Letter #29: Release Myself
I saw these and thought of you 🧡
January is a reliably bleak month, in my opinion. Everyone’s pretty skint after Christmas, it’s dark and cold, and everything just feels a bit flat. But do you know what makes a totally terrible month even worse? Moving house! If you’re bored of hearing about my move, just imagine how bored I am of thinking about it! Thankfully it is now all done. I have moved, the new owner is in, everything is sorted. What a relief.
I am thrilled to be starting February with a clean slate, as well as the time and brain space to get back to writing. Thank you all for bearing with me while things have been a bit chaotic, I appreciate you all very much.
This month’s newsletter has a bit of everything: book recommendations; a Substack article plus a person to follow; an interesting video I think you’ll like; some music I’ve been playing to death'; articles about facial conformity, botox backlash, the impact of plastic surgery on a recipient’s children, and the rise of ‘cannibal girl’ themes; a film recommendation; and some best of 2025 beauty articles.
This month’s newsletter title is a nod to ‘Release Myself’ by Bess Atwell. I saw her supporting City and Colour many moons ago and have been a huge fan ever since. I played this song to death when it came out and I’ve recently brought it back into rotation and still love it just as much.
A bonus is the new song by Holly Humberstone, ‘To Love Somebody’ which is so great and has been stuck in my head all week.
“It all breaks down - it always does.
It all works out - it always does.”
I went to see Hamnet earlier this month and, even though - knowing the story - I was prepared to have a bit of a cry, I was not prepared for that! When the lights came up I was bent double full-on sobbing. It’s such a beautiful film: the cinematography, the way it portrays nature, the music, and obviously the actors. Jessie Buckley and the little boy that plays Hamnet in particular were absolutely incredible.
I read a really interesting article on the Allure site (‘Is The Backlash To Facial Conformity Finally Upon Us?’) that uses Jessie Buckley in Hamnet as an example of a return to ‘real’ faces in the media.
“[But] aesthetic treatments that sharpen the contours of the face—snatching the jaw, inflating the lips—to give them more contrast in photos, can reduce and distort expression.
Aesthetic interventions that reduce wrinkles and facial asymmetries like crows’-feet diminish the cues that can signal warmth, wisdom, and happiness, the very things we rely on a face to communicate.”
Obviously it’s highly unlikely that anyone currently working in Hollywood is entirely untouched by aesthetic treatments, but it was so refreshing to see a woman on the big screen who had lines and movement in her face, and was therefore better able to powerfully portray happiness, pain, and devastating loss.
I thought you’d enjoy this fascinating video from Phyllis Cohen, whose whole instagram account is worth a scroll and a follow if you’re interested in the science behind, and well-researched deep dives into, beauty:
A few books I’ve read this month that I wanted to mention, all of which are very different from each other:
The Girls by Emma Cline - Historical fiction based loosely on the Manson cult. This story goes backwards and forwards in time, following Evie from a lonely and infatuated teen who gets pulled into a cult in the summer of 1969, to the present day where she battles with the fallout of her involvement. The prose is beautiful, I found myself highlighting so many quotes - especially those that describe the pain and awkwardness of being a teenage girl.
Things We Lost In The Fire by Mariana Enriquez - A collection of horror short stories set in Argentina. I loved so many of these stories, many of which were so perfectly unsettling and creepy.
Wild Things by Laura Kay - I’m still reading this but really enjoying it. It’s a queer romcom about a group of friends who move out of London and buy a house together in the countryside. My ultimate dream is to live on a commune with my friends and a million elderly dogs, so this book is completely feeding that fantasy!
If you’re looking for more book recommendations, did you see the article I published with all 166 books I read last year? There are some great recommendations in there…
If you’re looking for more people to follow here on Substack and are interested in beauty, I think you’ll love ‘Not Fucking Invited’. Written by the lovely Tor, a beauty editor, it’s an honest (sometimes probably too honest!) look at the beauty industry, with all its glamour, glory, flaws, and nonsense.
This article in particular is an interesting look at the way brands are using shame and embarrassment to push us to chase trends and spend more money:
Some other articles I saved this month that I think you’d like to read: ‘No, You Don’t Need Botox’ by Hannah Coates on Substack; ‘Is The Cannibal Girl Trend Just Diet Culture In Disguise?’ by Sithara Ranasinghe for Teen Vogue; and ‘I Want A New Face But My Kids Have My Old One’ by Sara Tan for Harper’s Bazaar.
This month I wrote a couple of articles with my ‘Best of Beauty 2025’ summaries. The first covered skin, body, hair, and perfume which you can find here:
And the second part - covering make up (featuring a video where I show the products in action and natter to you about them) - can be found here:
I hope that January was a gentle and soft start to your 2026.
Thank you for being here with me, it’s such a pleasure to put these newsletters together for you.
