9 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: Surprisingly Good $50 Sunglasses and Ruth Reichl’s Spaghetti

When deals writer Martha Tuber spotted these incredibly budget-friendly (and elegant) sunglasses on Bella Hadid a few months ago, she knew she had to investigate. “Surely Hadid can splurge on much pricier styles, so what made her pick this $50 pair instead?” Tuber wondered. She tried Hadid’s pair — plus 17 other pairs of Sojos, ranging from $20 to $150 — to see if they’re any good. Some were surprisingly good for the price, some less so, but it turns out Hadid has a good eye. “If I’d never seen these before and you told me they cost more than a few times their price, I’d believe it,” Tuber says. “The acetate frame is thick, the arms are wide at the temples, and there’s nary a sharp edge to be found. All of this makes them feel on the luxe side.”

After writer Diksha Basu saw a child taking photos with this camera at an art opening, she bought one for each of her kids (a 7-year-old and 9-year-old). Now the $34 instant-print cameras are “easily in the top ten of their most-used possessions,” Basu says. “They print out the pictures and tape them in their journals and are setting up scenes to photograph, adding color and stickers and art to the printouts and turning them into mini-collages.” One charge lasts a few days, and images are printed thermally onto BPA-free paper instead of using ink. Basu has stocked up on refills already.

Writer Jordan McMahon is no stranger to the struggle of waking up from a deep sleep; he quickly realized in order to do so he needed an obscenely loud alarm clock. So ahead of back-to-school season, McMahon spoke with Strategist parents about the clocks that make sure their little ones are up on time. Yoto’s musical speaker was the most mentioned. Both senior editor Jen Trolio and senior writer Lauren Ro have children under 10 who’ve been using their Yotos as alarms for years. Ro’s 7-year-old son wakes up much more easily than he ever used to in the year he’s been using the Yoto (which is entirely controlled through the Yoto phone app). Everything is adjustable, from how many alarms you set to each one’s volume. For younger kids, it’s our favorite option.

Most of the pillows that writer Amelia Jerden has tested over the course of her career are on the pricier side (usually at least $100). She’s been on a mission to find more affordable options, and ahead of dorm-shopping season, she decided to test 13 pillows from the full spectrum of Target’s home brands. She slept on each for at least a week, and her personal favorite of the bunch comes from the Threshold line. “This is the only pillow from Target I tried with a microgel down-alternative fill, and I think that may be the secret sauce that makes it so great,” she says. Not only was it bouncier and springier than other down-alternative pillows she tried, it was plusher, fuller, and the most comfortable and supportive option too. It requires no fluffing or twisting before lying down; she could simply lie back and fall right into a good night’s sleep.

Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski chatted with writer Kitty Guo about the things she can’t live without and revealed her favorite summer flip-flops for more than a decade now: classic Havaianas. “They’re old school, but there’s never a summer that I’m without them,” she says. “That’s my go-to choice of a flip-flop.” She’s had some of her thicker pairs for 15 years and says they’re surprisingly durable.

For the August installment of her advice column, Kim France helped readers find non-matronly dresses, non-old-ladyish sandals, and a slew of “tops and dresses for the summer heat that are not sleeveless.” For the latter category, France suggests this semi-sheer Reformation one, which she says “manages to impart the sexiness of a bare arm without being entirely sleeveless.” (And while you’re considering it, might we suggest shopping our 27 top picks from Reformation’s 30 percent off Summer Sale?)

Senior writer Ambar Pardilla gave up on salon manicures a decade ago. A self-proclaimed “quasi-manicurist-pedicurist,” her weekly routine usually takes her at least 45 minutes — only for things to begin chipping less than a week later, no matter the polish (and she’s tried them all). So she felt obligated to try Celisse, which has quickly become popular among tasteful people like Alex Mill’s Rose Anderson, Susan Alexandra’s Susan Korn, and Sofie Pavitt. It took her no more than 15 minutes total to apply three or four coats of base, color, and top, officially making Celisse “the first nail polish I reach for when I don’t have a lot of time.” And the results last longer than most. “Even after massaging in shampoo, opening a tub of pistachio ice cream, removing a “Do Not Remove” sticker on a swimsuit gusset, and cleaning a toilet with lemon-scented Clorox wipes — all things that make other polishes chip — the Celisse didn’t budge,” Pardilla says. It lasted 14 days, the longest Pardilla’s mani has ever gone without chipping.

Writer and contributor Marian Bull had grown accustomed to the bread routine she’s dutifully followed for a decade to preserve her splurgy loaves of sourdough. “I’d slice it up; wrap the slices in wax paper or parchment; tuck them, sardinelike, into one of the zip-top bags that I have recycled for years and which smell, vaguely, like old freezer; then take out slices on an as-needed basis.” But even that time-consuming process didn’t entirely work, and she’d resigned herself to never being able to have a soft, untoasted slice. These organic-cotton, beeswax-lined drawstring bags changed everything. They’re meant to preserve bread’s natural bounce while absorbing moisture, so slices are never soggy on the inside. Now Bull cuts into a loaf a slice at a time before placing it back inside the bag. The sliced edge stays soft and springy for up to a week without going stale. “The bread bag has worked so well that I almost don’t need it,” Bull says; she can easily eat an entire loaf in days (or hours, if her boyfriend is around).

“There are many brands of pasta, but this pasta doesn’t cost the earth,” says legendary food writer and editor Ruth Reichl, who recently told senior kitchen and dining writer Emma Wartzman about the things she can’t cook without. Monograno’s supermarket pasta is the best inexpensive one she’s found. “If it says the spaghetti takes 11 minutes to cook, at 11 minutes it still has a bite to it. I haven’t found another pasta that doesn’t cost a million dollars that does that.” Her favorite way to enjoy it is with anchovies, garlic, a lot of herbs, lemon zest, olive oil, really crunchy bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese: “Nothing tastes better.”