Cheryl Shops

It's wild to think that a little over 10 years ago, I left NYC after 14 years to move to San Francisco. In those years since, I've been back to visit at least once a year (even in 2020, before the pandemic), although usually in summer or fall; I am the first to say that living in California for the last 10 years has definitely made me much less tolerant of actual winter weather (I do not miss it in the least). That said, I will never turn down a free hotel room in Manhattan, so when Sean had a last-minute work trip come up, I decided to join him. What was meant to be a super-quick 2-day trip turned into a really regenerative 4-night trip (thanks to Alaska Airlines for canceling my flight home!), and in spite of the COLD AF weather, we had one of our best NYC getaways ever. Here's what I wore in New York City in January. 

The concept of clean beauty—products formulated without potentially harmful ingredients—has been around for several decades, and while the market has been flooded in recent years, I always enjoy seeking out new and independent brands that are bringing something fresh (and effective) to the table. One Love Organics is not necessarily new (they've been around since 2010) but unlike some of the bigger brands that have sold out to, say, Unilever, you get the impression that they're still a founder-driven company focused on making really effective, cleanly formulated products. I've had the pleasure to partner with them a few times on social media but wanted to share my frank and unfiltered thoughts on their products. While I received all of the following items for free, this is an unsponsored post, and all of the following opinions are my own. Read on for honest reviews of One Love Organics products. 

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.

In starting to plan the year ahead, I decided to take one look back at 2023 and realized there was a new idea there—I've never done a recap of my favorite things that I actually bought. I'm not including anything I received for free; these are things I spent my own hard-earned dollars on, and more importantly, these are things that I wear all the time, use all the time, or simply bring me joy. Here are my best buys of 2023.