Edition #5
A scent conversation with Sabrina Rowe, a super bowl, and a sweet craving para siempre
For this edition, I reached out to celebrity hairstylist and haircare founder Sabrina Rowe, who always smells so good, to give me a perfume recommendation for what is usually a dedicated section at the bottom of the newsletter. The conversation blossomed from there, and so I’m publishing it as an edited interview under “Scent” since we cover a lot of ground: from the care she takes picking scents for set days that will be as unobtrusive as possible, to formulating natural scent profiles for her own brand NTRL by Sabs. Below that, I have a super bowl recommendation, my all time favorite candybar, and other tidbits.
ALSO! Several of you asked me if I got any feedback on my business idea from the last newsletter - I didn’t get any serious funding offers just yet. I did however chance upon a company called Natoora, which delivers hyper-seasonal produce, the likes of which certain restaurants build their menus around in NY, London, and Paris. This post of theirs offered up gift bouquets of radicchio delivered in lieu of roses for Valentine’s Day — and I thought — aha, that’s exactly the spirit of my idea too: unexpected seasonal celebrations.
As always, the below is divided into sensory subcategories so feel free to skip to what interests you. These are some things occupying my mind and that I would gush about if we met for coffee this week.
If you missed the last newsletter you can read it here.
Scent
Scent talk with Sabrina Rowe: hairstylist, cosmetic formulator, and founder of NTRL by Sabs
To sit with Sabrina is to be enveloped by her sheer charisma, just oodles of it. That is one small part of why her die-hard celebrity clients, including Phoebe Robinson and Ilana Glazer, have her working all the time. Sabrina has a relentless work ethic and talent in spades. This is apparent not only in her work on shoots — both as a hair and makeup artist, but also in the integrity she maintains as a formulator and founder of her beauty/personal care line NTRL by Sabs which she launched in 2020. For anyone trying to ditch packaging, sulfates & parabens, or on the co-washing haircare path (like New Wash, etc) I can’t recommend her nourishing and excellent-smelling shampoos enough (they come in liquid and bar form).
N: What I love about talking to you about scent is that you have to consider both ends of the spectrum: you love perfume and are drawn to scent, but you also have to be moderate with any fragrance on your body given the intimate space you occupy when you work with people’s hair.
S: I have to be really mindful about what I smell like. I work so closely with my clients — the wrong smell can shift their energy completely, because I'm touching them and then we're using products on top of that. So I don't typically wear fragrance at work. But as a treat, if I know the client is okay with it, I will wear a lavender essential oil that I blend myself with the simplest carrier oil (usually coconut oil) on my skin. Then I’ll layer on top a lotion. I’ve been doing this for years
I really like Gya labs Lavender. There is so much on the market that isn’t good quality—with some brands there isn’t any real steam distilled lavender in it— but with Gya there is transparency in sourcing. And then I have one other main squeeze for oils that I wear, Cliganic (I like their lavender and rosemary a lot too). They kill it. I work with these oils so much for formulating NTRL by Sabs, that it becomes really apparent what are super high quality to smell and wear, versus what is available at volume for a product line. I really appreciate the hard work that goes into it, and those are the two brands I really trust that anybody can purchase.
I’d encourage anyone to explore and tinker and figure out what you like. Just because it works for someone and you like to smell it on them doesn't mean it's going to work for you.
N: That’s especially true for oils, which can be really chameleonic on different skin chemistry.
S: Yes — they can even change how they smell on you at different times of the year or even during a cycle. The same oil from the same brand can smell different from season to season because of changes in sourcing, harvesting, or weather conditions. I think as a culture we do not accept that things will not always be a certain way. That’s hard to accept as a consumer, let alone as a brand owner. We can't have it all. You know, it belongs in nature, because it serves a purpose. And the purpose isn't just for us.
N: Going back to what you said about layering, what lotion will you put on top of the oils?
S: I’ll use my lotion bar #1 which has a beeswax base and coconut oil base. It's beautiful. And it's so mild. And what I love about it is it's so familiar. You know, it's this like, homey, warm, fuzzy thing, heightened by an herbal accord of lavender, rosemary and bergamot essential oils
N: So, mostly this layered effect for you. When do you wear perfume?
S: When it's date night with my husband, I can finally turn the volume up. I usually wear Tom Ford Black Orchid. It's really strong. I find I only need only one spritz. It’s incredibly pretty. I’m generally drawn to earthy and ambery fragrances (Black Orchid has note callouts of black truffle, bergamot and patchouli). There’s another new fragrance that I’ve been wearing too. To be honest, at first I was drawn in by the name: Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl, (Sabs the Good Girl was my moniker for years) but the scent is actually great. Jasmine, tonka and cocoa beans, tuberose and patchouli. Really warming. Earthy scents are my jam. I love how even when they're really faint, it still feels like, I don't know, something you would come into in an ashram or yoga studio or spa. Those sort of earthier scents that bring the focus within. I know that patchouli and sage are both really polarizing smells — a lot of people are offended by how intense they are — but they really do feel like part of a spiritual practice or collective ritual.
Taste
Super Bowl
Not a recipe today, but instead a piece of tableware to inspire mezze-style meals
This large serving bowl in the color Milk from Mud Australia was a wedding gift many years ago. I remember eying how big it was and feeling the eggshell-thin porcelain — and thinking, how impractical. Boy was I wrong. This beautiful dish, striking in its simplicity and scale, is ideal for feeding a table full of people, all in one platter. Its real estate is almost instructional: a handful of greens in one quadrant, a pile of rice in another, small amounts of assorted roasted vegetables (that would look measly on a dedicated serving plate of their own), a giant dollop of yogurt — all mingling mezze-style. Breakfast can be a half dozen eggs, sunny side up, slid straight from the skillet. This bowl was made for catch-as-catch-can fridge clearing. It’s a piece of tableware that serves as a guide for the meals we serve — and that’s a cool relationship to explore — encouraging variety, color, and cooking simple foods in combination. Bonus: clean up is a breeze — though your best bet is washing the bowl right away: it’s too large and thin to be fraternizing with other dishes in the sink! A worthy gift to give or to get.
If that price is prohibitive, a little digging led me to this Made In serving bowl. Coming in at less than $100, it features that same statement diameter (13”)!
Turrón Duro
It was my birthday last month, and my dad and stepmom surprised me with a six-pack of Turrón Duro. I was first introduced to this nutty-nougat-wafer creation as a teenager rummaging in my stepmom’s kitchen cabinet. She would stock a few imported foods she grew up eating in Colombia, like dulce de leche, guava paste, and turrón. When I studied abroad in Spain, the birthplace of Turron, you could get these bars on every street corner.
Turrón is packed with whole almonds held together with honeyed nougat, and topped with a papery wafer layer that dissolves on the tongue. This treat is as delightful and deeply flavorful as it is detrimental to your teeth. I encourage you to order one, or six!
Writing
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the skills that make for good writing (deep vocabulary, clever plotting, varying sentence structure, etc.) are not always the same skills required for good communication. My big question: How can I learn, at this late age, to be a better communicator in writing? To wield clarity, directness, economy, and measured logic? To avoid implication or vagueness. To give enough, without overexplaining. To minimize the word count and deliver meaning.
I’m about to return to work next week. As an async workplace with a lot of transparency, we rely on very clear written communication in Slack. My breathless writing style doesn’t always translate. For example, I could’ve replaced this whole paragraph with How can I write less and say more?
Open thread - I’d love to hear if you are thinking about this too or have read anything that has helped refine your communication style?
Read
I can say, with no one paying me, that there is one newsletter I read, without fail, from start to finish every time it comes in (Sunday evenings). To my surprise, it is my friend/former boss Max Nussenbaum’s newsletter, My Super Secret Diary. I read it when I’m ‘not in the mood to read.’ I read it when I’m not interested in the topic (or if there is a disclaimer that there is no topic). Damn you, Max. How’d you land the mystical gift of excellent, perfectly articulate, extremely approachable writing and unexpected insight with every casual tap of the ‘publish →’ button? You can start anywhere with MSSD, but since I’ve mentioned George Saunders before you can read Don’t Take Notes, or some of Max’s bigger swings, Our Fault With The Stars and Seven Predictions for 2050.
Thank you for reading. More to come.
Stay safe, healthy, and attuned to the gifts in the world.
Below is a book jacket review Odessa wrote for the Stuffy York Times/ Stuffy Yorker. Shadowowl is my code name in the HEA, but that’s all I’m at liberty to say. I’ll be looking to this for a boost every time I feel down, that’s for sure.
