After seeing endless Instagram ads and influencers touting the latest swag they scored in their subscription boxes, admit it: You’re kind of curious whether they’re worth the cash each month (or quarter). But with all of the options out there, it’s hard to know which one’s worthy of scoring your credit card number. That’s why…

Two eight-foot-tall Care Bears waddle past me, steps away from a remote-controlled parrot flying through hoops (and, admittedly, into walls) and what looks like a museum featuring artifacts—a bear’s windmill! A bunny cottage!—from the Calico Critters’ 35-year history. There’s a center stage spotlighting dozens of bug-eyed Beanie Boo’s, the latest iteration of the Ty Beanie…

Let’s get weird. I’m always down to try something new, so when I heard LA’s House of Intuition was offering free aura readings as part of the launch of its New York pop-up store this past holiday season, I said yes. I had no idea what that even meant, but I headed down to the…

There’s a certain high you get when someone says something truly, genuinely kind about you. Sure, classic compliments (“You look so great in that sweater!”) always bring a smile, but they’re so tried-and-true that they don’t have quite the impact as something that delves a little deeper, that’s a little more specific and insightful—or that’s…

Every time I fly, the same knot of anxiety tangles up inside of me: Will Emerie have a meltdown? Will I subsequently have a meltdown? Why am I so concerned about upsetting other people? Why am I wasting energy on this? And so the shame spiral plunges me deeper into some strange, soul-excavating journey, where…

Since I moved to New York, my travel and hairstyling budget have been virtually the same. I went through a sort of sticker shock when I moved to the city (cereal’s $5.50 a box?!), but the hardest adjustment was the thought of shelling out $200+ to maintain my highlights, especially when my mom does a…

All kinds of advent calendars exist these days: booze-filled ones, cheese-filled ones, Funko Pop doll-filled ones. So it only makes sense that Anthropologie would get in on the action, releasing a weeklong advent calendar that capitalizes on one of the buzziest terms right now: self-care. And I’ve got to admit—the tactic worked. I couldn’t wait…

It doesn’t matter how old you are—bounce houses are undeniably fun. And when that house happens to be the Guinness Book of World Records holder for largest inflatable obstacle course ever? Well, it’s the kind of thing that can make you plan a long-distance road trip to experience. Thankfully, you won’t have to travel too…

Though I’ve been thisclose to ordering a pair of Fabletics leggings over the past few years, I’ve always been a little bummed that Kate Hudson‘s foray into fashion was an athleisure line. Leggings are great and all, but this is the actress who brought back boho in the early aughts with her turn as Penny…

I don’t even know how to properly name or describe these photos without just showing them to you. Orb landscape photos? Pseudo-planet photos? Circular landscape images? No matter how I Google it, I can’t come up with the right term. Even after Nate found out how to make these pics, we didn’t see a common…

No, really. I’m not asking for a friend. What do jade rollers (and their various crystal iterations) actually do, and why are they so alluring? I’ve seen them on beauty blogs and in people’s Instagrams for months, but I never understood the hype. It seems like a dozen different people have two dozen different reasons…

Honestly, this whole skincare experiment started off unintentionally. I hadn’t specifically gone out to buy Goopglow (at $60 for a 30-day supply, I needed proof you’d get Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow‘s skin before committing my cash), but when a 5-day pack of the skin-boosting powder came free with a subscription to Goop magazine, I couldn’t…