#75: A Bridal Beauty Progress Report
A neurotic deep dive + my April movie log.
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Hello from the other end of a very restorative Easter weekend: I napped (as a non-napper this is news, albeit to me alone); I baked (Rick Stein’s rhubarb galette Chez Panisse, though in retrospect I should’ve poked holes in the tart dough); I played with the world’s cutest baby; I drank lots of milky tea and red wine.
Miscellaneous edible heavens
Among other delicious things, like Ivan’s dad’s saffron-laced Persian rice cake (Tahchin), Ottolenghi’s lamb shawarma was Easter lunch. I think it was the best lamb Ivan and I have ever cooked, and we didn’t even marinade it ahead of time. Recipe here.
At Gorka’s now-ended Carousel stint, they served mackerel with roasted grapes, and I took a mental note to do the same—I fully thought the grapes were very delicious tomatoes. If you missed it, George and George (Gorka is George in Basque) are doing a bunch of pop-ups throughout London this summer; I’d follow them on Instagram so as to not miss the next one.
If you can find them, it seems one is never at a loss with tempting (and just off-kilter enough) Bret’s crisps flavours. We bought a bag of yakitori at a farm shop, which were inhaled by the group in 5 mins. I am very curious about mustard; pastis; salted butter…and of course, all the cheesy options.
My April film diet: a recap
Watched a good number of in-air movies earlier this month: Conclave (Gossip! Papal red! Milan green! A stern Isabella Rossellini!) ; Godfather III Coda (I hadn’t seen the original cut, and I had a great time. Sofia Coppola isn’t that hard to watch—she had a great head of hair); Raiders of the Lost Ark (it’s still hard to fathom that Harrison Ford was both Indiana Jones and Han Solo); Keira’s Pride and Prejudice (I’d forgotten how funny it is).
Over Easter we watched Double Indemnity, which took me a beat to realise I’d already seen; my brain feels like a sieve when it comes to movies and books. But how great is this look on Barbara Stanwyck in the final grocery store rendezvous?
Infernal Affairs was another Easter re-watch. Sunglasses are an unexpected through line here as it reminded me of Hong Kong’s early 2000’s penchant for tinted frames à la Paris Hilton.
See singer Kelly Chen (who happens to play Tony Leung’s therapist in arguably the film’s most superfluous storyline) at the 2004 funeral of Hong Kong screen and stage icon Anita Mui. I know Cecilia Cheung’s frames aren’t technically tinted but I couldn’t not include this photo of her—HK celebrities don’t do it like this anymore.
No tinted eyewear here, but I recently did a girls’ movie night at Yasmin’s. We watched How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies after polishing off a perfect bowl of Khao Soi (my first ever, to my shame, though I’m now inspired to recreate). As someone grappling with Moving Away Guilt (and whose grandma honestly resembles Usa Semkhum), the film pushed all the right buttons and rendered us both—but me, the chronic cry baby, especially—puffy-eyed messes. It’s on Netflix if you’re after a good sob.
Bridal beauty so far
Now, onto the main event! In this newsletter I polled you about bridal beauty content, and most of you voted for an update before the fact. The below should catch you up.
My sister is doing my makeup for my wedding in August, which is not only less expensive and more fun, but makes it easier for me to be my neurotic self. Though I’m not especially great at make-up—especially in the age of the Sephora Tween—I have lots of opinions about what is applied to my face and how it’s done. I’m a joy, I promise.
The fun thing about doing your own/having a loved one do your wedding makeup is that not only can you shop in the name of research, but you get to keep both the stuff and the skills. Some people would rather hand over the whole process to a trained pro, but I had months to spare for trial and error and —thanks to my job—access to really good products.
Dare to venture below the paywall for my resolutions; my inspirations; what changed post-trial; my learnings; and my product list so far. It’s a chunky one.
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