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. 

Black Friday seems to be coming earlier and earlier every year, and I'm definitely not mad at it—this year, with all of the supply-chain uncertainty, I'm doing my holiday shopping (a.k.a. me shopping) early. In fact, I've already made quite a dent, but I'm just getting started. And BTW, you should too (you've earned it!). Without further ado, here are the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales this year. 

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I used to live in NYC for a long time (13 years, to be exact) and it will always have a big part of my heart. I normally go back for a visit at least once a year, but thanks to the pandemic, I hadn't been there since January 2020. When I've been gone for too long, I can almost feel it in my bones; spending even a couple of days in New York is like a defibrillator for my soul, in the best possible way. Even though he's never lived there, Sean loves NYC as much as I do, so convincing him to go there for a long weekend in celebration of his birthday required only minimal arm-twisting. Of course, after having been away for so long, I had no idea how New Yorkers were dressing, and if you've been reading my newsletter, you know that I've been panicking about what to pack. I may not have totally blended in—I've been a West Coaster for 8 years now, after all—but I could at least hang in this outfit.

 

Grab some hot chocolate and crank up "All I Want for Christmas Is You," because the Cheryl Shops Holiday Gift Guide 2021 is here! You may notice that this is the earliest I've ever posted a holiday gift guide; I had actually been planning to do that since so many of the items I had wanted to feature last year had already sold out by December. But now perhaps you've heard of the global supply chain crisis, which has been impacting retail inventory since the summer, and has every news outlet urging people to do their holiday shopping early, lest our economy (and the retail industry) suffer! If you are a last-minute shopper, fret not, I'm sure there will still be presents out there. But if you're a get-'er-done-early shopper like I am, it may be wise to take advantage of all the Singles' Day, early Black Friday, and various other sales hitting your inbox. Because once you're done shopping for other people, you get to shop for yourself! So without further ado, here are my favorite gifts for 2021. 

Now that Halloween is over, can we talk about the holidays? I am really looking forward to celebrating them this year, because last year ended up being a big bummer. I'm not going to rehash the events of late 2020 because I'm sure most of us would rather forget them and whoops, I'm already being overdramatic about what was, in the end, a fairly minor inconvenience. That said, I'm planning on accepting every social invitation that comes my way over the next two months, so that means I'll need a lot of outfits to wear. I decided to take one for a trial run last weekend, and I feel like it was a hit. Here's how it came together.

The number-one question I get from friends, family, and readers is "What skincare products should I be using?" I'm flattered that people come to me for advice (I do work in the beauty industry and like to think that I've learned something), but the bigger issue is that there are so many products out there and people are overwhelmed by the options, plus finding the right mixture of ingredients to target your skin's needs can be a challenge. I have favorites that I tend to recommend, but not all products work for every skin type—something that's good for my dry, redness-prone skin might not be effective on your sensitive, acne-prone skin. Enter The Inkey List. It's a company that's all about personalizing your skincare routine down to the ingredients that work specifically for you and your skin's needs, in a very accessible way—nearly all of their products are under $15. To get started, you answer 5 questions (it takes only a couple minutes), and Inkey List will create a personalized regimen. Here's my honest review of what they sent me.

Of all the pieces of clothing worth investing in, outerwear is definitely at the top. They're what you tend to wear the most, yet they can last the longest. If properly cared for, jackets and coats can be worn upwards of 20 years, and of course even longer—I have several vintage coats from the 1960s that have aged like fine wine. I tend to feature my outerwear over and over again here on this blog because it's what I actually wear in real life, but also to point out how versatile the pieces I love are. Case in point: I've worn my J.Crew quilted downtown field jacket with everything from denim to dresses. It's funny to think I hesitated to buy it because I was worried it was too close to my other favorite J.Crew outerwear, the downtown field jacket; instead, I like to think of it as the downtown's cooler-weather counterpart. It's the perfect jacket for fall (or spring), when you need something warmer than a denim or army jacket, but you're not quite ready for wool or a puffer. It's so good, J.Crew keeps bringing it back year after year. Here are seven of my favorite ways to wear it. 

As soon as I typed the title of this post, I thought, "how is it already October?!" Then I realized, "whoa, it's already October 13th," which made me wonder where the first half of this month has gone. The funny thing is, I feel like I haven't done that much this year, other than work my tush off, but that is quickly starting to change. Now that delta variant is on the decline (knock on wood), my social calendar is finally picking up, plus Sean has a bunch of conferences this fall that I'm going to tag along on. Then before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas and New Year's, and I don't know about you, but I can't wait for 2022 (according to Susan Miller, it's supposed to be my best year ever). That said, I am very happy it's autumn—I am one of those Fall People who loves turning leaves, pumpkin-flavored everything, and most importantly, fall clothes. October is really the sweet spot in fall dressing, because it's still warm enough to get away with a sweater and a light jacket. So in celebration of that, here's what I'm wearing in October.

If you follow a lot of influencers on Instagram, chances are you've heard of Sarah Flint shoes. Their brand ambassadors include some of my favorite content creators—Brooklyn Blonde, Grace Atwood, and my friend Kim—so when Sarah herself reached out to me on IG, I was incredibly flattered to join their ranks. And since everyone raves about how comfortable and luxurious Sarah Flint shoes are, I couldn't wait to try a pair for myself. They sent me a pair of Rosie loafers; here's my honest and unfiltered opinion.

Updated February 2025. 

It's funny to think that I started wearing Spanx pants only a year ago, because my collection has grown exponentially in that time—it started with perfect black ankle pants, then the faux leather leggings, every pant in navy, and even activewear. I wear Spanx pants several days a week on average; I love that they're comfy but polished-looking, e.g. it's not totally obvious that I'm wearing leggings. But now I'm starting to go out more and want to look like I'm not wearing leggings, however I'm also carrying around 5 extra pounds of pandemic weight and wearing hard pants is, well, hard. Enter Spanx jeans. They look like traditional denim but definitely don't fit like it. If anything, they're even better than jeans—they're a gift from the gods. Here's my honest and unfiltered review of Spanx flare jeans and Spanx skinny jeans.

In case you missed last week’s post, we recently spent a week on the Big Island of Hawaii and it was pretty much amazing. We had booked the trip months ago, soon after I started a new job that was a bit more stressful than I'd anticipated, and to be honest, the thought of a relaxing week at the beach got me through some pretty rough weeks. Of course, a week before we were due to leave, the governor of Hawaii issued a plea for tourists to stay home until later in the fall due to rising Covid rates and full hospitals; after some thorough investigation and a pledge to spend as much time outdoors as possible, we decided to go anyway. (We were far from alone, by the way.) Here’s what we did on our blissful trip to the Big Island.

 

If you've subscribed to my newsletter, you know that I'd been looking forward to our Hawaii trip for a long time. You also probably know that I've been on a pre-vacay spending spree. For one, it had been a year and a half since we'd taken a proper vacation, and over three years since we'd gone somewhere tropical. I also think, deep down, I miss not spending money on dress-up clothes for specific things and I had a lot of pent-up money to burn. I tried to shop (somewhat) responsibly, but may have gone a weee bit overboard. At least—fingers crossed—I'll be able to wear everything on our long-postponed trip to Europe next summer. But in the meantime, here's what I wore on our Big Island vacation. 

There are two kinds of people: those who get excited for fall in August and those who don't. When I lived in NYC, I was in the former group—by August, the city would get unbearably muggy and smell like hot garbage—but now that I'm on the West Coast, I'm the the latter, mostly because September and October are usually the warmest months here. That said, I do love fall clothes and shoes, and my point in all this is that Labor Day sales are generally a good time to get an early deal on fall-forward clothes and accessories. The silver lining is that it might be a month or two before you can wear them, but aren't some things are worth waiting for? I'd say yes. Here are some Labor Day sales worth checking out. 

Nothing I'm wearing here is on sale, but my bag is a pretty good deal ;)

Like many of you, I'm sure, I've spent more time inside my apartment in the last year and a half than I had in the previous six years I lived there combined. I realize this is a luxury and a privilege, as not everyone has a job that allows them to work from home, and I'm thankful that I'm in such a position. (I'm also not even remotely eager to go back to working in an office, but that's another topic for another day.) Spending so much time at home, however, allowed me to pinpoint what was and wasn't working in my space. For example, after doing little more than binging Netflix night after night, I realized that having our TV mounted above the fireplace was too high and straining our necks; we ended up completely rearranging the living room, and now it feels way more open and welcoming. Also, I finally got around to changing my kitchen hardware, swapping out the cheap-looking builder-grade knobs for a nice matte bronze. There are many areas of the apartment that are still a work in progress—I want to paint the office a lighter color, and I really want to renovate the bathroom—but so far, I'm the most pleased with our bedroom. Here's how we upgraded our bedroom during the pandemic.

The title of this post is a bit of a misnomer; while I had intended to show everything I wore at Car Week, we were having so much fun, we kind of forgot to shoot it all. Alas, I'm only featuring one outfit in this post, and it's what I wore on our last morning in Carmel-by-the-Sea. We decided not to go to the Concours d'Elegance, which is kind of the main event that ends Car Week, because we were worried about crowds, and I'm glad we didn't go, because our friends who did said they felt a little overwhelmed and unsafe, and they left pretty quickly. That said, we were happy to be back at Car Week (it was canceled last year). We saw a bunch of friends and cars, of course, and I will never turn down a getaway to Carmel. So here's what I wore on the last day of our trip.

I have shopped at Everlane for years—the oldest receipt I found in my Gmail is from 2014, but l'm pretty sure we go back even further. I've stuck around all these years because they make pretty decent luxury basics at incredibly appealing prices, in a (mostly) ethical way. As someone who works in retail marketing, I appreciate their boundary-pushing ways of doing business (product waitlists and drops to build anticipation; sharing cost breakdowns and factory information; their choose-what-you-pay sales), however I think they sometimes come across as a little high on their own supply, and turns out they weren't so "radically transparent" about certain things. But, hey, people make mistakes, and I appreciate when companies take responsibility for their missteps and do try to make things better. So I'll keep shopping and advocating for Everlane, which is, after all, a local (albeit rapidly expanding) business based in San Francisco. While I'm not a superfan, I have bought quite a lot at Everlane over the years. Here are my favorite pieces. 

August, otherwise known as Fogust, is a weird time of year in San Francisco. Elsewhere in the world, people are beginning to grow tired of their summer clothes, but we're just getting ready to break them out. Even if it isn't always warm here in the actual summer (hence why I'm wearing a jacket in some of these photos), I do like to wear lighter colors. So I've been gravitating toward lots of white, ivory, and beige lately, often mixing them all together in one outfit. It's hard to match light neutrals, so the key is to embrace multiple shades and wear them all together. Really, there's no wrong way to do it. Here's my go-to outfit of the moment, featuring some of my favorite new (and old) pieces.