The Nice List: Gifts for the Tippler

Still Life with a Gilt Cup, Willem Claesz (1635)

Guest columnist Nathalie Atkinson is a culture journalist with an affinity for spirits. There are presently 198 bottles in her liquor cabinet (107 of them gin). Follow her on Instagram at @jadedjournalista.

By: Nathalie Atkinson

A jigger, a shaker, and a Hawthorne strainer walk into a bar. It’s your bar, and they’re regulars because you’ve been doing this a while. You’ve got the basics but these holiday picks will make cocktail hour better in every way.

With a Twist

You can mix a stirred drink in any heavy wide-mouthed vessel or carafe (I use a vintage flower pitcher) but a twisty stainless steel mixing spoon is non-negotiable. It will save your shoulders, elbow, and wrist — and it looks slick in a boomerang. $16 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com)

Have you been enjoying the mixology magic of Stanley Tucci’s deadpan cocktail tutorials on InstagramTV? And his matte gold bar accessories, similar to these at Cocktail Emporium?

Stanley Tucci made that scotch sour just for you, you lucky thing.

The Big Squeeze

Because only suckers buy ready-made simple syrup: a plastic squeeze bottle will keep yours fresh in the fridge for up to a month. 

$5.49 at Kitchen Stuff Plus (KitchenStuffPlus.com)

Behind Door #3

Every serving from That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s Advent Calendar gives you a daily surprise to look forward to. $199.95 at LCBO while supplies last (lcbo.com)

Blow Me

Nova Scotian Crystal

Brad Copping’s Xylen tumblers

A scotch sour served in Halifax’s own Nova Scotian Crystal just tastes better. I’m partial to the diamond-cut Titanic pattern, so-named because the design was inspired by its stateroom light sconces (and because artefacts from the doomed ocean liner are housed in the nearby Maritime Museum of the Atlantic). For a more colourful cocktail by all means covet Campbell-Rey’s striped tumblers, but remember that artist Brad Copping’s cheerful Xylen tumblers are blown right here in Canada.

From $85 at Nova Scotian Crystal (novascotiancrystal.com) and $48 through Craft Ontario (craftontarioshop.com)

Cherry Bombed

Some people swear by Luxardo; I do not. For an Aviation my go-to is Tillen Farms’ plump dark Bada Bing. In a Manhattan, it’s Paw Paw’s unctuous Amaretto variation made with organic B.C. cherries. If you’re into packaging and design then Fabbri and Toschi’s curvaceous ceramic jars are the epitome of bella figura—like it’s 1962 and you’re sipping a leisurely Negroni in Via Veneto, not a paparazzo in sight. But better no cherry at all than those round things tinted with red dye #40 that call themselves maraschinos but taste like a cartoon version that has survived Chernobyl. If you heed nothing else here, make them good cherries.

$12.99-$29 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com)

The Gin is In

Filmmaker Paul Feig launched Artingstall’s in the spring and his premium gin is now firmly in my top 3. It’s not just that Stanley Tucci loves it, or because Feig’s Spy and Freaks & Geeks are my comfort-food, or even to copy what Emma Thompson swigs at the London outdoor market in Last Christmas. Unlike some celebrity booze brands we could name, Feig is not a come-lately: the Freaks & Geeks creator has long been as famous for his love of a crisp Duke’s Martini as he is for his sartorial flair. He formulated the distinctively citrus-forward gin with the micro distillery division of Calgary’s Minhas at their Wisconsin facility, gave it his mother’s maiden name, and even designed the cut-glass bottle. When you’ve polished it off—which will be sooner than you think—soak the label off and it’s an elegant art deco decanter.

Artingstall’s Brilliant London Dry Gin, $54.95 at LCBO  and several other Canadian provinces, and in USA (artingstalssgin.com)

Shadow of the Thin Man

Contemporary martini glasses are too large and too tall: the centre of gravity is off and they teeter. Instead, opt for the simple tulip glass known as a Nick and Nora, after the urbane and prodigious drinkers of The Thin Man. The smaller capacity is how Nora managed to line up those five more martinis—and will help yours stay chilly to the last drop.

$14 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com)

Shaken and Stirred

I’ve taken many drinks classes and, with apologies to Stanley, my favourites are with Famous Last Words, the Junction’s literary-themed bar. Marlene and her team combine history and lore specific to the chosen cocktails with useful tips on ingredients, variations, and technique (because yes, you are holding that bar spoon wrong). Until indoor tippling can safely reopen, sign up for their online classes themed around imbibers Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Dickens.

$40 per screen at Famous Last Words (famouslastwordsbar.com)

Frozen, Too

Retro-classic stainless steel makes a satisfying thwack but Prohibition’s over, folks, and flexible silicone ice cube trays make much less mess. A covered silicone tray is also easier for stacking and prevents cubes from absorbing freezer odour while setting. (Bonus: the frame means it won’t slosh and sag when filled with water.) Once they’re solid, pop the cubes out and store in a sealed plastic bag. $16.99 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com) 

One last tip for the long winter ahead:

Trainer Vineyard’s display-worthy Haberdasher vermouths.

Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say. A great way to liven up a favourite winter cocktail like a Boulevardier or Manhattan is to use a higher-quality version of one of the ingredients. Chances are your local bar is selling bottles and I guarantee you they and local dealers have a better selection of sweet red vermouth than the provincial liquor authority (I like Cocchi, and Punt e Mes, and Haberdasher vermouth from Prince Edward County’s Traynor Vineyard). And in a Paper Plane I play with different amari to see how they alter the flavour profile.

Cheers!

Remember This Ridiculous Beauty Tip?

Tatjana Patitz in French Elle, March 1989

In the early 90s, I stuck this magazine photo of Tatjana Patitiz on my fridge door because I’d read that having pictures of skinny models in the kitchen would prevent me from snacking. It didn’t work at all. But even despite the negative associations, I still love the image.

This ‘self-loathe your way to skinniness’ advice seems dated now when anyone can idly scroll the #fitspo hashtag on Instagram if they want to feel bad about themselves. God willing that habit will disappear as younger generations of women truly believe in body diversity, not just as a marketing trend. I feel hopeful about this.

Even those purveyors of jet-set anorexia, Victoria’s Secret, are shuttering 250 stores this year (no idea how much of this is due to Covid, but I’ll take it) and they stopped producing their annual fashion shows in 2019 due to declining viewership.

And even though I never got skinny enough to wear a bandage dress, I still think Patitz looks great in this picture. My love of 90s supermodels will never die, and in that one way, I’m still the same person who tacked up that photo.

The Nice List: Gifts for your Favourite Man

Give the gift of self-care to your nearest and dearest this holiday season, because everyone needs love, attention and coziness.

Real talk: men require very few things in life. They’re pretty simple beings, but one non-negotiable is that they absolutely need to be found super-hot by their partner. (I express this in a much more vulgar way to my girlfriends, but this is a public forum, so I’m trying to be circumspect.)

***

Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male Le Parfum ($98) is a clever reworking of the 1995 original, with amped up spicy and woody notes surrounded by lavender and iris and a quiet but compelling vanilla that highlight a man’s allure.

There are too many black puffer coats in the world and I say this as a black puffer owner. But here’s a secret: even if they’re not fashiony peacocks, many men love colour. This citrusy slice of joy is a sunny hug for your significant other. The Parajumpers Bold Parka, $1198, will give them a jolt of pure happy when they pull it on to head outside into the biting cold.

Why should women get all the gorgeous Taschen coffee table books? The History of EC Comics$260, The Beguiling Books & Art, is a tour through childhood (Mad Magazine), teenhood (Tales of the Crypt) and beyond. It’s available through Toronto’s own legendary The Beguiling bookstore, because if you ‘shop local’ you’ll get stellar customer service while ensuring your city stays vibrant and people are employed.

Tokyo Smoke Cannabis Infused Dark Milk Chocolate was invented for times like these. I can’t really come up with a caption other than it’s delicious chocolate that contains 2 mg of THC, because literally everyone needs help chilling out right now.

Because you can’t sit around eating THC chocolate all day long to relieve tension, there’s the Theragun Prime, ($299 on sale) which uses percussive motion for a deep muscle massage. Whether or not you work out, we all have super tight neck muscles and ‘traps’ right now from sitting hunched at our computers. And incipient carpal tunnel hand pain from too much phone and keyboard time. Buy one for your guy and then just use it yourself. I would kill for one.

Carrying little bottles of sanitizer around can be a nuisance (especially if, as a man, society has seen fit to deprive you of carrying a purse) so these flat, one ounce Nudestix antibacterial hand gel packs, $10 for five, Sephora, are perfect to stash in a pocket without feeling uncomfortably bulky or ruining the line of a garment

How to get men to use moisturizer in the winter: the Ultimate Hemp Power Big Gift Sack from The Body Shop, $65, has a faintly illicit vibe, uses hemp seed oil (rich in soothing fatty acids) to moisturize even the driest skin and the signature scent is fantastic.

And if an Overnight Nourishing Rescue Mask is one beauty product too far, then just steal it back for yourself. (Or do as a friend did when she told her husband that using moisturizer after drinking prevents hangovers the next day.)

After mastering sourdough last April, many of use because de facto barbers, giving desperate male family members haircuts with varying degrees of success.

The Conair Barbershop Pro Series cordless clippers, $70, are easy to use and come with many attachments to help create exactly the style that your haircut guinea pigs desire. These clippers are practically idiot-proof (and I say this as a certified idiot.)

It's Eat-Boozy-Pasta-and-Hand-Wash-Your-Sweaters Season

Forever New laundry powder gently cleans all your cashmere.

I am christening the upcoming four months of cold weather and Covid isolation “the winter of rigatoni alla vodka. ” To make that happen I’ve laid in lots of vodka, Calabrian chili paste and dried rigatoni (which is superior to penne. Ask anyone.) Just as important, as the temperatures drop, is stocking up on the best gentle laundry powder ever, Forever New, because I refuse to take anything made of cashmere to the dry cleaners.

Dry-cleaned sweaters feel weirdly stiff and not particularly ‘clean’. The thought of putting one against my bare skin (especially after it has rolled around in an industrial drum full of perchloroethylene and the dirty clothes of strangers) gives me hives.

Forever New was pressed upon me in the 80s by a saleslady in Eaton’s lingerie department (underwire bras being way too tricky and pricy to just throw into the machine.) It gently gets things thoroughly clean and rinses out easily, because rinsing laundry in the sink is a pain. The scent is subtle and nicely laundryish. And, according to back of the jug, you can even use it in the laundry machine. I would never do that, because I am way too attached to my White and Warren travel wrap to ever trust it to a Whirlpool. But you might be braver.

The Best Dark Circle Corrector and Sleep Faker

Little metal roller balls on Boots’ Dark Circle Corrector make application a cooling, pleasing experience

There’s nothing like looking into the mirror, even after a solid eight hour’s sleep, and wondering if someone smudged reddish grey liner under your eyes in the middle of the night. Some of us have dark circles thanks to genetics, bone structure or luck of the draw, that for whatever reason, will not budge.

It’s tempting to admit defeat and go full-on with opaque concealer in the lightest shade, but you risk resembling a ‘reverse panda’’ or a tragic makeup victim with poor eyesight, as a thick coating of under-eye spackle is rarely kind to older skin. And while I love a good eye cream to mitigate crepey, crinkly skin, undereye circles need makeup, not just moisture.

Boots No 7 Dark Circle Corrector ($32CAN) is the happy marriage of hyaluronic acid to plump up the skin, cleverly selected pigments to neutralize those weird shadows (are they blue? Or are they red?) and light-diffusing particles to help illuminate those under-eye hollows. It also works well on the outer corners of your eyes. The effect is subtle and natural. No pandas here. Instead you’ll look serene and well-rested and like you got a film crew to follow you around, pointing high-wattage movie ‘fill’ lights at your face all day long.

Hey, Small Spender: The Best Hair De-frizzer Is Only $10

Typology Jojoba Oil is beautiful, versatile and cheap.

One ingredient found in most hair-smoothing lotions is jojoba oil. The oil that most closely resembles your scalp’s own sebum, it does an aces job of naturally smoothing down the outer layer of your hair to create shine. When we’re older, our oil production decreases just as our hair is getting thinner and drier and more in need of this life-giving, shine-enhancing oil. And if you have curly hair, all those bends and turns make it even harder for the natural oils to make their way down to your (oh look, now they’re frizzy) ends.

A few drops (two? three?) of jojoba oil warmed in your hands and raked through your hair (paying special attention to ends) creates an instant and surprising amount of natural shine, and handily subdues flyaways, for a more elegant, less crazy cat lady look. As someone with frizz-prone grey, I fear that my default setting is now crazy cat lady.

A 60 ml (two ounce) bottle of jojoba oil is roughly $10 at the health food store and lasts forever. But if you’re like me and ugly packaging upsets your fragile equilibrium, this three ounce, minimalist beauty from France’s Typology brand is worth the 9.90 euro price.

Jojoba oil is also a stellar cuticle protector during these unprecedented ‘gel sanitizer is ruinous to our hands’ times. A couple of drops onto your fingertips after hand washing and before hand lotion will keep your cuticles from cracking.

And as someone who hits the self-tanner bottle pretty hard in the winter, I put jojoba oil on my fingers before ‘tanning’ (that makes me sound so Jersey Shore) to prevent the tint grabbing onto any dry skin and turning my fingertips yellowish-brown, making me look like a two-pack-a day smoker. (And that alone is totally worth 10 euros.)

Pretend You Travelled to France With These Skincare Launches

On Emily in Paris, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu gives a master class in resting Parisienne face .

When I arrive in France, I take my jet-lagged self to the pharmacy even before unpacking, because there’s nothing like waking up the next morning to an abundantly stocked bathroom. I would be thrilled to discover any of these new products (below) on those legendarily jammed pharmacie shelves, so I’m pretty chuffed that they have landed in Canada. Especially now, given that we don’t know when we’ll be safely travelling there again.

French women are as careful with money (that’s a polite expression for cheap) as they are discerning about everything from strawberries at the market to their wardrobes (fewer, more expensive items) and of course, skincare. They are fanatical about finding reasonably priced pharmacy offerings that work and are elegantly fragranced.

Put your purchases in a straw market basket and make believe that you bought them in a charming French town.

I can easily imagine Emily’s boss Sylvie, (the one semi-realistic character on Netflix’s Emily in Paris) buying any of these items, while saving the majority of her hard-earned euros for Sabbia Rosa lingerie and plunging-neckline silk blouses.

Klorane’s new cornflower anti-fatigue hydrating range seems tailor-made for harried Parisiennes like Sylvie (and those of us on the less-cool side of the Atlantic) who need skin calming with intense hydration. The Wake up Call Serum with hyaluronic acid provides a sizeable hit of soothing moisture, which is perfect if you’ve been smoking in your office. (I am kidding. Do not smoke in your office like Sylvie or anywhere else! But do try the serum.) And the Nighttime Hydrating Mask is softly scented for expensive-smelling aromatherapy along with overnight skin plumping. Available at Jean Coutu Quebec.

Klorane Cornflower Skincare smells beautifully high end.

Nuxe, whose Huile Prodigieuse is a staple of ‘French Pharmacy Top Ten Beauty Products’ lists, have reimagined their organic Nuxe Bio range with new products and new natural origin ingredients, all in upgraded packaging of heavy, dark green glass. I picture Sylvie using the powdered fruit kernel and salicylic acid Micro-Exfoliating Cleansing Mask after a hard day of Gallic outrage over some faux pas that Emily cluelessly committed. She could then finish with the Ultimate Night Recover Oil with antioxidant and omega 3 fatty acid-rich rice bran oil to both soften her skin (please stop smoking, Sylvie) and protect her skin’s barrier function.

Nuxe Bio is luxe and efficacious.

And finally, L’Occitane’s new Incredible Recipe Deodorant in verveine (lemon verbena) in a sleek recyclable tin has ‘French pharmacy’ cred to burn. The natural baking soda and cornstarch formula with a grassy, lemon scent is the polar opposite of that very North American ‘shower clean’-smelling deodorant in your bathroom. If you were thinking of switching to a natural deo, do it now instead of during the boiling hot summer, right?

L’Occitane’s new.lemon verbena creamy natural deodorant is a citrusy stink repeller and mood booster.

Knock on Wood by Tory Burch Eases You into Autumn on an Orange and Vetiver Cloud

Tory Burch Knock on Wood is a vetiver and blood orange fever dream.

Tory Burch Knock on Wood (50 ml extrait de parfum $135 CAN, Sephora) is semi-deranged but in the best possible way.

It’s as if the brand had a safe, rose-and-magnolia ‘elegant lady’ scent, but after hours, when everyone had gone home, someone snuck in and topped up the tanks with gallons of blood orange oil and resinous, jungle-humid vetiver. (That’s how perfumery works, right? Giant vats at the office?)

The blood orange cleanly slices through vetiver’s darkness, although it doesn’t stick around long. What you are left with is a sunlit earthiness with a spicy aspect and a hidden floral undertow.

It’s the perfect scent for a walk on a rainy November day. With social distancing a fact of life into the foreseeable future, one should go full-on with fragrance, because no one around you will smell it otherwise. I like to give myself a good blast and then stroll through the neighbourhood, leaving a brilliant sillage.

19/99 Beauty: Why Would I Want To Look Younger?

Campaign images like this make my heart swell. (Photo courtesy of 19/99 Beauty.)

There’s a scene in Killing Eve where assassin-for-hire Villanelle (Jodie Comer) chides fellow murderess Dasha (70-year-old Harriet Walter, all attitude and pencilled-on brows) for lighting a cigarette. “If you quit smoking you would look ten years younger.”

“Why would I want to look ten years younger?” Dasha shoots back. I may not kill people for a living (do what you love, right?) but I agree with Dasha. I am officially past trying, or caring.

Harriet Walter as Dasha, taking a break from her exhausting job.

This freeing attitude aligns with the vision behind 19/99 Beauty, a new cosmetics line for women who “want to define their own beauty and don’t give a shit about what is considered appropriate.” The collection is meant for women from 19 to 99 (get it?), but I like to believe it was created just for fifty-plus women.

19/99 Beauty’s Voros is a bold, assertive red. (Photo courtesy of 19/99 Beauty.)

The brainchild of former Bite Beauty executives, Stephanie Spence and Camille Katona, 19/99 Beauty is their response to seeing “diversity becoming more mainstream, but still under one lens of beauty,” Katona tells me. “We saw an opportunity to widen this one definition and create something new.”

For the products, the duo collaborated with longtime makeup artist Simone Otis, who herself felt ignored by advertising’s default representations of older women: “there’s the wacky old lady with blue hair or the Ralph Lauren woman,” she told me, identifying two of the culture’s more fatigued tropes. (I was nodding so furiously in agreement at this part, I may have pulled something.)

Adds Otis: “Why can’t I look cool? I just want to look cool.”

To that end, the line “merges a fashionable aesthetic with a message that is open and honest, but still comes from a place that’s beautifully branded and inspiring,” adds Spence. And that’s the thing, isn’t it? Makeup is meant to be fun and transformative and cheering. And while it’s nice to have lofty marketing rhetoric, it’s ultimately about the products.

Elaisha & Michelle both wearing Voros (Photo courtesy of 19/99 Beauty)

19/99 Beauty launched this past April with a transparent high-shine gloss and one universally-wearable, red pencil, Voros (red in Hungarian, fyi). “Red is timeless, ageless,” explains Katona. “And you can apply (the pencil) precisely or diffuse it for something softer.” (Witness the red used on both lips and eyes in the top image.)

Elaisha in the Lustro highlighter pencil. (Photo courtesy of 19/99 Beauty.)

The collection is small and carefully considered. Along with the red, there’s pinky nude Neutra, and now, just-launched eye pencils, a rich brown (Barna), and a champagne (Lustro), each formulated to be used anywhere on the face, and each only $26CAN. (There is also a US site at 1999beauty.com.) Bolder shades are expected next spring.

The pencils are made in Italy and are the high quality you’d expect from a pricier luxury brand. (Do not get me started on the disappointment that is the ‘merely okay’ quality of a lot of the offerings from direct-to-consumer industry star, Glossier. Products that you will receive through the mail really need to “surprise and delight,” to use this most cliched of marketing terms.)

19/99’s pencils are richly pigmented, the highlighter has the perfect shimmer-to-transparency ratio (no disco ball here, just luminosity) and they all glide smoothly over skin, which is key when wielding a pencil anywhere in the vicinity of an over-50 eyelid.

And if you do catch the vibe and want to try the red as eyeliner, the duo couldn’t be happier.

“Makeup is temporary,'“ observes Spence. “wear a brighter bolder colour even if it’s just for an hour— or five minutes.”

The Duchess Recommends

Please welcome Craig MacInnis, former Toronto Star pop culture columnist and film critic, and now Oldish’s first guest columnist.

By: Craig MacInnis

I spied this sign by a storefront on Yonge and it gave me a start, like seeing the vapour trail left by a long-vanished ghost.

Meghan, at the time of her patronage, would have been just another hard-working actress here, grinding out episodes of Suits as the dynamic paralegal Rachel Zane while renting a fine but unremarkable house in tranquil Seaton Village.

When she snarfed back her açai bowls up in the nosebleed section of Yonge (Editor's note: anything above Bloor qualifies as nosebleed, and this joint is above *Eglinton*), she hadn't yet met her prince and was probably still married to the other schlub whose name I can't be bothered to Google before my first coffee of the morning.

Likewise, she had not yet fallen afoul of Piers Morgan and all those cane-banging Union Jack-asses who quote passages from The Daily Mail like Scripture and pine for the days of herbaceous borders, sticky wickets and the drawing-room schemes of Bertie Wooster.

Also, one has to assume that she and Jessica (last name redacted) were just getting launched as professional 'besties' then and what better way to bond than going out for açai bowls after a hard day's work? I'm told (and I have impeccable sources here), that it's almost as much fun as going for matching helix piercings after coming down off a hot-yoga high.

Then again, what do I know? Maybe she went for her açai bowls after a night of pounding bottles of Tignanello with Gina Torres at Everleigh. 

Toronto is a big city, a fact I was reminded of just the other week when Ben Mulroney walked across a cross-walk at St. Clair and Mt. Pleasant with his dog and neither Liza nor I shouted out the window: "Hey Ben, keep your chin up," because with a Mulroney that's a given.

For my own part, I have never been tempted to try an açai bowl but I'm fond of açai jokes, which are gradually replacing kale jokes, which have had their day. 

My current favourite: "I just ate an açai bowl and now my name is Ashley and I have a fashion blog."
Seeing Meghan's small thumbs-up, to a juice bar along this featureless stretch of Yonge, reminded me of an earlier American newsmaker, also a royal consort and also widely if unfairly perceived as a throne wrecker.

"You can never be too rich or too thin," decreed the late Wallis Simpson, who would no doubt gag at the calorie-rich slurry of bananas, peanut butter and guck that Meghan ravenously spooned up during her days in Toronto. Before her life and menu changed forever.