What Alexa Chung Can’t Live Without

My hair and I mostly have a good relationship, but sometimes we fall out. And when we do, it’s usually because I find it hard to get my brush through it in one fell swoop — it’s very fine, so it gets very tangled, and nothing gets through it. But somehow this green beauty is really good. I never thought about hairbrushes as good or bad until I bought this one, and it’s a whole new world. The other day, I was on a trip and had left it at home, so I used a lesser one. But I got a new Harry Josh brush, and life is all good again.

I admire Glossier for the business as much as the products because I think Emily is really smart, and the idea is approachable but luxury at the same time. I love everything, but the one thing I come back to is the cleanser because it’s so soothing and nice on the face. I use it in the shower, although I might have to reassess that because the water from the shower head gets onto my hands before I slap the stuff on, and then half of it is gone. It’s very wasteful, actually.

Have you tried them? They’re bloody delicious. In England, they’re called cheese strings, but string cheese in America, but basically there was a point in my life when I was so on-the-go that I lived exclusively on a diet of Stringles, avocado, and apples and nuts, like I was foraging. Nowadays, I manage to remember to enjoy three square meals a day, but the Stringles addiction didn’t leave me. They give me a burst of calcium and dairy, and they’re salty and delicious and playful to eat. If I can interact with my food, it amuses me. NB: To be peeled and consumed, not gnawed at from the top.

I am constantly traveling, and it’s lovely and a luxury, and I’m happy to do it. That said, I’m only ever in a place for a few days and then head back to London, so I never get around to unpacking because it seems illogical since I’d have to repack, so more often than not my luggage is at the front door. And for years it was an unattractive suitcase. But when I found the Globe-Trotter, it changed everything because the trolley could be a piece of slightly chic furniture. If you put a lamp on it, it could be a nice coffee table.

I use it every day. I’m obsessed with moisturizing and less obsessed with drinking water. Maybe if I hydrated, I wouldn’t have to moisturize so much. This one is really dependable and a good everyday guy. It’s liquidy and seeps in and doesn’t sit on top. Because it’s so expensive, it feels like a luxury, so I don’t use so much at a time. What I do do, though, is use it morning and night, and sometimes even throughout the day.

Oh, my relationship with candles. I really like things to smell nice, and I find these so perfect because Cire Trudon candles are very potent. They smell sort of like a wealthy 60-year-old man’s smoking lair. And I love that. I’m drawn to a more masculine scent rather than anything floral. I like things that are woody — it’s from growing up in the country I think — and things that smell like grass or a bonfire. That’s why Byron is my favorite. I’m burning candles constantly, but that has its own problem. I’m forgetful and have a low attention span, so I’ll leave candles on sometimes. My biggest fear, though, other than things smelling bad is burning things down. I don’t know if you follow my Instagram (you probably don’t), but once a day I have to do a story where I go back and check that I haven’t left anything burning. I thankfully never have, and it’s always blown out, but I do have a fear of fires. I maybe died in one in a past life.

I’m someone to whom exercise doesn’t come naturally. I’m not a gym bunny by any means. I don’t particularly like athleisure. I’m all about health, but I’d rather not move around for it. That’s not how it works unfortunately, but I found out about Ballet Beautiful in glossy magazine pages. All these women would say, “I see Mary Helen,” and I totally fell for that. Mary Helen is a thing of beauty and a thing to behold. She just had her third child and bounced right back because she practices what she preaches. So it’s a barre class, and you put on a leotard, you feel chic, and you get something done but you don’t come out feeling splotchy and gross when you’re heading in to work. It’s a bit of a therapy session, too, because we all have a nice chat.

Wink, wink! Okay, so I’ve always worn Supergas because my mother always wore them, so it became like Stockholm syndrome. But because I was wearing them, they approached me a few years ago to model for them, and then I art-directed for them, and then finally this year, they asked me to do a collaboration. You might notice that I haven’t done very much to them. It’s not laziness! It’s actually respect for the thing I love so much in the first place. I don’t like when someone collaborates on something and twists it into something that it’s not. So what I did was make it ivory rather than white, which makes it a bit warmer. And then we added a toe cap and two extra eyelets, so the laces go higher up the ankle. I love the traditional high-tops, but they’re a little lower than my ideal shape. It’d be nice to wear with the raincoat I also designed in that cool green shade, too.