My Latest Score: Chanel Mascara Base.
I am mildly to aggressively obsessed with my lashes. They are probably my favorite feature, as they have always been naturally long — and, when I have the time and inclination, I love to amp them up with extensions, which are pretty much the ultimate in luxury beauty. (But — very hard on your lashes. I can never go more than a couple of months with them before I get finnicky and worry my lashes will never grow back. Don’t worry; they do. But it takes time.) I am fairly confident I’ve tried about 90% of the mascaras on the market, and the absolute best IMHO is DiorShow. It’s inky and dramatic but not clumpy, and it doesn’t flake like so many other (inferior) mascaras. I recently added Chanel’s Mascara Base to my rotation and am legit dying over the results.
Also shown in the snap above: Nars’ gloss in Turkish Delight (I’m not normally a gloss person, but I love the frosted natural look of this gloss!) and Bobbi Brown’s Extra Lip Tint in Bare Pink, which is super moisturizing and adds just the right amount of polish.
You’re Sooooo Popular:
The most popular items on Le Blog this week:
+The most perfect swimsuit ever. I actually featured this in my weekly secret magpie micropost series, which I distribute to my email subscribers. I use that series to feature just one product a week that I’m dying over — something specific and small that doesn’t necessarily merit a full post!
+The easiest breeziest coverup, which I would actually wear around the house even when not at the beach, with my hair up in a top knot and bare feet.
+The cutest linen stripe skirt!
+An under $20 adorable straw hat that sold out but was just restocked with a new grosgrain band color!
+A unique gift for a hostess. Imagine tying it up with a dramatic white bow!
+Monogrammed tumblers for your next al fresco meal.
#Turbothot: The Weird Thing We Do After Vacations.
Joanna of Cup of Jo recently shared “the weird thing” she and her husband do on vacation, which sounds interesting but I’m not quite sure it’s for Mr. Magpie and I, because, recently, I suggested that for Father’s Day, I take both mini and our dog out for the afternoon so that he could pass the day in blessed silence doing whatever he’d like to do. His response was a sad frown and then: “No, but I want to be with you guys.” (And it’s not that we don’t enjoy time apart or time to ourselves, but that — on that particular day of all days — he felt it would be a disservice to spend it separate from one another. I have a sense he’d feel the same about vacation time.)
That said, the prompt led me to realize that there are all different types of vacationers, with different vacationing styles and priorities. In high school, a friend of mine returned from a weeklong trip to France and blew my mind when she told me all that she’d seen and done, as she rattled off various sites and museums and excursions and performances she’d taken in.
“How did you…do that much?” I puzzled, in wonderment. Our family vacations tended to be long, do-nothing days at the pool punctuated by occasional family excursions to see a rodeo, or go to the chili cookoff, or sit on the Main Street curb for the fourth of july parade, or head out into the Rockies for a family hike (we spent most of our summers in Colorado) — but never more than one attraction per day.
“My mom schedules everything down to a tee,” she explained. “It’s awesome. We get up at six and get our day started.”
I’ve always gravitated more towards my parents’ style, though I know that this predilection has been shaped by the vacations I grew up with. Luckily, Mr. Magpie shares a similar outlook: we aim for one or two activities — maybe a museum in the morning and a historical site in the afternoon — and let ourselves wander, rest in the hotel room, or sidle up to a cute bar for a midday glass of wine if we’re so inclined. We like a relaxed, ambling pace; it feels blissfully different from the harried life we live at home. But the one weird thing we always do? We leave a day earlier than we might otherwise so that we can spend the final day of “vacation” back home — doing laundry, unpacking, re-acclimating — but mainly, doing nothing at all. For us, vacation means a true break, a slowing down, a restoration, and that last glorious day of nothingness seals the deal. I can see the appeal of using vacation time to experience the world and bond with your loved ones over new adventures you can’t access anywhere else, but — we prefer to use vacation time to recharge the batteries.
How do you vacation?
(And where are you vacationing?!)
#Shopaholic: The Floral Statement Earring.
+I’m sure you’re thinking — ENOUGH, ENOUGH WITH THE FLORALS — but these earrings!!!! (More amazing floral finds here; and I already bought these floral statement makers.)
+If I were a surfer girl, I’d wear this wetsuit in a heartbeat. So chic! (P.S. Rashguards for your minis here!)
+An EPIC find for wedding guest attire. I’M OBSESSED. The color, the neckline, the shape! And well-priced for what it is!
+Remember the pastel blue H+M biker leather jacket everyone lost their mind over a couple of season ago?! Club Monaco has NAILED its own version. Super chic.
+I have a dress SUPER similar to this style and I love it so much — I feel Italian in it, like a Missoni granddaughter who might also wear a turban and keeps her hair long and boho-like.
+Were you a fan of Fate + Furies? I loved it. (Incidentally, Barack Obama once said it was his favorite book.) The author is out with a new book! So curious to take it in.
+I’m coveting this illuminating face balm.
+Ordering one of these for mini’s ever-growing bow collection…
P.S. The elegant, lopsided dance of motherhood.
P.P.S. That time I read a young adult novel…and my thoughts on reading highbrow vs. lowbrow fare.
We have the same vacation philosophy as you, along with the extra day at home. To ease back into regular life feels like a true luxury.
Rho is with his grandparents for the long weekend as we head to Stockholm! We spent a quick two days there in 2014 (where I spent a lot of the time sleeping – was pregnant and didn’t know it), so I’m excited to explore it some more. We use Journy (gojourny.com) to help plan our trips like these – you tell them what you like to see and how you like to travel, and they put together the perfect itinerary for you along with booking tours, making reservations, and giving you far more than you’ll do in a day so you can pick and choose. It’s one less thing I have to do when traveling somewhere new, and I’ve always had a wonderful experience.
Woah – super cool! Hadn’t heard about Journy. We might need to use that when we head to Italy next summer (yay, finally — a proper, long vacation!)
Enjoy Stockholm! Sounds like it has a special place in your personal history 🙂
We have so much fun prepping for vacation. We’ve made a word document called “Jess and F take on ____” since we started dating. Flight times, transportation, hotel confirmations, any special events on certain days, things we want to see, etc” I fill it with content and my husband makes it look pretty, he’s the perfectionist and formatting aficionado.
Now with 3 kids they’ve gotten ever more complicated. I wish we’d saved them all–it would be a fun book to put together.
I LOVE that tradition — might have to crib it for myself, and you should definitely start saving yours. So fun! Mr. Magpie is definitely more of the researcher between the two of us; he almost always buys the Lonely Planet guide to XYZ and will spoonfeed me the details once he’s digested it. It’s funny, because I am super organized and like to plan ahead, but I find travel planning unwieldy and overwhelming — there’s too much, and yet a lot of the information is questionable (can I really trust Yelp on this?!) I’m a pro at packing and planning outfits and being prepared in terms of what we’ll need to have on us (Mr. Magpie routinely insists we don’t need to pack any food — and then is ecstatic when I inevitably satiate him with granola bars / nuts / etc), and he’s better at planning the itinerary.
Anyway, thanks for the idea! xo
I definitely agree with the post-vacation day. It’s just key for getting back into the regular swing of things. We’re off to Boston/Maine at the beginning of June, I have my first solo flight with the baby to Austin at the end of June (wish me luck aaahhh!!), and possibly DC in August (not optimal time for weather, but it is what it is). But what I am super-excited about is our trip to Italy this October – just booked our tickets earlier this week! Not excited about the long flights though, especially not with a mobile child (it was so easy when we went to France last year and she just slept in my arms the whole time! Pretty sure that isn’t happening this year.)
Re: how I vacation – I used to be a scheduler, and had days packed with things to do/places to eat. I’ve since eased up a lot, have one, maybe two, things I’d like to do each day, to leave each day more open to exploration – my husband’s influence, to be sure!
Ooh la la! Busy little agenda — so inspiring to see you bopping around. Gives the rest of us mamas something to work toward 🙂 xo
My lashes are my favorite as well! They’re naturally long but since I’m a natural blonde, you can’t see them without mascara. I’ve fallen in love with the L’Oréal Voluminous mascara! Have you tried it?
No, I’ve not tried it! I will need to check it out! Love a good deal!
I soooo want that Iris & Ink swimsuit … trying to decide if I can do it, given that I’m barely ever in swimsuits and recently bought one from Le Slip Français! I have so many swimsuits that I love and I rarely wear them. Hmm.
I would agree that I’m not sure I would try the vacationing tip from Cup of Jo, and I’m DEFINITELY in your camp when it comes to tacking on an extra day at the end of vacation to recharge. I grew up spending 3 weeks of each summer in Nantucket and then Cape Cod, and my parents’ approach was similar to your parents’ in that our days were largely unstructured, with only occasional excursions. In my adult life, though, most of the trips I’ve taken have been exploratory city vacations — still unstructured, but with more seeing and doing than I did as a child by the beach in Massachusetts.
I haven’t planned a big trip this year — last year I went to Tokyo and I return to Paris every few years — but I am going to San Francisco in July for a week to visit my brother and sister-in-law! I always look forward to going to the Bay Area, which involves both city pursuits (museums; shopping) and the outdoors (hikes; the beach).
That orange asymmetrical dress is GORGEOUS! Would be perfect for wedding guest attire.
So fun to spend a week with family while traveling — sort of the best of both worlds: the comforts of home, but the option for adventure. Love! You MUST go to Zuni while you are there. Mr. Magpie legitimately discuss visiting SF for the sole purpose of eating their chicken again…xx
GREAT tip about Zuni … I remember you raving about their cookbook! Will have to look into that for sure. Thank you!