30 Years Old

My birthday is coming up this Friday (eek!) and I'm turning 30. Along with the requisite celebration, I can't help but feel like this rite of passage must be lined with ever-the-more meaningful gifts- ones that will usher me into a far more insightful, lucrative and classy decade. A decade of champagne budgets (or at least Prosecco budgets, which are better than beer budgets) and friends with beach houses.


Of course I would judge a birthday by gifts- it's the American way. My 20's were all about designer jeans, a bag with some kind of label on it and shoes that gave me a lifetime of deformities and permanent PTSD (but oh so pretty, right Jimmy Choo?).  Somehow I've learned a few things over the past 10 years, and I'm ready to leave that all behind and welcome my 30's with toned calves and practical flats.  Learn from my list of what every 30 year old woman needs and deserves:

A Good Haircut (and Color and Hair Tools)

I recently spent a horrifying amount of money on a haircut and color. And guess what: I'm hooked. It was WORTH IT because I wear it every day and I fucking love compliments. If you fucking love compliments too, consider splurging. This goes for hair tools as well...
I love my Christophe Robin Shade Variation Care (from Woodley & Bunny, where I got my highlights & cut) and this T3 ceramic hair curler that doesn't give you that tell-tale Dance Recital crimp.

Nice lingerie

There's no shame in sexy time in your 30's. Even if you're unmarried it's like, um the jig is up. And I AM married so that jig is so up it's down. There was no sexual innuendo there, for the record. What there was, is a great excuse to buy something gorgeous for a bod that's still got some hot. Check out True & Co., an excellent online fitting resource and shopping site- they are awesome.

Quality Lotions & Potions (1, 2, 3)

Get out of the drugstore now. Your sun-damaged, severely dehydrated, alcohol-poisoned face is just waiting for the crows to come home and walk all over your eyelids. And the ass skin- I'm sure it's not getting any better.  It's time to buy good lotions with SPF like you knew you were supposed to do in your 20's but didn't. Nice lotions and skin products also have good perfumes in them so they don't smell like glade plug-in candles. My wedding makeup artist Sally Duvall recommends these affordable goodies, and she has gorgeous skin!

An Hermes silk scarf

Accessorizing is an art. Hermes silk scarves are pieces of art in themselves. They can be worn around the neck, as shoulder straps, tops, head scarves or belts and they are TIMELESS. A bit of a splurge but no one regrets Hermes.

A Really Nice Couch

Like my increasingly temperamental backside, the boho dropcloth look is getting old. It's time to buy a good quality couch that doesn't need to hide under a huge piece of draped fabric. It's a big purchase, but I'm a big girl now.

Something Gloriously Impractical and Youthful

I just HAD to have this tulle skirt. It's kind of ridiculous because really, when am I going to wear a tutu? But then I will, because I do shit like that. And it'll look awesome in my opinion and I won't care about anyone else's so there. Plus, it evokes memories of ballet dancing as a child, and romantic Pinterest photos and Paris because people probably wear tutus to the dentist in Paris.



What am I forgetting? What else does one need to gracefully transition from the third to the fourth decade?