Easy pasta, summer poetry and heavenly oils.
Is this only time you will ever see me recommend jarred pasta sauce? Yes.
Hello, it’s great to
see you here
Editor – Phoebe Tully
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In my final edition for the year, I’m all for keeping things simple.
There’s the only jarred sauce I would ever buy, there’s oil fragrances, there’s summery suggestions for your holidays. There’s a faint whiff of the overdone, as always, and there’s a recipe for the most delicious granola you’ll ever come across – and one that happens to be perfect for the Christmas season.
Thank you to the hundred or so people who have subscribed to this little newsletter in the past three months! I hope it’s added a few delights to your week and inspired your weekend plans. And if you think someone you love would also enjoy, please do send them a link!
I’m very much looking forward to seeing you again in January with a whole new set of Small Things to make every day just that bit more special. Thank you for your support, and I’ll see you again soon.
Oil things being equal.
As a teenager, I didn’t consider myself dressed without a couple of spritzes of Miss Dior Cherie, but as an adult I sort of fell off the fragrance bandwagon.
I think this partly happened when I worked with a natural beauty client in my very early 20s, and she explained how the perfume industry is largely unregulated and that maybe spraying chemicals onto your skin every day wasn’t a great idea.
Now look, I am absolutely no purist when it comes to what I put in and on my body, but the comment obviously stuck with me as I didn’t buy perfume for the best part of a decade.
I’ve been looking into oil fragrances recently, and some of my current intrigues include:
Australian brand One Seed offers discovery packs ($) so you can test a few and see which ones you love best.
Byredo offers roll-on fragranced oil versions ($$) of some of its most popular eau de parfums.
Amacyn offers vegan-certified, organic perfume oils ($$$) using Australian native plant extracts.
As with Byredo, Le Labo also offers oil versions ($$$) of its traditional line of parfums, which can you have refilled.
Aesop’s hydrating face oil ($$) is not technically a perfume, but its notes of juniper, ylang ylang and jasmine are so beautiful, I consider it a win-win.
When seeking out “natural” anything, a word that’s totally unregulated, it’s worth asking yourself what’s important to you – such as being alcohol-free, using organic ingredients or vegan-only – when making your decisions. (Here’s a good summary of the key terms you may want to consider.)
Saturday Night Pasta.
Lizzie Hewson of Saturday Night Pasta has partnered up with Archie Rose to develop the Dirty Martini Pasta Sauce and the Saturday Night Pasta Pipette ($). I am DYING for a Brisbane stockist soon.
Both the sauce and the dried pasta have been created with such love, such attention to detail, and in support of so many small Australian producers it feels rude not to have a few of these in the cupboard ready to go after Christmas festivities.
I’m also going to assume it makes a delicious 1.00am feast on 1 January. Will let you know.
DO | toast tomorrow’s summer solstice with Sea Breezes and Walt Whitman's Songs of Myself:
Press close bare-bosom’d night—press close magnetic nourishing night!
Night of south winds—night of the large few stars!
Still nodding night—mad naked summer night.
MAKE | a Christmasy granola with plenty of spices, crunch and compulsory vanilla-bean yoghurt.
READ | A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams
LISTEN | Merry Christmas Baby – Otis Redding