TO: Beauty Department

The face wash from the new ZO Skin Health line is amazing! (It's such a huge hit that my roommate keeps stealing it from me when I'm at the beach on the weekends.) It smells really good, keeps me breakout free, and has such a nice texture—thicker and creamier than I'm used to. Amazing!

I've been coveting an oversize gold watch for a long time, but when I was clicking through Amazon searching for the perfect one, I found something that I might want even more. It's a Camper watch by Timex, and the face is so sleek and simple that I'm pretty much convinced it'll go with everything I own—plus, I love the band, which is made from olive-green netting. So great for fall!

TO: Beauty Department

Sometimes I have been overzealous with my acne-assault strategies, and I wake up with my skin burned off. Here's what works to fix it: California Baby Calendula cream. It is pudding-ish and cooling and moisturizing and makes me feel much better. Give me a tub, 'cause I'll use this on everything.

The laid-back coffee shop down the street from my apartment closed last month, which means that if I want a morning iced coffee (and believe me I want a morning iced coffee) I now have to head out of my comfort zone, six blocks away, to a new, swank espresso bar. I know this is a silly thing to complain about, but there's an unexpected problem: The women in this coffee shop dress up. On, like, a Tuesday morning. At 9:30 AM. Not to go to a workplace, which of course I would understand, but to sit in an overstuffed chair, listen to Wilco, and bang away on their laptops. The biggest culprit is a woman we shall call R.C., because the first day I saw her she had on what I believe was this Rachel Comey jacket, perfectly fitting jeans, and flat patent leather flats that looked like these. She was also wearing three pretty, delicate chains, lip gloss, and had a blowout. Like Red, she stared at my schlubby outfit with a tiny look of pity (when will I learn?). The next day, I tried at least a little by throwing on my Built by Wendy smock and a bit of makeup, but R.C. had me totally beat with a black silk dress and strappy gold sandals. Now, there are a couple of reasons why these women might want to turn it out in my chill Brooklyn neighborhood—they could be meeting someone afterward or might just have a ton of pride in their appearance. Or maybe, just maybe, it's what I noticed on day three at the fancy new coffee place: The tall, brown-haired barista is really hot.

I've long been a sucker for an antique-looking lace blouse, and this one by Nanette Lepore is far and away the prettiest I've seen this season. It's made of intricate black lace, with all kinds of beautiful details that add to its loveliness. The Empire waist and delicate sleeves are so feminine, and panels of sheer silk reveal a nude camisole that's attached underneath, so you don't have to fuss with finding the right undergarments. It's sexy without actually showing much skin, and though there's definitely an old-world romantic quality to it, worn with jeans or a crisp pencil skirt it looks quite modern.

I spend most of my days pawing through the racks of various boutiques. And in my experience, stores either do high-end successfully or they do low-end successfully, but very few manage to pull off a mix of the two. One of the labels that looks equally at home at either kind of boutique is MM Couture, an exquisitely embellished capsule collection from Miss Me that generally retails for under $100.

TO: Beauty Department

As much as I love the massive editing and Internet sharing that can be done with digital cameras, I miss the happy mistakes that occur with old-school, developed-at-the-Photomat film. I also very much miss actually seeing pictures, which everyone always says they're going to print but never do. However, I've had some bad luck buying vintage cameras on eBay—they've arrived broken, needed parts replaced that no one could find, or took film that's no longer being made. My solution to all this is to purchase a new, amazingly rudimentary Holga, which is known for light leaks that make beautifully messed-up photos. I just bought one on eBay last week and this weekend I plan to take it to Coney Island and experiment. Bad artsy results to follow!

There's a very specific yet indefinable Forever 21 fabric that's amazingly, even freakishly soft. Garments cut from this super-material are unparalleled when it comes to layering (they drape well, they're wrinkle-resistant, they're comfortable against the skin). I'm on a constant mission to replenish my stash of said layering-perfect items, so I click around the Forever 21 site on a pretty regular basis. Then, the other day, I was distracted by this '70s patchwork top. I don't know what its fabric is, but I would wear it even if it were made from burlap. It's that cute.

If you told me this was in the $300-plus range and by some old-school fancy-pants European company I'd have totally believed you. The combination of cotton canvas and rich leather trim is so classic and refined that it seems like the type of thing some posh outdoorsy type would take on safari. And when you look at the interior view of the bag, you'll see it's lined with unexpectedly bright dandyish stripes, which adds a playful twist. It's big enough to accommodate a few days' worth of clothes, and looks so much cooler and more elegant than a basic nylon duffel. It comes in three colors (black, gray, and this military-ish green), and given that it's actually from Urban Outfitters and priced at just $58, I'm half-tempted to spring for the whole lot.