The Calmest I've Felt in 72 Hours

a personal check-in, what I'm loving, and some honest thoughts on some new book releases

Welcome back to Sundae Best, a weekly letter where I share what I’m loving in real time. Some of the links I use here are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you purchase through them. Thank you in advance if you choose to do so. <3

Happy Sunday all 💙

At the risk of sounding like a broken record… it has been yet another one of those weeks on the personal front. To keep it short: we’ve been dealing with an unexpected family emergency which has been totally draining. When it rains, it pours, I guess?

At least we have heat and hot water this week, though lol (IYKYK)

Anyway, today’s letter will be a bit abbreviated and far from perfect, but I still wanted to show up and write something for you all. Sharing things I love has always helped me in hard times and this space, in particular, brings me a lot of comfort, clarity and inspiration. Tbh, this is the calmest I’ve felt in the last 72 hours.

So thank you for just being here. It means the world to me.

Ingrid <3

• Remember the RoC eye balm I mentioned wanting to try? Well, I’ve been testing it for the last month and can officially confirm it is INCREDIBLE. It comes in stick form and is perfect for anyone with dry under eyes. You can obviously use this on its own, but it’s the perfect base for concealer. I set with this setting spray instead of powder and have noticed my eye area looks fresh and smooth all day. The best part? It’s a drugstore product! A win all around.

• I can confirm I’m obsessed with my new AYR t-shirt and wore it twice this week. I got a small and it’s the perfect boxy fit with relaxed sleeves. Sadly, the jeans and pants I got were a bit of a fail, so I’m reordering different sizes and styles to try.

• I’ve been raving about the chemist led brand Experiment, and now I’m adding their Softwear lip balm to my growing list of faves. It hasn’t dethroned my beloved Eadem, but I do think it’s an especially fantastic formula. It’s thick, smoothing and grips the lips without feeling goopy. It’s also one of the few formulas that doesn’t have flavor or fragrance, which is amazing if you’re sensitive. They just launched tinted shades, too!

• I had the absolute pleasure of sharing my fave romance books with 831 Stories recently, which you can read here. My personal taste includes everything from Austen to werewolves, so please enjoy.

• Speaking of books, I finally finished Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston. This won the community vote for new book of 2026 I should read first and honestly, I was hoping you’d pick it hehe. As someone who reads a lot of thrillers, I have to say this was thoroughly average. My issues were the amount of characters and all the time jumping. I love timeline changes but this just felt like too much – sometimes it was a few days, other times it was a decade, and it was difficult to keep track of where I was in the overall storyline. There were also a fair amount of side characters that aren’t fleshed out, so the twists didn’t quite land since I didn’t really know or care about those people. Overall, it was entertaining enough to finish (and I’m someone who will DNF a book ruthlessly) but I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend.

• I’m currently halfway through Dear Debbie by Frieda McFadden and this is a totally different story. I’m loving it. I’ve read most of her books and this is definitely one of her best in a while. I can’t wait to see how it ends.

• On the work front, we announced that we’re lowering prices at The New Savant starting 3/10! Erica and I are also breaking down how we’re doing it without cheapening our products over on IG. I was not expecting the incredible response we’ve received, which has been such a bright spot for me this week. If you’ve left a comment or sent us an email, thank you. <3