My aunty once told me about her old boss and the unusual gift registry she had on her 50th birthday. She asked each of her friends to give her what they were currently into for a birthday present. For example a book they’d recently read, a TV series they were addicted to, a CD of their favourite songs, a voucher to a great new restaurant they’d discovered. It was such a great way to get to know her friends again and to discover new things she wouldn’t have known about otherwise.
It inspired me to start a new segment of reader recommendations. I often run surveys to get more information on the Smagglets, like how old you are or if you have kids or not, but this time I want to know what your obsessions are. So each month, I’m going to ask you for your top 3 recommendations from that month. It can be anything; a vegetable that’s been a staple in your weeknight dinners, a new workout that you’re loving or a fabulous app that’s changed your life. I’d love to hear about it!
March: What Are The Top Three Things You’d Recommend To A Friend This Month?
Here are my top 3 awesome things from March.
SensatioNAIL
I don’t want to sound ungrateful but a fairly large percentage of stuff I get sent to review on the blog is rather… interesting. So when this little package arrived about a month ago I honestly didn’t have high expectations. I LOVE a gel manicure but they’re expensive so I tend to save them for special occasions. I’ve never tried an at home gel system before and this little kit totally blew me away. The claim that it lasts for 20 days is a touch lofty though. It actually lasts about 7 days before it starts peeling at the edges, which is about how long a salon gel mani lasts on me. To do a full manicure, it takes about 10 minutes and there’s no drying time. Removal of the gel can be a bit fiddly but they include foil wraps and a little scraper to make it easier. I generally always have my nails painted and with regular polish, I find myself re-doing my nails every three days. For the last three weeks I’ve been giving myself a SensatioNAIL manicure on Saturday afternoons and it’s been lasting the whole week. Bonza. I’m actually going to stock up on some other colours, I love it so much. Recommended for those that love a gel manicure but can’t afford to fork over $50 every 2 weeks.
Haloumi
I’ve been ordering it everywhere I go lately. When I was in Canberra, I ordered my Brodburger with haloumi. Outstanding. Then I went to State of Grace for dinner with Hair Romance and we ordered their grilled haloumi with fig relish. Seriously amazing. Then the other day I just bought some haloumi and cooked it and ate it because I’m awesome. I feel like people forget about haloumi so here’s a big fat reminder. HALOUMI!!!!
iSleep Easy Meditation App
I’m usually a champion at sleeping but recently I’ve been sucking at it. Hard. In desperation one sleepless night, I downloaded this weird app called iSleep Easy and it has worked brilliantly for me for weeks. My brain is very busy and I have a hard time winding down at the end of the day so I listen to the Relax into Sleep track. There are heaps of others like a midnight rescue track for when you wake up in the middle of the night and tracks with or without narrative. It’s not a very well designed app but the tracks are really effective and I’ve been falling asleep much easier since I got the app. Give it a try, it’s surprisingly effective.
Melbourne Bonus
Aunty Donna
A friend of mine dragged me along to the Aunty Donna show at The Comedy Festival last week and I swear my face hurt from laughing so much. They’re a comedy troupe that started out on YouTube and they do a few stage shows every year as well. They’re hilarious. If you ever get the chance to see them, do it. They have so much energy and lots of their humour is based on 90s nostalgia so there are lots of jokes referencing Pogs and Jack Johnson. Brilliant.