Welcome to Style / Substance, a weekly newsletter about personal style and confidence, the business and psychology of fashion, with features on outfit ideas, styling tips, product, and brand recommendations - all to make your life easier and to ensure you present your best self. Subscribe here, follow me on Instagram at @LauraKSawyier, + subscribe to my YouTube channel here. Thank you!
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Last night I saw Barbie and can't help but think about it, talk about it, write about it, and dream about it. It's undeniably all around us. Okay… dreaming about it is a little excessive, but all this pink mania is taking me back to a place of nostalgia.
This story is so familiar to so many. Growing up, I had a Barbie Dreamhouse and played with my dolls and all the accouterments until I was probably too old to play with them. This glorified multi-storied plastic house in the middle of my mother's unfinished basement was the center of my universe. I would trek down the stairs after school and on the weekends and play with Barbie for hours. Imagination, run wild.
As a ten-year-old, the house didn't signal some of the deeper meanings of independence that I've learned as an adult that Barbie stands for, nor her evolution. I just had fun with it all. That's also what Barbie is about.
The Dreamhouse allowed me to create my own Barbieland. I went so far as repainting some of Barbie's walls with nail polish to update a room with a new take on color for the season.
My mother had a basket full of fabrics and cotton batting, which I would reach into regularly, fashioning new sheets and pillows for Barbie's bedspread. I made her clothes, too. I didn't have a sewing machine; instead, I spent countless nights hot gluing pieces together from my bedroom, illuminated by a night light. I was obsessed.
Little did I know or understand then that this solo play set the tone for my creative thinking from then on out. Barbie brings all of this back for me.
I highly recommend seeing the movie for the luscious camp of eye candy coated in every shade of pink you can imagine. Consider what Barbie meant to you then and what she means to you now. There's a lot of weight on her shoulders, and we expect her to be perfect when really, she's just right... just as we all are. And the Dreamhouse is your place to color outside the lines however you like.
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✨ Regular Maintenance
Facials, to me, are like any kind of personal maintenance.
The science is that our skin cells regenerate approximately every 28-42 days. Fine lines, wrinkles, and pigment inconsistencies are often directly caused by this build-up of dead skin cells. And dead skin = dull skin. I don’t want dull skin. I want happy skin. A facial is a scheduled monthly occurrence on my calendar because my face stays brighter, hydrated, cleaner, and clearer on a regular basis.
I run to stay energized. I do yoga to help stretch and be mindful. I get my hair colored every 5-weeks to keep it, well, blonde. I do the same for my face at The Only Facial. They make it easy with one facial, the same price every time, no tipping, and no upsells on other products. In and out efficiently.
The Only Facial currently operates four locations in Saint Louis: Clayton, University City, Des Peres, and St. Charles.
*This is a partnership post.
🪩🎀 Party in Pink
Barbiecore is here, there, and everywhere. As someone who is not necessarily a “pink person,” fashion also calls for having fun and sprinkles of novelty at times. So I’m leaning into this pink-out and have curated a selection of saturated styles for all your pink-worthy moments.
Read / Watch / Listen
📚 Dreamhouse evolution — An informative and interactive overview of Barbies houses over the years.
📺 Bicycle face — Activist and the founder of Girls Who Code and the Marshall Plan for Moms Reshma Saujani’s take on imposter syndrome in her Smith College commencement speech earlier this summer. The highlights: it’s holding you back, and go ride your bike.
🎧 The song of the summer — If you haven’t heard it, you can here.
Thanks for the thoughtful weekly updates - I love that they are timely and keep me current in my thinking. They are also personal and take my thinking in new directions. Keep it up!