12 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From Eloise Pajamas to Alpaca Hats

If you took a peek inNiecy Nash’s drugstore shopping cart, you’d likely see someAquaphor, her favorite mascara fromL’Oréal Paris, and this setting-spray-slash-sunscreen from E.l.f. “I feel like a lot of times we are duped into thinking that makeup is a blocker of the sun, and it’s not. So I just like a little extra layer to make sure I’m locked and loaded,” she says. “Don’t I look cute?”

As a self-proclaimed toilet-paper hoarder, Strategist writer Dominique Pariso won’t have to restock her supply anytime soon thanks toCharmin’s Forever Roll, “a new 1,700-sheet behemoth that can last a two-person household up to one month.” Over the last three weeks that she and her roommate have been using it, she says, “I think we’ve managed to get through about a quarter of it, though its general size and shape remains virtually unchanged.” And Charmin purists, don’t worry: “It’s the same exact extrasoft tissue the brand uses for all its products, just supersized.”

To find out how certain parents are dealing withthe Phone Question, Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo talked to seven parents of kids between the ages of 7 and 14 about the choices they’ve made so far. While some parents have gone all in on the Apple ecosystem, others, like Tricia Granja of Bay Village, Ohio, have gone old-school with this Nokia flip phone. As she says, “You wouldn’t give your kids a set of car keys and just send them out with the car. You have to do driver’s ed and you have to do training.” Her daughter’s flip phone is the training.

While NYC-based orthodontistDr. Jamie Royaltells her clients that when it comes to their aligners, “You only keep them in your face or in your case,” and it’s easy to lose track of said case. So she recommends buying this sticky one that you can put on the back of your phone, pocketbook, or purse. “It’s great for kids because they never don’t have their phones. That way, they’ll never lose them,” she adds.

“I’m intoxicated by the subtle subversion of pieces that leavejust enoughto the imagination,” writes our updates coordinator Najwa Jamal. She finally added the structured but loose sheerLenore skirt from Frankie Shopto her wardrobe after waiting for it to come back in stock for five months. If you’d rather not play the Lenore bait-and-switch game, though, she says this one from Cos is the only other skirt she’s found that’s just about perfect. “The darting in the front, cuffed hem, and sheer but not too risqué shade of black are almost identical,” she reports.

Now that we’re officially in boot season, Strategist writer Kitty Guo set out to finda pair of mid-calf boots with an edgier vibe— specifically “a pull-on biker boot with a chunky Bratz-esque silhouette, plus some buckles or hardware.” Her hunt led her on a tour of New York’s shoe stores. She tried pairs everywhere from Camper to John Fluevog to Steve Madden, where she finally found the perfect pair. “These Astor boots have a sleek, mid-calf silhouette, plenty of hardware, and a square toe with enough room,” she writes. “Plus, the budget-friendly price point ensures that I won’t feel too nervous if I end up stepping in a mud puddle.”

“People hyperfixate on black and white shoes, but I’m team brown through and through,” says our deals writer Alexandra Polk. She’s had these chunky sneakers from Nike onher Strategist Brainever since she bought them earlier this fall. “The dark-cocoa suede goes with everything, and the fun wavy midsole is so comfortable,” she writes. “They’re compliment magnets.”

Over the years, Pariso has done everything from “buying clarifyingshampoos, cutting out conditioner, professional scalp assessments, and, of course, trying everydry shampooon the market” to solve for her oily scalp. She had almost given up on dry shampoo — they all left a white-gray cast on her hair, created a buildup of residue on her scalp, or left her hair looking flat — until she triedthis one from K18that she describes as “a wash day in a can.” “It somehow leaves my hair looking freshly washed and styled,” she says. “My scalp didn’t just look clean; it felt clean, too.”

This week’s installment of “Don’t Dillydally”included no fewer than two pairs of very giftable pajamas:a patterned pair from Summersalt and British interiors house Morris & Co.and these ones that area carbon copy of the pair Eloise wears in the Plaza. There’sa matching pairs for adults, too, if that’s your thing.

After sitting on more than 100 couches as the Strategist’sresident couch tester, Erin Schwartz has learned that it’s generally difficult to find a good, new couch for less than $1,000. So, when they learned thatArticle was launching an $800 couch, they had to test it out themselves. The verdict? “This is the best couch I’ve seen at this price in a while,” they write. And the rest of the team liked it, too: “[Liza] Corsillo remarked that she could imagine getting a good night’s sleep on it, and [Bella] Druckman says it’s her favorite place in the office to sit and work.”

“I, along with everyone else, apparently, went to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival this month,” Pariso says. And so, her submission for this month’s edition of “Strategist Haul” included an appropriately fluffy purchase: the alpaca hat of her dreams. “I have been looking forward to this purchase for nearly ten months now, and when I walked onto the grounds, the very first vendor stall I approached had the hat I had been looking for in the perfect shade of chocolate brown,” she writes. “That’s the power of shopping manifestation for you.”

[Editor’s note: At this time, Pariso’s hat is available only for wholesale orders.]

ChefThomas Kellerhas been loyal to these leather-bound notebooks since they first came out. Other than holding some personal items — a copy of his passport, some of his dietary obligations, and his core values for the restaurant — it has every calendar he’ll ever need from daily to monthly to master breakdowns. “I can see in a glance exactly where the rest of my year is going to be,” he says.