February Hot Thoughts
My pre-wedding beauty plan, analyzing color analysis, and an under-the-radar aesthetic movie I really enjoyed.
Hot thoughts is here — a collection of mini essays and abridged ideas including shopping recs, personal updates, and more.
Happy end of February, the days are finally getting longer, it’s just warm-ish enough to run outside again, and what’s felt like months of being personally terrorized by the weather is finally coming to an end.
While I’ve been tackling some long term non-writing projects lately, I’ll try to keep up with sharing my contributor column for Marie Claire. This month I’m talking about the Sportif trend. For L’Officiel’s December issue I collected travel inspo from friends like Erika Veurink, Kirsty Godso, and jamie at lazy jamie along with Misty Copeland and Paul Feig (who had to change his travel plans on The Orient Express due to commitments for The Housemaid). Lots of travel inspo to bank for later!
Anyways, I’ll keep it short in honor of this short little month, and get into what’s been on my mind.
1. Wearing: Spring Colors
Colors for spring, revolutionary! In all seriousness, after many months in heavy black coats I’m wriggling for a chance to put on something a little more playful, maybe even skip a coat. At a recent Levi’s event I did a color analysis. I’ve seen them all over social media and while I was skeptical, I sat down and let a stranger throw bolts of fabric over my chest and tell me that asparagus green made my under-eye circles look worse, but peach gives me a nice little glow. I was typed as a “Soft Autumn,” aka muted, warm tones. Honestly, I’m not sure if I buy it. (See fruit-inspired notes of persimmon and lemon above for proof!)
Yes, when I put on a full neon outfit, I look a little pallid, but the way you style color is so much more important than the color itself. I was excited to see all the color-mixing on the NYFW runways this season, and I think we’ll see even more bright-on-bright as the months go on, experts be damned.
More on my colorful shopping list:
Tory Burch Layered Sweater (
$550, $329)Doen Amorette Dress ($458)
Auralee Tank Top (
$240, $142)
2. Reading: Trying by Chloe Caldwell
This book came as a recommendation, and I went into it blind only to find that it mentions people I know personally (Hi Haley Nahman!) and gets very down and dirty about conceiving and motherhood in a way that made me both dread reading it and continue to turn the pages. At 35, I’m surrounded by people considering, or entering into their own journeys of motherhood, which means that despite avoiding the topic through my twenties and early thirties, it’s now circling my psyche. Men think about the Roman Empire, women think about babies! This read was jaunty and quick, which I appreciate, but still left me with a lot to chew on.
3. Watching: The Assessment
I’m accidentally co-signing a lot of traumatic parental-adjacent content this month, so I apologize in advance. A friend pointed out to me that I’ve already seen all 10 of the Best Picture Oscar nominees, the last one was The Secret Agent, and my favorite of which was probably Sentimental Value. This month’s chaotic watch list also included If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (amazing, and I hope to never watch it again), and No Country For Old Men (am I ok?), but for those that love a good looking movie, might I recommend The Assessment, a weird and beautiful sci-film that came out in 2024 and centers on a couple in the future being tested for their right to have a child. In some ways it’s more style than substance, but there was still enough to chew on plot wise that at the end I wanted more.
4. Recommending: My Wedding Registry
The folks over at Vogue were kind enough to ask me for my (and Dylan’s) wedding registry recommendations alongside some extremely chic future brides like Jenny Walton and Patricia Voto. My take: “I see a wedding as a fun opportunity to ask for things that are naughtily indulgent—I’m too practical to buy them for myself.” Like many millennials, I’ve lived with my partner for a few years now, and figuring out what to put on our registry was tough, we own what we need, and we don’t have space for much else. Our solution was to ask for upgrades like Heath Ceramics plates, a rug from Beni, a new camping tent, and more! I’m taking suggestions if anyone got something life changing from theirs.
Included on our list:
Heath Cermaics Set ($178)
East Fork Flatware ($88)
Akua Objects Glassware ($360)
A custom Bode pillow ($390)
5. Working On: The Campsite Rule
In the midst of a volatile job market, a big project of mine is wrapping up next month because of budget constraints (hire me!). I tend to get a little panicked when my calendar is suddenly wide open, and it’s always frustrating to leave something unfinished, but having recently gone back to therapy and working on my habit of spinning out about things, I’ve been turning over this simple rule I learned as a kid and avid camper. Leave Things In A Better Place Than You Found Them. I love to feel in control of things, and the honest to god truth is that I control nothing, so I like the idea of obsessing less over the outcome of something and more about this simple question: is it better than when I first arrived? It applies to my imperfect leaky apartment that drives me nuts, shoveling snow for my neighbor during the last snowstorm, and yes, saying goodbye to work that I felt passionate about, too.
6. Traveling To: Tucson
At the start of the month, I was wrapping my week at the gem show in Tucson, where I hit up the usual favorites, but also had the chance to try out some new things — like Amelia’s, where the chef was a 2025 James Beard finalist, and Time Market where I ate an insanely good curry turkey sandwich, paired with the elite sparkling water (yes, better than Topo Chico) Aqua de Piedra. While I love visiting new places, I’ve enjoyed making the same trip down these last three years, getting to know the ins and outs of the city, and having places I’m excited to revisit.
While there, my Montana Sapphire guy turned me onto Yogo Sapphires, which are tiny, rare, and cornflower blue (potential wedding band fodder?). I also learned from our friend Murph, who sells petrified wood slabs, that his house in Oregon sits uphill from Phil Knight’s, and he says confused billionaires are frequently asking about how a rock guy has acreage there. The answer: get in early (too late for us millennials)!
Lastly, since I downloaded the Merlin app last year, hiking, which I already love, has gotten infinitely more fun because it’s also become a chance to collect birdsongs like they’re Pokemon. My rare finds this trip were a Loggerhead Shrike and a Crissal Thrasher while on our early morning walks in Sabino Canyon.
7. Talking About: Pre-Wedding Beauty Routine
Historically, I’m a bit of a lazy beauty person, but in the lead-up to the wedding, I’ve been trying to button things up a bit. I’ve wrapped two BBL appointments (the face laser people!) with my amazing derm Marie (a fellow Berkeley grad!). I’ve actually booked out 3-month appointments with my colorist Lucille (I usually roll in every 8 or 9 months) and my botox injector. I’m doubling down on my still-simple routine of Vitamin-C, tret, sunscreen, and moisturizer. I’m planning facials with Karine Kazarian. I’m testing scents (Dylan and I both like the earthy, cypress scent of Aesop’s Hwyl, it reminds me of Sea Ranch.) I’m tapping my beauty editor friends (Hannah Baxter!!) for more realistic beauty to-dos, and trying to settle on my makeup and hair for the big day. I’m not quite at laura reilly’s level of commitment, no peptides for me!
officially adding the assessment to my watchlist list (aka i know what i’ll be doing tonight). also LOVED sentimental value and hope to never see if i had let’s i’d kick you again (even though it’s brilliantly done lol)