Cheryl Shops

 As I noted last week, I'm changing things up a bit with my year-end recaps for 2021. I've shared my favorite outfits of 2021, so now it's time for your favorite posts of 2021. I was not super surprised to see that 6 of the 10 posts were from my honest review series—they tend to attract a lot of search traffic, but hopefully they're helpful for my regular readers as well. I have a whole new bunch of reviews planned for 2022, so stay tuned for those! I am going to take next week off to spend some quality time with my family and friends, but I'll be back in January with one last 2021 recap, featuring everything you guys bought this year. In the meantime, here's a look at the top 10 most popular posts of 2021, according to you!

 

Spotify's year-in-review posts came out last week, so you know what that means: time for the year-end wrap ups! I'm changing things up a bit this time; it's always hard to pick a favorite outfit of the year, so I thought I'd do something different and pick 10. This was actually harder to do than I expected; turns out I liked a lot of what I featured here (although I did have some duds, TBH). Still, it's funny to see some trends emerge: I still love neutrals, but I did try a little (soft) color here and there, and clearly I have some favorite accessories! In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite outfits of 2021—tell me your favorites in the comments below!

One of my favorite places on earth is Paris, and one of my favorite things to do there is to raid the pharmacy, particularly Citypharma in the 6th arrondissement. If you are a beauty junkie like me, it's like being a kid in a candy shop—French pharmacy beauty brands tend to be natural (or "clean" as we call them here), effective, and affordable, and while mainstays like Caudalie are easy to find at places like Sephora, some of my favorite brands like Nuxe and Panier des Sens are much harder to track down, particularly in U.S. stores. So in between trips to Europe, I've found that Amazon is actually a great place to score French pharmacy beauty products, since they work with smaller-scale importers and distributors. It's not quite the same experience as a wine-fueled haul in a foreign country, but it's a convenient way to replenish your favorite products. As a bonus, all of the products I'm featuring in this post make great gifts—obviously I'm writing this post during the holidays, but file it away in case you need birthday, anniversary, Mother's day, or even thank-you gift ideas. Here are my favorite French pharmacy beauty finds on Amazon—oh, and did I mention they're all under $30? (They are!)

Historically speaking, I've featured party outfits in December, and omicron variant be damned, I do plan to do my fair share of partying this month. But I also thought I'd end the year with a more true picture of where my wardrobe is at the moment. I had a bit of an identity crisis earlier this year; after months of wearing little more than sweats, I was like I NEED FUN CLOTHES and ended up buying a bunch of stuff that just wasn't me. Not that I'm not fun, but I can be fun without looking like I'm in a funhouse. Anyway, I like neutrals—always have, probably always will—and while I might not have the most interesting wardrobe in the world, it's the right one for me. So with that in mind, here's to ending 2021 on an authentic note.