Chicken Soup for the Sad, Stylish Soul
Seeking out comfort in lip cuffs, jester beanies, candles on sale, and more.
Hello all, as you well know, the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan in the past week and a half of my life, leaving me jobless, single, and fostering a sharp but somehow also radiant pain in my sternum at all hours of the day, occasionally erupting in jags of pointless, open sobbing that I only want one person to hear and I expect that person unsubscribed from my blog posthaste. The lives of many people around me seem to be crumbling in various horrific ways, too—another unsuccessful job app there, a ten-year-long relationship ending here, a pet slowly dying everywhere.
Luckily, most of my loved ones are dealing with their personal tragedies more gracefully than I and are able to be here for me as I do my best not to replay every grisly moment of New Year’s Eve with every other exhale. I am very lucky and have been showered with care packages, words of wisdom, and a few thoughtful gifts that have made their way into the below post, which is about comfort items. I’m literally too sad to care about the implications of clinging to objects as buoys in the Titanic-esque wreckage of my tiny little tragedy, so I hope you enjoy my little collection. Please, oh please comment or respond to this email and let me know what objects bring you comfort in times of turmoil, especially if they’re under $30 and readily available—in my lifetime I’ve tried everything from meditation pillows to literal cocaine, so I’m down for pretty much anything. Love you guys, thanks for riding the waves with me. I cannot wait for this to be over, one way or another.
Note: now that I’m officially unemployed and the process for collecting insurance is looking more and more Kafkaesque by the moment, I REALLY appreciate any job leads in PDX, NYC, or anywhere fun you can think of. Admin/office management is fine as long as the management isn’t wackadoo but I really goddamn want to write and edit. I know I can prove myself perfect for any editorial position if I’m just given the chance.
This is also an excellent time to subscribe to the paid tier of this blog for as little as $1.50/month or $15/year, and/or Venmo any amount to username em-sk with your preferred email as the note and I’ll set you up with a yearlong paid subscription. I am so, so indebted to all the friends and folks who have surrounded me with love and physical, emotional, and financial support this week and I promise with all my heart that one day, I WILL succeed enough to pay it back/forward.
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THANK YOU for being here, and I am always available @that.esque on Instagram for sartorial scandals/situations/summons. Here is a little preview of what’s below the paywall:
MacKinley Jade got me good with this one—when a friend offered to buy me any “self-care” item under $50 in honor of me getting shitcanned from job + love, I immediately thought of this mask, which MacKinley has been championing on her blog for weeks. I am waiting for it to come in the mail, but considering I usually find myself dozing off with my fists balled up and pressing devilishly into my eye sockets in a gesture of either comfort or vague self-harm, I think this baby will be put to good use paired with the Klonopin that just barely allows me to avoid The Bad Thoughts. MacKinley recommended I go with a darker shade because they block the light out better (I went with dark gray) and said that after a wash, they hold up but the fuzzy side might get a little weird, so I’ll see about that (I’m pretty intense about washing things that touch my face, so maybe I can get some sort of pillowcase for it?).
As you likely also know, my mission to find a genuinely supportive, orthopedic-level pair of shoes that aren’t hideous has become tied to my current agony. These Salewas look the part, at least—I wonder if they’re as stiff and unforgiving as a regular hiking boot or if their “Air” status means they have more grace and give. Love the color, at least!
My ex got me a freckle pen that was, I can finally admit publicly, the wrong shade for me (from another brand)—I tried the Freck pen at a friend’s house and suddenly feel frantic with need for one. Painting freckles on my face feels comforting to me, as does the resulting faux-sunned skin, reminding me of warmer days to come (and Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries, lol). Iwould be so, so happy if the brand sent me my very own ! : D !
I simply love the actual petrichor (not chemically, oakmossy faux petrichor so many fragrances have adapted as of late) that this candle imbues a living space with, and I wish I could afford it!
I found this candle at a local PDX vendor hall called Cargo for 50% off as it was a holiday special scent. It is literally burning as I type this, and I’ve been impressed with how the marshmallows and vanillic aspects of the fragrance rein in the peppermint from feeling too acrid or herbal (there’s a time and place for that, but not in The Comfort Zone). I also love the rather large, well-made vessel that can ostensibly be used as a catchall or salt cellar after the candle’s burned out, though I’ve been burning it a few hours a day for over a week and it’s still 2/3 full. Paddywax seems to be a good brand for quality scented candles in cool reusable vessels that don’t venture far above $30, which is pretty much my cap for what I’ll consider paying for a candle (and the sales are great, obviously!).
The day after The Bad Stuff went down, I picked up the D.S. and Durga sample pack because I was just so distraught I needed to smell something new to ground myself. My favorite of the bunch was Pistachio—oily in a good way, nutty of course, but mostly the ambient smell you get when you want your nose over a container of ice cream—maybe it’s freezer burn, but it melds really nicely with my skin!
