11 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From ‘Snoafers’ to Bath Gelée

Coming from a family of bath enthusiasts, Strategist contributor Emma Firth has tried it all: “There have been some minor flirtations with bath salts, essential oils, and glitter-infused bombs,” she writes. The one product she always comes back to is this green bath gelée, which “creates this distinctly sexy, almost theatrical blanket of bubbles … that will last a solid hour.” Infused with horse-chestnut extract and glycerine, the potion leaves her skin soft and moisturized enough to skip the post-bath body lotion. (“And no, in case you were worried,” Firth adds. “It won’t leave a green stain in your bathtub.”)

Festival season is nigh — and so is the need for clear stadium bags. When Strategist sleep writer Amelia Jerden went in search of one, though, she realized “clear bags are weirdly difficult to shop for IRL, and the standard fare online is mostly highly utilitarian clear totes, fanny packs, and cross-bodies.” While her search for “something cuter than the run-of-the-mill options on Amazon” is ongoing, she’s considering this option from Vera Bradley, of all places, which comes in playful colors that caught Jerden’s eye.

Dusen Dusen is one of those brands that we always have on our radar. So, when it announced its collaboration with Fatboy, it had the Strategist Slack channel abuzz. The launch includes this set of two seats that can be used separately or together as a sofa. If you’d like to see the collection in person, you’ll find it at Dusen Dusen’s pop-up at the MoMA Design Store in Soho.

Strategist contributor Laura Neilson learned about kanna during a recent trip to South Africa. The substance — “a medicinal plant with a lengthy history of uses and benefits, including reduced anxiety, elevated mood, and better sleep and brain health” — isn’t necessarily a wonder drug, meaning “it might check some of the boxes but not all of them,” Neilson reports after talking to multiple experts. Still, it’s available in a chocolate-bar version for those looking to try it out as their afternoon pick-me-up.

ICYMI, it’s Jeans Month — and this week, we heard from 30 teens about their favorite jeans. “Baggy low-rise jeans were the overwhelming favorite, with nearly every teen we spoke to mentioning the style,” report Strategist writers Arielle Avila and Bella Druckman. “Compared to the high-waisted pants their parents dressed them in when they were younger, they say these baggy jeans are so easy and comfortable that they don’t feel like jeans in the stiff, suffocating sense of the word.” While just about every mall brand came up during their interviews, Hollister’s baggy jeans — an especially affordable option — were the most popular.

“For a while now, there’s been a noticeable gap in my closet: a pair of gray jeans,” writes Strategist contributor Mya Gelber. So — you know the drill — she went on a hunt for the perfect pair, which she describes as structured denim with minimal stretch, a not-too-oversize straight-leg fit, and a color that was somewhere between faded black and light-concrete gray. She found her winner in these affordable jeans from Zara. “They somehow strike the perfect balance: structured yet easygoing, sexy yet polished,” she writes. “Safe to say these have quickly become my go-to pair of jeans.”

“There’s nothing that gets us going quite like a vaguely orthopedic shoe,” says Strategist writer Ambar Pardilla. While we’ve previously covered mary janes and clogs, this week we examined the “snoafer” (as in: sneaker-loafer). You might say each pair of snoafers, from the New Balance 1906Ls to Puma Sophyrs, is a conversation starter, but Hoka’s Speed Loafer is truly a standout with its bulbous Hoka sole and leather tassel. They’re currently sold out, but if you want a pair for yourself, don’t fret: “While the original run (pun intended) sold out quickly, a restock is in the works,” Pardilla reports.

When chef Ari Miller shifted his pasta operation from his restaurant to his home during the pandemic, he had to learn which pasta-making tools would work in the smaller space. His at-home workbench included the usuals — OXO’s food scale and Nordic Ware’s baking sheets — but he tipped us off to some rather inventive pasta-making tools, including this “pasta bike.” While it’s not ideal for fettuccine, he says, “it lets you quickly cut your dough into squares or rectangles for when you want to make simple folded shapes like bow ties and tiny Bolognese-style tortellini and sorprese.”

It turns out that a lot of the things comedian Margaret Cho can’t live without might also appear on her pets’ (theoretical) lists, too. One such item is this jacket that’s designed to carry your pet in your front pocket. “All of them are designed to spread the weight of your pet across both shoulders so it doesn’t feel heavy,” she says. This means she could technically use it to carry her three cats and dog at once, but she told us, “My dog doesn’t like it when my cats are in there because my dog’s like, ‘Excuse me, that’s my ride.’”

In the latest installment of our “I Tried All The…” series, Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo went to Madewell, where she tried on as many pairs as possible “to get a better sense of how all the different Madewell jeans really fit.” Of the 15 pairs she took into the fitting room, this was the pair that she most wanted to wear out of the store. “The darts at the knee are such a nice subtle workwearish detail,” she says, and perhaps best of all, she adds, “I love how my butt looks in these — not something I say very often when trying on jeans.”

When it comes to staying on top of her daily vitamin and mineral intake, comedian and actress Chelsea Handler eats gummy bears. Not the sugary ones from Haribo but these vitamin gummy bears from Gruns, which she says are “sweet and they taste delicious, even the sugar-free ones.” While the gummies are there for nutrients, she says, “Sometimes I have them as dessert, because rather than having something sweet and bad for you, I’m like, well, these are good and good for you.”