Cheryl Shops

Within the last year or so, I started to notice that the color black has begun to look very harsh against my complexion. This is unfortunate because I like wearing black (it goes with nearly everything!) and have a lot of black clothes (it always goes together!). So I've been trying to incorporate lighter, softer colors in my wardrobe—when I'm about to buy anything for my upper half in black, I have to stop and ask myself if it comes in another shade—and thankfully for me, a trend of sorts has taken hold in the last few months, called latte dressing. While I'm generally quite choosy about which trends I do and don't wear, latte dressing is one that I can totally get behind. Here's how to do it.

I've found myself inexplicably drawn to the color pink this summer, and turns out I'm not alone: Barbiecore is everywhere at the moment. As Vogue explains, it's a little Valentino fall 2020 runway, a little excitement over the upcoming Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling (!!), and a little summer dopamine dressing. Pink comes in all different kinds of shades—my last pink outfit was definitely in the bright category—and while there's a Kardashian way to wear Barbiecore, here's how I'm doing it.

If the words "cutout dress" give you anxiety, you are not alone. I have never had rock-hard abs, and so I've always avoided cropped tops, cutouts, deep sides, or anything else that could potentially reveal my jiggly bits. To be honest, I'd never even considered trying anything with cutouts until I saw Grace Atwood, one of my blogging heroes, in a Farm Rio dress that looked so doable—and flattering—that I had to order it. Cue "A Whole New World" because I've discovered...maybe I can wear cutouts? Here's how I wore my Farm Rio dress.

Now that the pandemic is endemic, restrictions are being lifted, and we can take travel once again, it seems like we are all THIRSTY for a vacation. Anecdotally speaking, the airports were packed when I flew last week, and based on an elementary understanding of supply and demand, ticket prices are definitely reflecting that. (I'm not going to tell you what I spent on my flight to NYC, but on a normal day, it would have bought me a flight to Paris.) Having not done much air travel in the last few years, I'm a little rusty, but so far I've found it's just like riding a bike—muscle memory kicks in right away. And of all the aspects of traveling, I think I'm a particularly good packer; this may be a surprise, but I actually tend to pack light. Over the years, I've perfected my formula, and since so many of you have asked me about it over the years, here's how I pack for a trip. 

I've noticed a certain thing happening to my face recently, and that's if I've had anything alcoholic to drink the night before, I wake up in the morning with an alarmingly puffy face. If I've had, say, three glasses of red wine, my face looks like a pillow that someone sat on. This never used to happen to me, so I think we have dehydration, both the kind that happens naturally from aging and the kind that happens from drinking too much, to blame. While there's not a lot that you can do to prevent your skin becoming dehydrated as you age, you could, in theory, not drink—and I know plenty of women who have done that, or have at least seriously cut back. But I enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or with friends, and, as the saying goes, I'm not a quitter. Plus, your face can become puffy from eating too much salt, from allergies, and from a bunch of other things. Thankfully for all of us, I have devised a formula to combat puffiness, no sobriety required. Here's how to to depuff your face in 8 easy steps.