and need to make a huge gifting splash and Homer Simpson donut pool floats are not the right vibe for the lake, a Yeti Tundra 35” cooler, $375, is rugged, super practical and just this side of fancy.

And if an almost $400 cooler is too rich for your blood, (remember - this is a hostess gift. I’m not suggesting you buy this for yourself!) then an oversized Yeti 1 litre water bottle is a more practical gift choice.)

Not only does this Citronella Night Jasmine candle, snapdragondesigns.ca, $59.50, contain bug-repelling citronella, it smells wonderfully of jasmine and orange flower (aka neroli) and its graphic illustration is chic and suitably cottage-y.

And don’t forget to spell off your host and bring all the ingredients for at least one complete meal for everyone. If your wallet allows, this is the time to blow the budget on seafood and steaks (especially appreciated if your hosts have children and their disposable income now goes towards extracurriculars and orthodontia.)

And finally — just for fun, throw in some multipacks of TP. (This idea courtesy of a lovely cottage-owning friend.) It began as a Covid-inspired idea two years ago, but given the price of everything now, this is both a practical and luxurious gift.)

Black and Tan

What happens when you wear black all year and then summer comes along? I don’t want to be the town goth, a look better left to emo teens.

The answer is to just (duh) keep wearing black but lighten up the fabric. A breezy, black linen dress is summery when paired with a natural leather cross-body bag that will only get better the more beaten up it gets. And go hard with the self-tanner to get your limbs to the tawny state of the model in the photo above. (But please get that tan through self tanner, not, you know, the actual sun.)

Upper left: top to bottom: Tan Luxe The Butter ($50, Sephora) is a twofer that moisturizes dry skin to the point of gleaming while also building natural-looking colour. Pale is beautiful but sue me - a faux tan looks good.

Summer Fridays Shade Drops, SPF 30, $47 CAN, Sephora.com, is a light mineral sunscreen lotion with a faint tint that blends in easily into all skin tones without leaving any whiteish cast at all. It’s quite amazing. And because it’s a mineral screen that doesn’t require absorption time to offer optimal protection, you can apply it and head right out the door.

The Victoria Diva hat, $68.83, from Australian brand Wallaroo (trust the Australians when it comes to sun protection) is a crushable wonder that holds its shape (so good for packing) while its weave will leave your head cool but your face still protected from UV rays.

The tortoise frame with green lens Classic RayBan Wayfarers, $207, Sunglass Hut, adds dimension to an all-black outfit. And compared to the ever-spirallaing price of designer shades ($500 for sunglasses? Really?) they are a bargain by comparison.

Tom Cruise, three years before Top Gun sealed his status as eternal movie god.

Apropos RayBan Wayfarers (well, the black ones,) can you believe that Risky Business turns forty next year?

Vachetta natural leather starts out pale pink and warms into a caramel when exposed to the sun and just looks better with age. This Leather bag $135 CAN, from Etsy, can be worn cross-body or just as a shoulder bag and is roomy without being overly large.

The black leather Carrick slide from Banana Republic, $109.97, is sleek and low profile with only a twisted leather upper for ornamentation.

This crisp A classic, ‘close but not to close’ to the body dress in black linen looks polished for city wear floaty (yes, you can have both!) number from Max Mara Leisure, is on sale at SSense.com for $123. Go get it.

Summer Whites

Axel Vervoordt’s home in Venice.

If this was your Venetian palazzo, you’d probably have assistants to help you open up for the summer and flip the closets from cold to warm weather clothing. And they would definitely have laundered all those slipcovers.

Early June is when I, on a much smaller scale, ease myself and my home into summer, swapping out everything black or grey for a more seasonally appropriate white. Here is an admittedly incomplete list of some things you can get in anticipation of the season.

Left unbuttoned as a beach coverup to throw over a bathing suit or dressed up with proper jewelry or worn casually with slides and a raffia clutch (I could go on and on), this white linen summer dress, COS.com, $150 CAN is a summer staple. And it has pockets!

Put away your heavy cotton towels and switch to lightweight linen waffle towels from Flax Home for summer. In bright white in sizes from hand- to enormous bath sheet ($38-$88) they brighten a bathroom and are much more practical than cotton. Linen is highly absorbent and dries quickly so even when it’s humid and the air is heavy, you never have to suffer the olfactory assault of damp, moldy-smelling towels (the smell of freshman dorm rooms.)

I have succumbed to the ugly shoe trend because these Oofos OOAHH slides, $74, oofos.ca, are just so comfortable (at least three of my girlfriends have this model.) They provide the arch support busted feet need and are pleasingly squishy and shock-absorbing when your foot hits the pavement. Important note: it’s critical when wearing a biomorphically blobby-looking shoe to have an immaculate pedicure. No exceptions. Ergo, this beautiful Essie colour for summery toes (below.)

Essie’s new Boatloads of Love nail polish, $11.99, Shoppers Drug Mart, is an opaque soft white with the faintest blue shimmer and just enough creamy pink that you don’t look like you painted your nails with Liquid Paper™ (There’s an ancient schoolroom reference.) It’s crisp, chic, very summery and very wearable.

Look at your bathroom with a dispassionate eye and you’ll see that in addition to replacing towels, it’s also time to clear out all the nearly-empty shampoo bottles littering the shower. Replace them with an eco-friendly, refillable, recycled-aluminum bottle of Kérastase Nutritive from their new Kérastase refillable line. (Of course I chose the white one, but Nutritive for ‘sensitized’ damaged hair is perfect for summer.) The initial purchase of a bottle with a 500 ml pouch of shampoo (twice the amount of product in a regular 250 ml. bottle) is $80, kerastase.ca and salons, and each subsequent 500 ml refill is $72.

It’s a happy day for anyone wanting a more elegant olfactory experience when cleaning the house as Diptyque has entered the home care space with their new La Droguerie line of eco-friendly household care products. There’s dish soap, leather and wood lotion, multi-surface cleaner and these white porcelain medallions ($61 CAN, Holt Renfrew) impregnated with cedar oil to hang in the closet or slide into a drawer to protect your woollens from being munched by evil moths over the summer.

A Pre-Summer Friday Five

Summer is coming (how is it almost June?) and here is the first Friday Five of the season:

When the humidity arrives, you want to be cool without leaving the house in just a bathing suit and look pulled together without feeling smothered in fabric. Athleta’s wide-leg Cabo linen trousers, $99, are structured but breezy. The black is perfect for a fancy evening out while the white, worn with a white top, caramel leather accessories and gold jewelry, would be perfect for an outdoor lunch.

Germany holds asparagus festivals (Spargelzeit!) each May into June, and I think that North American culture is poorer for not sharing this tradition. To honour the greatest green spear of all time, I urge you to make this easy, soothing summer meal of jammy eggs, toast points and asparagus (recipe at the bottom of this post.)

Insanely charismatic French actor Omar Sy stars in The Takedown (Netflix) and I can’t decide if it’s a supremely dumb movie and that you should just (re)watch him in Lupin (also Netflix) or if The Takedown is just what the buddy cop film genre needs: lots of silly action with a forceful anti-racist message. Nothing is as chilling as the terrifyingly and loudly racist little, old white lady character thrown into the mix along with the expected evil white men in suits and prison-tattooed skinheads.

Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue Italian Love, 50 ml edt, $108, Sephora, is lemon-and-green-apple-with-flowers classic Light Blue set atop a richly musky and woody base. It’s quietly cozy and warming on cooler evenings but still irrefutably light and summery for those (you know they’re coming) humid days ahead.

I am easing myself into reading giant doorstopper summer novels by rereading Utz, paperback, $17, Chapters.Indigo, Bruce Chatwin’s slender 154 page novel about a porcelain collector living in Russian occupied Prague.

Asparagus & Eggs

Steam about six or seven asparagus spears per person (after having trimmed or snapped off the woody ends) four to five minutes until softened but not mushy.

If you have your own method for creating jammy eggs, then please use it. This is mine: slide two room-temperature eggs per person into water in a small saucepan on the stove and set the dial up to high. When the water begins to boil furiously, set the timer for 4 minutes exactly, turn the dial to medium high and keep an eye on it. Drain and plunge your eggs into cold water after the four minutes to stop them cooking. Peel them as soon as you can.

Meanwhile, toast and lightly butter some generously sliced sourdough and cut into points (toast points taste better than squares and the ends get dipped into your jammy yolks.)

Bisect your eggs lengthwise and arrange with the steamed asparagus spears in shallow pasta bowls, surround with buttered toast points, shave some parmesan into generous curls with a vegetable peeler and arrange on top. Finally, drizzle each dish with some peppery olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt crystals and a grinding of fresh pepper and that’s it. Early summer in a bowl.

Deciem is Discontinuing ‘Shop’ Room Spray

Last month, Deciem announced it was shuttering four of their smaller lines: Hylamide, HIF, Skin Chemistry and Abnomaly, to focus on their star skincare brand the Ordinary. This means that their wonderful ‘could win an MMA fight against Diptyque but only costs $23’ room spray, Shop, will be discontinued once they sell off the existing stock. I immediately bought three. As of this writing, it is still available. Maybe the Estée Lauder company will relaunch it as a Le Labo scent? I think it’s just too beautiful to be killed completely so hopefully it will live on under a new name. But for now, get it while you still can.

***

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 practically swoon at the smell: elegant, woody, leathery, but still light - like commingled, very expensive men’s colognes. But whenever I asked, the cheery salesperson would always tell me ‘Yeah. It’s something that Brandon created exclusively for the stores. We might start selling it eventually…” This went on for years.

Then, sadly, Deciem founder Brandon Truaxe died suddenly in 2019 and I remember thinking that 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, creating 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 repeatedly spraying my semi-chaotic 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.