A/W 2025 Beauty Recs, Productivity and Plans

I had a nice summer. Not an amazing summer as I didn't take a vacation, and instead was glued to my desk prepping to launch 39BC but a nice one. Pottering around between work, laying in the garden, wearing clogs and no make up.

So I think the intensity of September starting almost immediately on the first of the month knocked me sideways and as is typical for us workaholics, I got sick. First with severe shoulder and back pain (linked to previous panic attacks) and then so run down I missed the Elle Style Awards, which I was so looking forward to.

I’m currently writing this from Paris, where I'm excited to be on a panel for Back Market - where I buy all my tech from including the discontinued 12-inch MacBook Air I’m writing this newsletter on, as well as sneak in a visit to the Cleopatra exhibition at the Arab Institute. I used to not have a good time in Paris, but now it’s finally grown on me and I love it.

So this A/W my travel includes:

→ Paris (for Back Market talk & Cleopatra Exhbition)

→ Switzerland (for the Grand Hotel Belvedere, Wengen)

→ Turkey (for Female Samurai Training)

→ Senegal (come with me?)

→ Possibly Japan

Not to mention all the trains in between. I am a little sniffly from the travel already, so to begin this A/W 2025 line up of recommendations, I'm starting with health.

After the paywall, I'm playing catch-up on the much missed Monday Muse series with loads of recommendations of everything I'm using, liking, taking this winter. Enjoy!

Diary & Health

So the first thing I did this season was sit down with my entire calendar from Sept 1st - Dec 31st and fine-tune where I would be every single day. I do this across a wall chart, a desk calendar, my Smythson diary and my Google Calendar, synced across all devices. This allows me to see where my energy is going and also preempt when it's going to falter.

For A/W this is a major unlock. It's the season of travel, parties, work, and then holiday family commitments, and I like to be prepped. Nothing brings on exhaustion more than not having everything under control.

Here's an example of my 2024 season, and honestly, this year is worse. I had to make a NOTES list of just where I would be every day, it was that bad. (No I do not have a PA).

From here I can start to plot in my health as follows: