It is chocolate season 🐇🍫
Catch up reading
Trace’s edits
Loco Love Hazelnut Hares
I saw these the other day and perhaps regretfully, passed on not taking a box home, so I am hoping to find some tomorrow. Each hare is meticulously filled with a ganache made from slow-roasted hazelnuts—encased in a 70% dark chocolate shell. And as per all Loco Love creations, these hares are entirely organic, and the packaging is home compostable.
Horace Exfoliating Soap Bar
I recently started laser hair removal, and five days in, you really need to exfoliate—help with the purge and this soap looks like it would deliver an optimal level of abrasion. These super fatty bars are crafted in France and do not contain palm (they are coconut-based), parabens, mineral oils or sulfates. If you are in Australia or Aotearoa, you will find these online at Mecca.
LE17SEPTEMBRE Freya Pleats Scrunchie
Inspired by traditional Korean architecture and design, this Seoul-based label manages small production runs, producing high-quality pieces that are comfortable but dressy. If your budget does not stretch to include ready-to-wear, like me, you can start with the scrunchie. Also available at SSENSE.
APFR x PPHH Incense Sticks—Gertrude
I’m currently burning exclusively This Is Incense, but this weekend, I will make the trip to PPHH to pick up their limited edition incense. Called Gertrude, fittingly because their store is on Gertrude Street. Described as an interpretation of their store and surroundings—citing citrus, clove, jasmine, musk, osmanthus, rose, and sandalwood—I think they are going to smell really good.
Aesop Eleos Nourishing Body Cleanser
I use a lot of Aesop products across the range, skin, body and home and I am excited to try this body cleanser. Everything Aesop smells great, so my shower also smells great. Refills are available.
Sun and Daughter SPF50+ Mineral Sunscreen For Babies & Children
This popped up in Google Shopping while I was searching for Zoca Lotion, and I thought to share this as Amandine had mentioned that very young humans need specific sunscreen. This one is safe for everyone, including pregnant and nursing mothers and babies over six months.
Arne Jacobsen cutlery
The other night, I watched Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for the first time (kind of embarrassing) and instantly recognised the futuristic stainless steel cutlery used by the Jupiter Mission crew as the Arne Jacobsen pieces, designed a decade prior. I have always been partial to Arne Jacobsen, so it would make sense as I have many bar and serveware pieces already. How’s your cutlery drawer looking?
Tekla x SSENSE
This exclusive capsule knocks straightforward towelling out of the park and introduces a grey, off-white, navy and brown that will make a welcome contribution to your bathroom.
Baserange has expanded into home
And I am very excited. I recently purchased several Autumn Sonata towels (mentioned in our July 2024 curation newsletter) but these Waffle Kitchen Towels, Terry Wash Cloths, Linen Kitchen Towels, Food Bags and Den Pillowcases are next. All organic cotton and linen, made in Turkey.
Kye Intimates’ SS25 collection
Offering low-backed sleeveless tops and long sleeves in the bateau style, plus a matching pull-on skirt, all in soft bamboo fabric. Very wearable pieces to add into rotation. This collection is dyed in Los Angeles using low-energy, non-toxic, lead-free and azo-free dye. Select pieces are also on sale.
Amandine’s edits
The rewilded golf courses teeming with life, by Jocelyn Timperley
I profoundly dislike golf, particularly for the impact of golf courses on the environment, promoting “dead nature” and phytosanitary products to be maintained. So, I was pleased to discover the amazing stories of abandoned golf courses being rewilded and the many benefits it brings to the local ecosystem and communities. Timperley’s piece for the BBC is another testimony that we are better without them and how resilient nature is.
100 Years Ago, IBM Was Born, by James W. Cortada
Computers and their corresponding corporations have been around long enough so researchers and journalists can start drawing a history of their “life”. Last year, the grand-father (or mother?) of most, IBM, celebrated its one hundred years of existence and Cortada’s article, adapted from its book “IBM: The Rise and Fall and Reinvention of a Global Icon”, is a compilation of that substantial history, highlighting its impact, the birth of corporate culture and how the world of IT has been there more time than we could think.
Meat and dairy industry giants hold the plant power behind many vegan brands, by Benjamin Selwyn
A quick read that I saved last year, shedding light on the involvement of food corporations in the Veganuary campaign as they push for their plant-based alternatives. Selwyn’s piece for The Conversation also looks at ways to support a respectful (to others and the planet) food production system. If, like me, you occasionally consume alternative proteins, we need to double down on paying attention to who we are funding through our purchase. I won’t touch brands such as Alpro or Garden Gourmet as Danone and Nestlé own them. Having the environment at heart also involves ethics, and corporations are not driven by care but by profits.
Food Empowerment Project collective
Following up on the previous article, Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) is the kind of initiative to support actively and that counterbalances the grasp of Big Food. F.E.P. is a multicultural vegan food justice organisation encouraging healthy food choices for a more compassionate society towards animals, people and the planet. Similar to Lagom but grassroots on a much larger scale. They share tons of resources, including plant-based recipes and vegan food products. Ethics is an important driver here. Their website also compiles many of the issues related to food consumption.
Meteoblue, by windy.com
Another resource for this month. If you are curious about the evolution of temperatures and precipitation, including anomalies, in your area or somewhere else, the History and Climate section of Meteoblue is an excellent website to consult and visualise the weather pattern. Spoiler: It goes towards red everywhere.
Let's Become Fungal! by Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez
I love, LOVE the world of mushrooms and hope that one day, I will have an entire (read) collection of books about fungi. So Ostendorf-Rodríguez's book would be an excellent addition, compiling a wide range of Indigenous knowledge on the topic and sharing mushroom teachings on collaboration. Let's Become Fungal! is also an examination of an incredible world and how it inspires human crafts.
Shade by Susanna Grant
Though it is getting better with the summer solstice coming closer, my apartment is often dark and so this little book, Shade “Bloom Gardener's Guide: Work with the Light, Grow the Right Plants, Bring Dark Corners to Life”, suggested by Alexandra Fasulo on Substack, is the plant guide I needed in my life, and you might too.
The Great Displacement, by Jake Bittle
As in other places worldwide, the United States of America is not treated differently regarding population displacement from climate change consequences. Bittle tells the stories of those who had to move, an empathetic account of internal migrations, forced or voluntary anticipation, that are reshaping the geography and communities of the US.
Pourquoi l’écologie est-elle impopulaire? [Why is sustainability so unpopular these days?], w/ Olric de Gélis and Jean-Marc Jancovici
I recently listened to this conversation between father and theologian Dr Olric De Gélis and Jean-Marc Jancovici, an engineer specialist in energy and climate, questioning sustainability's lack of appeal to the masses, which took place at the Bernardins' College in Paris. A catholic institution, the College is a place of debate, conferences and artistic representations, open to all, which aim to promote a genuine, cultural and intellectual dialogue between the Church and the civil society. And they have a YouTube channel! The discussion between De Gélis and Jancovici was a very in-depth, inspiring exchange which felt good to hear in a world where superficiality often dominates the subject matter. It is in French, but I think it is accessible to understand with subtitles.
Support Manurewa High School Maara Kai, food garden
In mid-February, the Manurewa High School food garden in South Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand, was the target of theft. The school lost expensive and essential equipment, including a water pump and gardening tools used daily by the students. They need NZ$20k to buy back the equipment and secure the space with cameras and fencing. The work garden's steward, Levi Brinsdon-Hall, and his team accomplish alongside the students in the school garden is exceptional. They provide daily nutrient-dense, healthy food for 2500 students and teach them sustainable farming practices and food sovereignty principles along the way. If you can chip in to support them, follow this link.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Tracey Creed & Amandine Paniagua
