How do you feel about getting an LED face mask from your partner on Valentine’s Day? A pink casserole dish? A $300 shell hair clip? Or what about, for Galentine’s Day, a menstrual cup?
Since the start of the year, my inbox has been flooded with PR emails about Val/Galentine’s Day gift ideas, and they never fail to leave me stumped—and not just because I’m wondering who’s gifting their galpal a period product to help them feel better about being single—but also, I can’t figure out who’s giving V-day gifts at all.
A quick poll on the ol’ Instagram tells me 71% of people (read: my followers, 89% female) are “not into” V-day gifts outside of flowers and chocolates. So I wonder: How many people are actually perusing all of the gift guides that are out there today? I mean, sure, this $48 candle shaped as grapes is pretty cute, and yes, I’d happily accept a pair of $400 Sleeper pajamas, but didn’t we just have Christmas?
I can appreciate the conventional Valentine’s gifts—not just the supermarket roses with baby’s breath and box of chocolates, but even jewellery, perfume, and lingerie—for their fabulous cliché-ness, their old-romantic-movie nostalgia. But giving Christmas-like gifts for V-day feels a bit like we’re being fooled by another affiliate marketing ploy.
Now, even though I don’t give or receive V-day gifts (outside of the odd flowers or truffles) doesn’t mean I don’t have a little something for you, dear reader. I know February 14 can be a real crappy day for a lot of people, and that some people require a little more than a grape candle to get into the love-y spirit. Perhaps you could use something that could make you laugh? Reflect fondly on old times? Be hopeful about the future? Feel less alone? Smell a bit better? (Read on, you’ll get it.)
Here’s a random list of what to read or listen to now—based on some of my favourite things I’ve consumed/re-consumed so far this year—that have a V-day-ish feel to them:
This piece may have you rethinking your Valentine’s dinner reso—and what love is
While we’re meant to find certain foods romantic—like filets, fondues, and other fancy, fussy foods—”properly romantic food,” according to glorious writer Lauren Bravo “is the stuff of spontaneous picnics, not exorbitant set menus. It's the bacon sandwich, lovingly presented to soothe the hangover you hadn't admitted you had yet. It's somebody yelling, ‘Wait, the garnish!’ and lavishing a fistful of coriander on top of your TV dinner. It's a bowl of noodles thrumming with garlic, safe in the knowledge that if you both eat them, you can still snog afterwards. And it's ducking out of the rain and into some backstreet bistro with wipe-clean tablecloths that you will refer to ever after as ‘that little place we love,’ even though you've never actually gone back.”
Read the rest at foodism.co.uk.
This one will make you laugh—and question your sex life
Women of Los Angeles who have trouble getting off can now book a training session with “The O-Man”—a 38-year old dude who’s like any Tinderfella you’ve ever met, except with one exceptional talent. The hilarious Abbey Richards writes: “The O-Man’s apartment is not dissimilar to most single-dude apartments many a woman has woken up thirsty in: cluttered and beige, with professional wrestling playing on a too-big TV. ‘You can sit there,’ he says, gesturing to a charcoal-gray love seat covered with what he would later tell me was a ‘squirt-proof blanket.’ This informal setup should have made me uncomfortable. But it didn’t. Because after a few minutes of chatting I realize that the man who purports to make women come upwards of 40 times in one session is … a real nerd. He talks enthusiastically about playing Dungeons & Dragons and reading Tolkien.”
Read the rest at airmail.news. (If you don’t have a subscription and can’t access it through 12ft, I’ll send it to you, if you’re not my parents.)
This one will make you feel less like you’re doing life wrong
British journalist Elizabeth Day interviews Dan Levy about his failures, and he talks about how Schitt’s Creek was rejected by every single American broadcasting network so he and his dad had to produce it on their own in Canada. He also opens up about romantic rejection and how he moved to London to get over a heartbreak. I’ve made the episode sound depressing, but I assure you it’s steeped with great soundbites that’ll make you love him even more than you did when he hosted The After Show (Canadians will know).
Listen to the How to Fail episode on iTunes.
This one will have you re-appreciating one of the best romcoms of our time
Listen to writers Caroline O'Donoghue and Jess Pan dissect Julia Roberts’ best movie (not including Notting Hill), My Best Friend’s Wedding on Caroline’s pod Sentimental Garbage. The two writers will have you reliving the movie’s best parts (“I could be jello”) and finding a new appreciation for the subtle but satisfying ones you may have missed (Kimmy? Kimmy. Kmmy? Kimmy.).
Listen to the Sentimental Garbage episode on iTunes.
This one will make you want to buy yourself a (really good) perfume for V-day
Beauty journalists Jessica Matlin and Jennifer Sullivan interview the “White Witch of Perfume,” Azzi Glasser, on their podcast Fat Mascara in an old episode from '2022. Azzi is a “nose,” meaning she has a gift for creating stunning scents, and she’ll have you re-appreciating the power of fragrance. Azzi talks about being tapped by actors to make a scent that helps to transport them into a new role, and says any perfume you can find at duty-free is gauche (hearing this was enough for me to upgrade to Maison Francis Kurkdjian).
Listen to the Fat Mascara episode on iTunes.
Happy Val/Galentine’s Day!
Until next Sunday,
Renée