Mess Recommends: February and March 2025

And a very happy Mess-iversary to you and yours.

A treasured screenshot from Severance.

Hi!

You’re receiving this email on the exact day of the 5 year anniversary of this newsletter! Isn’t that insane??? What the hell have I been doing with my life. I can’t believe I <3 Mess has managed to outlive the legacy of its pandemic namesake, Marie Kondo. I might reflect more on this milestone in Friday’s email, but for now I’d just like to say thanks a million for being here and caring about my goofy thoughts on this pop culture nonsense. You all helped me to find my voice after having it edited out of my work my entire career and have taught me that my ideas and opinions on this stuff are valuable and worth expressing. Mess quite literally would not exist without you! <3

Now that we’re done with the sappy stuff, a note to say I’m going live on Substack for the first time ever on Thursday (tomorrow!) at 3 pm EST with

Alyssa Vingan

to chat about Kim Kardashian’s new fascist propaganda campaign on the cover of Perfect magazine. An editorial co-starring yet another Tesla robot that I keep being told is not spon con — and spon con for a nazi at that! — and yet my doubts persist…….Anyway, you already know I have a whole lot of thoughts about that edgelord career choice, so please join us then with any salient intel or pertinent questions you may have. I’d love to chat with you.

Also, fresh YouTube vid out today for those who prefer an audio-visual digest of what we talk about here every month:

And I did an absolutely terrible job of keeping track of all of the stuff I was acquiring physically, digitally, and intellectually over the last two months, so I’m just going to lump together all the things I did manage to jot down in this singular email and vow to be a better, more attentive consumer moving forward.

Now, let’s get to shopping.

BUY:

Bellanomi Exfoliating Net Sponge

I mentioned this net sponge in passing in January’s Mess Recommends, but I feel it needs its own moment in the spotlight because it is really great. I am extremely pro some sort of abrasive washcloth/loofah type object in the shower. I was, and remain, a staunch advocate of the Korean exfoliating washcloth, but the African net sponge is like a much gentler version of that for when you don’t feel like scraping off the entire upper layer of your dermis. But I got introduced to this brand specifically because I recently learned that most commercial net sponges you buy are actually just a stiff piece of plastic fabric not the real deal nylon net, and you need to be looking for nets that both stretch and have these tiny knots in between each square. This one has both and came highly recommended on the pages of reddit (my love, my life). But my favorite aspect of the net sponge is that it makes sudsing up every square inch of your back incredibly easy.

Girl Scout Cookies from Trans Troops

2025 Trans Girl Scouts To Order Cookies From!

Every year I completely forget all about the existence of Girl Scout cookies and then am both blindsided and delighted anew when I suddenly remember I can purchase them. It’s become my annual tradition to make sure I am placing my order with a trans troop member, and this year that small act of solidarity feels more important than ever. Thankfully, I found this Substack post from Erin Reed that makes placing that order easier than ever. Now if I could just remember which cookies are worth ordering multiple boxes of and which are not. (Samoas, the answer is always samoas purchased in bulk.) That said, I did also read this week that there’s apparently a class action lawsuit against the Girl Scouts as all of their cookies tested positive for heavy metals…….which I’m obviously thrilled to discover after taking five boxes straight to the dome. But I’m no scientist, and there seems to be some mixed opinions about whether or not these results are actually a health-threatening problem. So proceed towards deliciousness at your own risk, I guess! And if you are a scientist, please sound off in the comments!!

Mountain Valley Sparkling Water in Blackberry Pomegranate

Longtime readers know all about my passion for punctuating my days with a little treat, and that treat more often than not takes the form of a fun, flavored beverage. In the past, that’s meant dalliances with GT Synergy Kombucha in the Trinity flavor, Poppi Raspberry Rose, Liquid Death Severed Lime, and most recently my silly, little potable of choice has been this Mountain Valley blackberry peomgranate flavored sparkling water. I figured if I’m going to be spending $3 on sparkling water (which is how much Liquid Death costs at the bodega, don’t yell at me! I said it’s a treat!!!), I might as well at least go for one that actually gives me a liter of fizzy liquid instead of 16 oz. I also pivoted to this brand in part to assuage my mental turmoil after reading a few too many articles about how all of my go-to seltzer purveyors are packed to the brim with PFAS. It’s probably way too late for my microplastic-riddled millennial body anyway, but with a tasty alternative like this at least I don’t have to exacerbate the issue.

Kiel’s Ultra Facial Advanced Repair Barrier Cream

Have I recommended this Kiehl’s face cream before? I think I have, but I don’t care. I’m recommending it again because I love it and I am currently squeezing every last drop out of the tube I have. This is my winter ride or die. When I am feeling dried out, crusty, and wind-burned, I slather a thick coat of this stuff across my visage and am restored. This is what I imagine Olympic skiers do to brave the elements, but I’m just walking to the subway stop. Either way, it does the trick and keeps me feeling supple on even my most dehydrated days.

I also just happen to have restocked on two previous product recommendations I’ve made in this email — the only skincare I religiously use and actually see a difference from — A313 retinol cream and Source Naturals Skin Eternal Serum. I truly endorse nothing more highly but, as always, I am not an expert, my skin biome is entirely my own, and I cannot speak to these products’ impact on yours. But I will say I got both these recs from some random Whitney Cummings podcast episode (I do not like her, so I don’t know how I even found myself there) and I’ve also heard from numerous other ladies how impactful this combo has been in their life, so maybe worth a shot.

My New Coat Rack

I’ve been searching high and low for a coat rack that is not boring and does not offend all of my interior design sensibilities, that also magically doesn’t cost a silly amount for an object that’s just going to hold my many jackets, and this is the closest I’ve been able to come to checking all those boxes. Yes, I know it’s just an Eames knockoff. No, I don’t care. I’ve come to realize that I simply find all coat racks to be spectacularly ugly and I don’t understand why they must be this way. I actually have this same problem with the vast majority of spoon rests. Hideous things. So if you’ve ever wondered if I’m just as fastidious about literally everything else in my life as I am about fashion, clearly, the answer is YES.

Anyway, this one is good, it’s functional, it’s cute enough, it doesn’t break the bank, and it’s certainly better than the deeply unsightly and impractical Amazon coat/shoe rack combo monstrosity my former roommate purchased that we’ve just been using out of sheer necessity until now.

Le Bon Shoppe socks

These are the cute, delicate ankle socks I’ve been searching for. I got this rec from some fashion person in the know, I want to say my former boss and eternally chic woman Rory Satran, but I can’t be certain at this point. Whoever they were, they were so right. While I am a connoisseur of heavy-duty industrial socks (more on that below), I’ve recently realized that my fancy sock game is seriously lacking and these are the perfect dressy item to go with all my gorgeous loafers, flats, and mary-janes this spring without costing me a fortune. I bought them in porcelain and black, which are both sold out now, but I feel like they’d be very fun in literally any color they make.

OXO Good Grips Bottle Brush

I’ve bought so many of these things over the years, and they are easily the best dish brush hands down. I’m pretty sure even the Wirecutter or someone like that backs me up on this point. It’s so noticeably better than most cleaning tools, I even once had a friend staying with me who commented unsolicited on how superior this brush was to her own. Now, how many dish brushes do you know that can elicit genuine compliments from your friends and family?! Armed with this and the Dawn Platinum Powerwash Dish Spray, I’m unstoppable.

Planet Embroidery

peopleofridgewood

A post shared by @peopleofridgewood

I recently discovered this place Planet Embroidery and I love it. I was sold on the name alone. It’s a little family-run workshop in Ridgewood that does custom embroidery and screen-printing and now I’m mulling over how to get them involved in all of my future Mess merch endeavors. They just embroidered a one-off gift for a friend of mine that I won’t go into detail about here as I have yet to give it to said friend and they read this email, but Planet Embroidery did an awesome job, were reasonably priced, and more than willing to take on my silly project despite it not being a bulk order. And as a bonus, after paying them a visit you can go and eat at any number of delicious restaurants in that neighborhood. Personally, I would suggest Abracadabra Magic Diner where I recently had a borek egg sandwich that absolutely blew me away. As a matter of fact, I’ve been thinking about how to make that sandwich a more regular part of my dining-out routine ever since.

Tragically, this was just a sneaky teaser and the rest of my recommendations are going behind the paywall! Dive in if you want to see the exact make and model of my new glasses, my gorgeous bootleg Enya t-shirt, my #1 (only) makeup hack, the eye-opening book I’m currently reading, and two surprisingly good rom-coms I just watched.

Otherwise, I’ll see you all back here on Friday! TTFN!