Cheryl Shops

As I mentioned in my inaugural Things I've bought on Amazon that I love post, I try to shop small and local when I can, but I'm only human and sometimes convenience wins out. Cheryl Shops is a judgment-free zone, so I feel safe sharing with you that I not only buy things on Amazon, but I thoroughly enjoy them as well. I've been making a bunch of upgrades to my apartment over the last several months, and here are some of my recent best buys. 

You, dear readers, seem to love my honest reviews, so I'm pledging to do more of them in 2021—at least one a month. You appear to be particularly curious about luxury items, so first up is my biggest splurge of 2020, my Celine Cabas Phantom tote. As I noted when I first featured it here, I'm generally not a bag person (I'm more of a shoe person), but I'd been in need of a new work tote and was eyeing this one for quite a while. And by quite a while, I mean dragging Sean to every Celine boutique we came across so I could try it on and debate getting the medium size or the small. (I got the medium, obviously, but more on that later.) I finally decided to take the plunge last year in Paris; while that's out of the question for the moment, I wanted to share my experience anyway with the hope that, god willing, we can travel again soon. So here's how I bought my Celine Phantom tote in Paris, why I went with the medium, and how I really feel about it. 

As I noted in Tuesday's post, Spanx sent me two pairs of their famous pants to try, the first being the Perfect Black Pant, 4-Pocket Ankle version. Up next: the Faux Leather Leggings, which nearly every influencer on earth owns. I may be late to the party, but better late than never, right? Keep reading for my honest and unfiltered opinion. 

Like many women, I have worn Spanx undergarments under various clingy dresses and/or when I've needed a little squeeze to feel my best for a special event. And while they're probably best known for their shapewear, Spanx has ventured into clothing, particularly pants, in the last few years, and by all accounts, everyone pretty much loves them. I am generally not a big leggings person—I think I look better in a more tailored silhouette—but when Spanx reached out to me to try their knit pants and leggings, I agreed in the name of service journalism. After all, I'm not dressing up as much as I used to, but while comfort is key, I still want to look good. And who says we can't have it all? Enter the Spanx Perfect Black Pant, 4-Pocket Ankle edition. 

Back in my late 20s and early 30s, when I had 7 or 8 weddings per year to attend, I used an Excel spreadsheet to track which dresses I wore to which events. This began in the days before social media, but I basically wanted to make sure I wasn't turning up in the same dress at every event with the each group of people. The alternative, of course, was to buy a new dress for each event, which is cost-prohibitive (and wasteful) and is what drove Jenn Hyman to found Rent the Runway. I thought RTR was an amazing idea and I know a lot of people who love it, but to this day, I've never actually used it, because the items I'd actually want to rent are way too expensive. In other words, I'd rent a designer dress for $50 or $60 (or maybe even a bit more), but not $200. There are other clothing rental companies out there (I reviewed one last year), but so far none that really piqued my interest—until now. Wardrobe is like Airbnb for clothes, shoes, and accessories: you rent items from a user's closet for 4, 10, or 20 days at a time; everything is dry-cleaned and stored in a central warehouse (and if you open a closet with Wardrobe, you can make a little extra money renting out your own clothes); and it all comes clearly labeled and nicely packaged. Most importantly, Wardrobe has everything from Alice and Olivia to Hermès, and the prices are incredibly reasonable. They were kind enough to offer me a credit to try the service for free; here's what I borrowed and my unbiased, honest review of the entire experience.

I am constantly in pursuit of what I like to call "rich-girl skin"—smooth, poreless, glowy—and I will obediently try any skincare product that promises any of those effects. Maelove had been on my radar for awhile, after I'd seen it mentioned countless times in message boards and beauty-blog comment threads; it has also popped up pretty frequently in my Instagram feed, so clearly their ad targeting is spot-on. Then, like a sign from the universe, Maelove reached out to me about trying a few of their products, so in the name of investigative journalism, I agreed. (Everything I do, I do it for you, dear readers!) I've been using the following Maelove products exclusively for the last two weeks; here's my honest and unfiltered review.