Letter #33: Warm Enough
Music! Books! Articles! Rosacea recommendations! General waffling!
This month has been a lot.
You may have noticed it has been quiet around here, and that’s because - to be honest - I have felt completely overwhelmed with everything that life is throwing at me. My dad is still not home after being hit by a car (although he was finally moved from the hospital to an assisted living facility and will hopefully be coming home this week). Douglas had a really big surgery which was stressful and upsetting. The divorce proceedings have begun. And on top of all that (because of all that?) I’ve been feeling totally creatively drained, but also feeling incredibly guilty for not posting or sharing anything online.
As I said, it’s been a lot. But things are looking brighter. I’m really trying to cling onto the good days (or good moments in bad days). So thank you for sticking with me.
Let’s jump into this month’s newsletter, filled with things that I liked or that engaged my brain. I think they’ll do the same for you…
This month’s newsletter is named after the song Warm Enough by Hannah Cole. You can listen to it below. It’s also been added to my Rosacea Club playlist, where you can find all of the songs I’ve recommended, here.
I’ve also been listening to HEAVENLY FATHER (his capitals, not mine!) by Bon Iver. I’ve been a fan since 2008, his voice just scratches a part of my brain.
It’s been revoltingly warm in the UK recently. Which means it’s officially iced coffee season. There’s a prevalent belief that caffeine is a rosacea trigger, but actually it’s the temperature of drinks that is often a trigger. Excellent news for those of you who have been avoiding coffee as you’ve read that it’s a rosacea trigger! (*disclaimer below)
I make my own iced coffees at home and I have a few recommendations for you to try:
The first is the Nescafe Iced Coffee Espresso Concentrate. Each bottle makes 16 servings, so it’s a really handy thing to have in the fridge for a quick drink. I’ve tried a few of them - Vanilla, Classic, and currently I’m drinking the Decaf on, so I can enjoy it in the afternoons without disturbing my sleep.
The second is Overherd Powdered Oat Milk. The regular oat milk you buy is 90% water, so Overherd have found a way to make the whole thing easier, less wasteful, and more sustainable. You mix the powder into water and voila! I use it for my iced coffee by adding this to the Nescafe concentrate above, plus water, and ice, and I wouldn’t know the difference from regular oat milk. A single bag makes 4 litres of oat milk.
*Obviously there are exceptions, as with everything. If you’ve isolated caffeine (e.g. tried various different ways of consuming caffeinated drinks, removed all other potential triggers like dairy, sugar etc.) and found that it definitely is a trigger for you, then common sense would dictate that you should continue to avoid it. But for most people, it’s the temperature that’s the issue.
I bought a Cooling Pillow on a whim and I’m now wondering how I lived without it. If you struggle with being too warm in bed (whether that’s due to rosacea, peri/menopause, general UK summer overheating, or a lovely combination of all three) I highly recommend you try this out. It’s a slim gel-filled pillow that you just slip inside your pillowcase and it feels so cooling on the skin.
It self-cools so you don’t need to put it in the fridge before use (but you can, if you want a really cold pillow). It does get warm after you’ve been lying on it for a while, but I just turn the whole pillow 180 degrees, and use the cooler other half. By the time that side has warmed up, I just spin it again!
You can check it out HERE.
I read 18 books this month, some were fantastic. Some were truly terrible. Here are a few of the best.
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Yes, along with everyone else and their grandma, I read Yesteryear. A hugely popular and financially successful ‘trad wife’ influencer who preaches simple living, traditional family values, and a life of hard farm work and domesticity wakes up in 1855. It’s her farm, her husband, her life… but not her life. I don’t know if it was the intense hype surrounding it, but this didn’t live up to my high expectations. I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the latter half. The main character is deliciously unlikeable, the commentary on influencer culture, trad wives, gender roles, and politics were interesting but I just wish they had gone a bit deeper with all of it. Anne Hathaway has apparently already optioned it for a film so be prepared for this to be everywhere this year as well as next!
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. This is a lovely book narrated by an elderly woman, a young man, and an octopus. I dreamt about it, I cried, I loved it. It’s also been made into a Netflix film which I haven’t seen yet, but if you have tell me if it’s worth watching!
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe. This is a non-fiction book covering the tragic death of a young boy who fell from a luxury high-rise balcony in central London. It’s an in-depth investigation, with fascinating background details that seem unconnected until they merge together.
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann. This is an atmospheric, claustrophobic, and unsettling novella. A writer rents a house in the mountains in Germany, with his wife and young child, to focus on finishing his overdue screenplay. The tension and dread build as he experiences strange occurrences and his paranoia increases. (I’ve only just seen that this has also been made into a film with Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried… that seems to be a theme this month!)
WRITING
In case you missed it, there were two new articles on Rosacea Club this month:
An article all about laser and rosacea, with expert advice and tips from the wonderful Dr Anjali Mahto, which you can find here:
May’s Q&A post, where I’ve already had some great questions. Why not have a nosey and see if you can share any wisdom with the community there? Together, we must be the biggest and most informed rosacea community in the world, so it would be great for us to share that more!
This post from the American Association of Dermatologists made me laugh. Click through to see all the slides.
My screen time has been drastically down this month, but I’ve still collected a few links and things I think you’d enjoy or find interesting.
I flipping love Lily O’Farrell - you’ve probably seen her art online as she regularly goes viral with her takes on feminism, misogyny, and dating. Her Substack is a great one to follow if you like deep dives into interesting topics with a feminist and online focus. Her recent article about botox ('To Botox Or Not To Botox’) was really thought-provoking, while this article (‘The Masculinity Grift And Meta Smart Glasses’) left me furious and stunned in equal measure.
‘How Tech Turned Against Women’ by Laura Bates is a fascinating article if you are interested in technology, AI in particular, and how it's rise impacts women. You have to register to read it but there’s no charge to do so. Laura Bates wrote ‘Men Who Hate Women’ (which I recommended in 2022, all about the rise of the manosphere) and ‘Fix The System, Not The Women’, which I read in 2023, which covers anti-women bias in education, politics, media, policing, and criminal justice).
I’ve recommending Zeynab Mohamed’s Substack, Face Value, before but am strongly recommending it again. Her recent article - ‘Have We Lost Our Make Up Taste?’ - spoke about something I’ve pondered on for a while. Do people have personal taste anymore? Do we rely so heavily on trends and the feed that we no longer trust our own judgement?
Ever wonder why social media will suddenly be flooded with clips of a new show? Or posts about a certain celebrity? Or brand launch? It’s because ‘The Feed Is Fake’. (paywalled but have a look around to see if anyone’s sharing a gift link, it’s worth it for how eye-opening this article is. It will completely change the way you view social media and viral content!)
The discourse around the Met Gala celebrity looks was vast and detailed, but one of the most interesting discussions I saw was this one about Bad Bunny and his ‘old age costume’: ‘Bad Bunny’s Old Age Make Up Is A Real Hit. Real Ageing? Far Less Popular’.
If you’re not an alcohol drinker, or limit your alcohol intake because it’s a rosacea trigger for you, I have a really easy mocktail idea for you:
Tanqueray Flor De Sevilla Alcohol-Free Spirit 0% (currently £11 HERE)
Fever-Tree Rhubarb & Raspberry Tonic Water (HERE)
Frozen orange slices
Tons of ice
Let me know if you’d like to see more alcohol-free/low-alcohol ideas, I have loads of delicious ones I’d love to share with you!
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. I’m really really hoping that June is a less hectic month, and that I can pop my head in here more often. I have lots of draft posts in the works (Updated summer skincare routine! More ‘my rosacea 3’ interviews! Sunscreen reviews! Base product recommendations!) but just need a few days to sit and focus on them.
Thank you for being here.
I read Yesteryear and the bookseller description of the plot is pretty deceptive (about the time travel). Every character, except the children, is dreadful and completely unlikable; there was absolutely no one to root for, except the kids to get away from all these horrible adults. It’s so relentless it’s almost parody. And it’s all very depressing. Even before I got to the past section, I was skimming. So you’re not alone, Lex, and tons of Amazon customer reviews agree with us. The writing itself is good, the only positive thing I can say about it.
I’m sorry you’ve been having such a tough time and hope things look up for you to have a nice summer. I appreciate all you do.
Thank you so much!!!