An Intellectual Style Newsletter, with tips for living your best (real) life.

SOAP AS FASHION, issue #2
An Intellectual Style Newsletter, with tips for living your best (real) life.


TL; DR

In this issue I explain the new tagline for this newsletter (see above). I’ve also included a tight shopping list of items to bring more health, style, and ease into 2024.


Dear Reader,

It has been too long since the last issue. The weeks leading up through the holiday season were nuts. I’m grateful we were able to enjoy the holidays with family, and then really relish the state of rest and reset during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. No computers, lots of time away from our phones, and extra family to help watch kids, oh my! In case you missed it, I did use my phone to post my list of Ins and Outs for 2024 while on holiday. As soon as I finished my list, I saw these In/Out lists everywhere, but oh well…I stand behind my list ;) And now here we are, already most of the way through the first month of 2024…

 As mentioned in previous issues of this new SOAP AS FASHION newsletter, I plan to cover a wide range of topics. If you missed my initial introduction and/or the last issue and are wondering what this is, click here. Or you can just go with my new working sub-title:

“An intellectual style newsletter, with tips for living your best (real) life.”

At the end of the day, Soap As Fashion will be a shopping newsletter- with practical recommendations to add more ease, health, and of course style, to life. Along with a side of culture, book recommendations, parenting experiences, psychology, fashion musings, useful tips, and/or other philosophical (& relatable) elements thrown in. I hope it will be helpful and enjoyable to read.

The “(real)” part of the sub-title means this is not a place where I will be regularly recommending things like those $900 High Sport pants that all the fashion insiders have been obsessing over for the past several months. If you can afford them and they make you happy, go for it – but they do not seem like a sensible purchase to me at this point in time (no matter how I would try to justify them by calculating their cost-per-wear). And while I anticipated the latest Phoebe Philo drop as much as the next fashion girl (and the aesthetic is giving me inspo), I mean let’s get real.

The main reason I started my clean luxury soap brand FORK & MELON in the first place is that I was looking for a hand soap that would check all of the boxes that I pretty much look for when shopping for most things: healthy, sustainable in several senses of the word, elegant, and sensible, and I couldn’t find one that fit the bill so I created one. I am soooo excited about bringing my vision of the future of the brand to life, so please stay tuned for that! But I digress…

The topic I had originally chosen to write about for this issue is taking much longer than expected to distill into something anyone would actually want to read (!), so rather than try to force it* I’m tabling that for now in favor of sharing 3 items to start 2024 with more health, style, and ease (YES, PLEASE):


1. Over-the-sink dish drying rack. A space-saving, chicer way to dry your dishes and kitchen things. I just recently ordered one and wish I had gotten one a long time ago. This one from Food52 has the added feature of a utensil caddy. I also like this white one from West Elm, this one from Sur La Table, or this cheaper option from you-know-where.

2. A clean micellar water. Better than face wipes. If you’re not already familiar, the purpose of micellar water is basically the same as using a face wipe to remove your makeup, clean your face, or double cleanse – but the liquid is kept in the bottle instead of being pre-portioned onto individual wipes/pads. Which to me means that it lasts longer, you can use as much or as little as you want, and it seems less wasteful. I’ve been wanting to get a micellar cleansing water for a while and almost bought this classic cult favorite, but I wasn’t in love with the ingredients. Then this gorgeous one with the most beautiful ingredients came out from Odacite and I was tempted, but when Dore** launched a more sensibly-priced version (it’s a large bottle) made with beautiful, clean ingredients (it’s even EWG-certified), I finally pulled the trigger. I’ve had a consistent skincare routine dating back to my teen years (my college & NYC roommates/BFFs still make fun of me to this day for it when we vacation together), which means I’m kind of obsessive about having a clean face before bed. I love using the cleansing water on days when I’m wearing makeup and/or thicker sunscreen as a first step before I actually wash my face. I also use it by itself sometimes in the morning in lieu of washing my face, or as a quick refresh after a workout if I don’t have time to shower yet. So good. It’s also great at the end of the night when you just can’t muster the energy to wash your face. You can shop the Dore version here or here. (I actually like all of the other Dore products as well and use them regularly in my skincare rotation.)

3. Glasses. To see far away***, to read****, or (if you’re lucky enough to have perfect vision) purely for fashion with a capital F*****. Here are a few on my wish list RN: these******, these, these, & these.



Kind of a random list, but all…Simple. Clean. Chic.

 Xoxo, Cher

*I am learning more and more that it’s better to listen to these cues and go where they take you.

**A relatively new, simple, clean skincare brand- created by OG French influencer Garance Dore, who I’ve followed since like 2007 and always loved.

***This is me. The amount of squinting I am doing has steadily increased in recent years :/

****This will prob be me soon enough but not yet. But speaking of reading I finished the most beautiful book a few weeks ago that I am telling all my reading friends about. Buy it (it’s a book you could definitely read again), or else check it out from your local library for free! I have completely rediscovered both the library itself and my love of reading since having my daughter.

*****Def used to be me! Lol.

******Gwyneth has these ;)


^Image credit to Jenna Lyons. This image ended up on my vision board for this year (which is not something I even typically ever do but here we are). Glasses!

Please note, any products I share are things I actually use and/or are genuine recommendations of mine. I may earn some money if you purchase through one of the links above. If you enjoy this newsletter and decide to purchase one of the items- using my links helps to support the continuation of this newsletter at no cost to you, so please use them! :)

If you ever want to see all my picks in one place, click here.

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