This is the only store-bought hot chocolate mix I recognize

After trying a bunch of store-bought hot chocolate mixes last year and being extremely disappointed by all of them, my gf and I finally came across one that we ended up loving: Lake Champlain traditional hot chocolate mix.

I meant to write about it at the time, but never got around to it — and then remembered yesterday, when I came across the pics on my phone. It’s just, like, a perfect classic hot chocolate that you make with hot milk.

We discovered it at Whole Foods, but ordered more directly from the Lake Champlain website (where it’s $13 for 16 ounces). It’s also available from Amazon ($14.22 for 16 ounces).

And if you want to make something from scratch, my friend Jess’s hot chocolate recipe has been my go-to for years! I’ve actually got plans to make it (minus the booze, because I can currently only handle a thimble full of liquor) this weekend. ☃️

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Extremely good shit: IKEA Fado lamp

IKEA Lisabo side table, Mimi Ceramics planter, Poketo coaster

As the days get shorter and we prepare for a long winter at home, I’m getting very into lighting! I come to you with two strong recs in this department: unscented taper candles, and, today, the $25 IKEA Fado lamp.

I cannot say enough good things about this lamp, which my girlfriend brought into my life last year. It looks so nice and creates a soft, glowy, warm, cozy light. It also really pulls its weight, brightening up dark spaces without being too harsh.

It was actually impossible to get the Fado in Brooklyn for a while this spring/summer, but I kept checking the website regularly and they eventually returned — so we were able to buy two more, bringing our total to four (two in the living room, two in the bedroom). Other friends have mentioned the same thing happening in other cities recently, but they were also able to get them eventually, so don’t give up if it appears to be out of stock where you live.

The Fado comes with a perfectly good bulb, but if you want to take it to the next level, I recommend the Yeelight multicolor smart LED bulb ($32.99 on Amazon). We have two of these, and have been really happy with them. You can use the app that goes with it to choose the exact shade of white and brightness you want, and/or easily turn the bulb whatever color you want. (My friend Devin sold me on this idea, and now I’m very into it, especially for movie nights. I recommend a pink shade, personally.)

Other lighting-related odds and ends:

• While poking around Tradera (a Swedish version of eBay) this summer, my gf came across the IKEA Lykta lamp, which they no longer produce. It originally came in a bunch of colors; we tracked down a Barbie–fuchsia one on eBay, and absolutely love it. While the color is fairly aggro, it’s balanced by the fact that the lamp is so small. And when it’s on, it looks very much like the wax in a lava lamp, mid-bloop. It’s very flirty!!!

• The Room Essentials G40 clear globes from Target ($12 for a 20-ct. string) are my all-time favorite indoor/outdoor string lights.

• Good floor lamps are hard to find, but Article now has an orb floor lamp (floorb?) that looks pretty nice.

• I’m into IKEA's $12 Tokabo table lamp, which seems like it might be the new Lykta. The lamp’s designer said, “I see TOKABO table lamp as a cute little friend who fits anywhere, on the smallest shelf or table top.” A cute little friend!!! I love it. 💡

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The girlfriend hoodie

My girlfriend, her hoodie, and my dog

It’s cozy season, so it seems like a good time to plug the Gap Vintage Soft Carbonized Pullover Hoodie, which I’m a big fan of. It’s super soft and just the right weight; the creamy color is perfect; the fit is great (not too baggy/bulky, but not too slim either); it’s held up well in the wash; and it looks fairly polished. I am not really a hoodie person, but I love this sweatshirt.

It’s technically a men’s hoodie—my friend Devin owns two in black (“and that’s not even enough” he told me), and it looks great on him too. But my girlfriend was actually the one who first discovered it; she bought it for herself right before Valentine’s Day last year…in part, she said, because she knew I’d like it on her. She was right; I liked it so much that I bought one for myself! We now have four of them between us. (There was a sale, and having a backup of a beloved item is just practical!!!) My favorite way to wear it is with white Lou & Grey soft pants and cozy socks, or with white or blue Levi’s. 

Thinking about this hoodie, the other clothes I’ve discovered via my girlfriend, and the items from the men’s department that I own and love, I was reminded of the 2016 Racked article “The Presumptions of ‘Boyfriend’ Clothes”:

“The idea that men and women are supposed to be certain sizes in relation and proportion to one another is reinforced by boyfriend clothing. Images of heterosexual relationships almost invariably show a woman so small she is swallowed up by her boyfriend’s clothes. All my life I’ve worked to shake the idea that my relationships don’t count because they have not looked like this. But what the boyfriend shirt is selling is that very idea, love defined by comparative body size.

Women wear, and always have worn, masculine clothing for myriad reasons, reasons to do with identity and reasons that have nothing to do with identity, reasons to do with gender and reasons that have nothing to do with gender, and reasons to do with the fact the men’s clothes have pockets far more often than women’s clothes do. I might buy a men’s shirt for a million reasons that have nothing to do with a man.”

Buy it for yourself, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, or your partner from Gap for $35. (Available in sizes XS-XXXL and eight different colors; for reference, I own the size small.)

Related: Hanes tees and girlfriend shorts. ✨

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Everything I'm doing to be the moistest woman in Brooklyn this winter

“Slugs must always be moist, or they can die from desiccation. Desiccation occurs when something gets extremely dry and starts to shrivel and crack. When slugs move around, they must protect their body and avoid dryness by always producing slime.” —Sciencing

Same…except I can’t produce my own slime, so here we are!

Even though I love winter and feel, generally speaking, like I have the appropriate gear to make the season not just bearable but actually enjoyable, I still tend to find myself shocked by how dry it gets every single year. I’ve finally started to do a better job of properly preventing/treating dryness and am feeling very good heading into this winter. Here’s what I’m using…

Face

My girlfriend got very into skincare this year, which has been great for both of us. My face doesn’t get terribly dry in the winter, but a couple of her products have made a noticeable difference in how bright/glowy/soft my skin looks, and how moist it actually feels in cold and dry weather. I’ve been using two products in the morning after I get out of the shower: first, I pat on Cosrx Galactomyces 95 Tone Balancing Essence ($16.30 on Amazon), which I’m told is a very good SK-II Facial Treatment Essence dupe. It’s super thin/watery and I always think it’s not doing much, but then I follow it up with a couple dabs of Cosrx Hyaluronic Acid Intensive Cream ($14.60 on Amazon). This moisturizer has the best pudding-like texture. It feels amazing, and there’s something about the combination of the two products that has really been working for me (especially when I also jade roll).

I also love this Radha Beauty rosehip oil ($14.95 on Amazon) and actually need to order some more; it’s a great one-stop skincare product, and I occasionally use it as a cuticle oil too.

Hands

My hands get very red/scaly in the winter if I’m not careful…but so many widely beloved hand creams are greasy and bad! Last year, I started using O'Keeffe's Working Hands Hand Cream ($12.95 for a pack of two tubes on Amazon) and it’s great. It’s not terribly greasy, it soaks in quickly, and it just…works. I’ve also found that using cuticle oil regularly goes a long way; I like CND Essentials Solar Oil ($8.50 on Amazon).

Part of the reason my hands get so bad is because I have Raynaud’s, which makes my hands and feet incredibly cold; if I want them to look good, I have to do my best to keep them warm. I think wearing gloves is kind of a pain in the ass (I’m constantly misplacing one or both of them), but I have two pairs to recommend: first, my doctor told me that I should wear fingerless compression gloves indoors ($14.99 on Amazon), and they really do help my hands feel/look better. I don’t wear them all day, every day, but I pretty much always wear them at night in the winter, and it makes a difference.

When I’m outside, I’m wearing J. Crew’s men’s wool smartphone gloves ($59.50, but can pretty easily be bought on sale), which are so warm and cozy and make me feel like a dad coming back home with a Christmas tree for the family. While these are smartphone gloves, I actually don’t think they allow for enough dexterity needed to, say, text while wearing them, but I don’t think most smartphone gloves do that, and I’m OK with that in this case because these gloves are so nice.

Body

Instead of trying to find the perfect body lotion, I’m just committing to applying a lotion regularly before bed. Right now, that’s Aveeno, but it could just as easily be CeraVe or Cetaphil. I also have two fancier lotions in the rotaysh. The first is Blank from the Hoxton Hotel, which you can buy in their gift shop; it’s one of those fragrances that everyone who tries it/smells it loves. The other is Aesop’s Rind Concentrate Body Balm, which was a gift from my gf. Both lotions work for hands and body, and smell so nice and feel so special that they make it easier for me to talk myself into moisturizing when I don’t feel like it.

Home

The big addition to my routine this year is the Honeywell Designer Series Cool Mist Humidifier ($65.99 on Amazon). It’s not small (most humidifiers that pump out mist longer than a few hours aren’t) but it’s also not, like, a big boxy fish tank either.

My goal is to be so well-gooed that anyone less than sopping feels inclined to throw salt on me. If you see me plodding around Brooklyn on a trail of mucus this winter, you’ll know I’ve succeeded. 💦

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