Top Shelf #5

One Day, Summer Fridays lip oils, my top hair product, and a book light.

Welcome to the first Top Shelf column of 2024, and the first since October (how did that happen!?). To new readers (hello! thank you!), or those who need a refresh (hello! thank you!): Top Shelf is a titular series in which I show off the very best things I’ve come across lately. One per category, so you know each is truly Top Shelf.

Let’s get stuck in.

📺 TV

One Day, Netflix

David Nicholls’ book is very special to me - I picked up a copy in an op shop when I first moved to Sydney and I clearly remember how absorbed I became in Em and Dex’s lives as my own felt like it was finally unfurling. The book opens on them graduating from university; I was just starting university. Then: 20 years of their lives unfold as we check in on them on the same day every year. I was teetering on the edge of adulthood, spending too much time thinking about who I’d become and what I’d do and who I’d do it with.

You know when you read a book at just the right time and it becomes formative? This is one of those books for me. Last year, more than a decade after I read it, my bridesmaid read an excerpt during our wedding ceremony.

So I had high expectations for this series. I wouldn’t have been alone; the book is a sensation, selling 6 million copies and counting across 40 languages, and the 2011 movie starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess divided critics (I didn’t mind it).

Thank goodness the series - comprising 14 episodes running at roughly 30 minutes each, released on Netflix this month - is better than I ever could have hoped. As this BBC review put it: “prepare to laugh, prepare to cry, but don’t miss it.”

The casting is spot on; Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall are electric as Em and Dex. The chemistry! Mod (in her first lead role!) nails Em’s dry, witty, and sometimes cutting tone, while Woodall (best known for The White Lotus season 2) portrays a grieving party boy with the right balance of nonchalance and tenderness. And the details are wonderful - the hamburger phone in episode 1, the Reclaim the Night flyer stuck to Emma’s cork board, the books she owns, the cassette tapes. It’s all set to a brilliant soundtrack that adds so much to the storytelling; evocative and reminiscent of the era/s portrayed in the episode.

Nicholls said of the song selection, led by music coordinator Matt Biffa: “Even when I don’t LOVE the song exactly, it still always feels right. We tried to avoid the obvious and also to acknowledge that just because it’s 1993, not all the songs have to be from that year … It was such an important part of the process, and like the whole show, just a joy to work on.”

There’s a Spotify playlist too:

Each episode could feel clunky or rushed: one to two years of Em and Dex’s lives are covered in 30 minutes. Yet it doesn’t. It feels pace-y and compelling and believable. I cried in episode 5, during a wrenching scene in which Dexter calls Emma from a phone booth, on a train platform near his childhood home. I cried through the entirety of the last episode (undoubtedly, three glasses of wine didn’t help. I blame them for the weepy selfies I sent my husband during and after the finale).

It reminded me of just how good adaptations can be (just a note: you absolutely don’t have to have read the book to love the show). And best of all, it reminded me of that tender, uncertain time in my life, during which I first fell in love with the story. I went and dug out my old, tattered copy of the novel. I’m re-reading it now.

💄 Make-Up

Summer Fridays Dream Lip Oils

Hype is swirling around these lip oils - the marketing imagery is excellent, the colours are perfect, and I wanted to reach through the phone screen to swipe my finger through the swatches when I first saw them.

summerfridays

A post shared by @summerfridays

I now own Rosewood Nights (the deep mahogany far sheerer than it looks) and Soft Mauve (the easy-to-wear, slightly cool-toned dusty rose that will suit lots of people) and I look forward to applying and reapplying them. They’re not watery and slippery like many lip oils can be - you know the ones that evaporate within an hour and leave your lips dryer than they were beforehand? These are buttery and hydrating and sensorial - the minty tang is mild enough not to put me off (I’m not a fan of a strong menthol burn).

They’re $45 a pop from Mecca, and if you’re looking for a hydrating formula that you can slather on without a mirror at your desk, I highly recommend.

💇‍♀️ Hair

JVN Air Dry Cream

I’m very low maintenance with my hair. I let it air dry in its naturally wavy state, then run the straightener over my fringe and maybe refresh some flat curls. JVN’s Air Dry Cream is the only post-wash product I’ve used for at least a year, and I love it: I scrunch a generous amount (I didn’t use enough to get the full effect for a long time) through damp hair, and it makes my curls defined, non-frizzy, and bouncy. It works on dry hair too (I use a smaller amount), to revive second or third day waves.

Even if you don’t have naturally wavy/curly hair, I’ve heard rave reviews from people who have noticed a slight wave, more volume, and/or a curl pattern emerging after using this. Worth asking for a sample the next time you’re in Sephora!

🔦 Random item

Bendy Book Light

A year or so ago, my husband bought me a very random object: a book light that bends around my neck, each end capped by a light that I can angle wherever I’m holding my book. One of the best things about the Kindle is the ability to read in the bath or bed without a harsh light, and to face whichever way you wish. But I love the heft and tangibility of a physical book, the object, the way it tethers me to a story and acts as a cue to sink in and pay attention, because I’m not on a screen.

This book light solved a problem I wouldn’t have even known to articulate if I didn’t receive it. It’s the thing I never knew I needed. And it’s made me read way, way more in the evenings. I love it. (It would also make a great gift for the reader/knitter/etc in your life!)

Oh and it’s rechargeable. This one is the one I own, but there are plenty of options floating about.

🎧 Podcast

In Haste

In Haste

is new and excellent: a podcast on Substack (plus the usual podcast platforms) in which

Alice Vincent

and

Charlotte Runcie

find out how authors actually write their books. The Amy Liptrot episode made me immediately add her work to my TBR, and I can’t wait to listen to Sophie Mackintosh on whether you should write on holiday.

Can your diary be a bestseller? with Amy Liptrot

And on a sad note: Book Chat has wrapped up. Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer announced in their 30 January episode that it would be their last. They’re pausing the podcast, in which they discuss two books more than two years old, indefinitely. First The High Low, then Literary Friction, and now this?!

📰 Article

Ending on a teeny bit of self promotion. I was in The Guardian over the weekend, writing about scalp-care. Oils and serums, scrubs and LED masks – product categories once reserved for faces have crept to the top of the head thanks to a nascent scalp-care market. But do they work?

I spoke with a hairdresser, a dermatologist, a pharmaceutical scientist, and Adore Beauty’s senior beauty editor to find out.

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Anything you’ve seen, heard or read recently that you’ve loved, and think I would too? Pop it in a comment:

Until next time,

Britt